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Austin USC: Ganassi clings on to beat OAK and Action Express to win

Ganassi Riley drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas hung on to claim victory in the Austin round of the United SportsCar Championship

The winning duo made a pitstop less than their rivals, which put their Riley-Ford EcoBoost DP at the head of the field for the run to the flag.

Veteran American Pruett was closed down by the Action Express Coyote-Chevrolet Corvette DP with Joao Barbosa at the wheel and Alex Brundle in the OAK Racing Ligier-HPD JSP2 as the race drew to a close.

Brundle was able to get past Barbosa, who shared his Coyote with Christian Fittipaldi, three laps before the finish, but Pruett used the traffic to his advantage to hang on to to take victory by 2.336 seconds.

So short of fuel was the winning Riley that it rolled to a halt halfway around the final lap.

The pole-winning Ligier-HPD was the fastest car around the Circuit of the Americas, but its chance of victory were ultimately undone by a safety-car period that fell during the first round of pitstops.

Gustavo Yacaman, who started the car, lost an advantage of nearly 20s thanks to the yellow flags and was then tapped into a spin by Michael Valiante's Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Chevrolet at the first corner straight after the restart, costing OAK 10s.

Brundle was able to bring the car back into the lead before making his final pitstop.

Pruett said: "When the yellow came, everything changed. It put us in the window where we could revise our fuel strategy and go for a stop less.

"I knew I had to save, save, save to have the fuel at the end, because I knew they would be coming back at me."

Third place went to the Barbosa/Fittipaldi Action Express car, which finished 11s down at the finish.

VIPERS TAKE GTLM 1-2

The SRT Dodge team claimed a 1-2 victory in the GT Le Mans class with its pair of Viper SRT GT-Rs, Dominik Farnbacher and Jonathan Bomarito heading home the sister car of Kuno Wittmer and Marc Goossens by 1.3s.

The CORE-run factory Porsche 911 RSR of Jorg Bergmeister and Nick Tandy had looked set for victory until the car lost drive in the closing stages.

Bergmeister had handed over to Tandy just before the yellow whereas the rest of the GTLM pack pitted during the safety car, which gave the car a lead of 30s.

The Porsche and the Viper had a clear edge over their rivals in GTLM at Austin.

Antonio Garcia, championship leader coming into the Austin weekend, could only finish ninth in the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R he shared with Jan Magnussen, while the two Rahal BMW Z4s ended up sixth and seventh in class.

Prototype Challenge honours went to Luis Diaz and Sean Rayhall's 8Star ORECA-Chevrolet from the CORE entry of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett, despite a slow pitstop and a spin after a clash with Braun.

The GT Daytona class was won by the Dodge Viper SRT GT3 of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen.

RESULTS - 77 LAPS:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 P S.Pruett, M.Rojas Chip Ganassi Racing Riley/Ford 2h45m54.946s
2 P G.Yacaman, A.Brundle Oak Racing Ligier/HPD 2.336s
3 P J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi Action Express Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 11.016s
4 P E.Brown, J.van Overbeek Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD 35.811s
5 P O.Negri, J.Pew Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Riley/Ford 48.448s
6 P R.Westbrook, M.Valiante Spirit Of Daytona Corvette/Chevrolet 1m08.558s
7 P J.Taylor, R.Taylor Wayne Taylor Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m39.993s
8 PC L.Diaz, S.Rayhall 8Star Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 1 Lap
9 PC J.Bennett, C.Braun CORE Autosport ORECA/Chevrolet 1 Lap
10 P E.Curran, B.Said Marsh Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 1 Lap
11 PC M.Schultis, R.van der Zande Starworks Motorsport ORECA/Chevrolet 1 Lap
12 GTLM J.Bomarito, K.Wittmer SRT Motorsports SRT/Viper 1 Lap
13 GTLM D.Farnbacher, M.Goossens SRT Motorsports SRT/Viper 1 Lap
14 GTLM P.Long, M.Christensen Porsche North America Porsche 1 Lap
15 GTLM G.Fisichella, P.Kaffer Risi Competizione Ferrari 2 Laps
16 GTLM F.Makowiecki, P.Pilet CORE Autosport Porsche 2 Laps
17 GTLM B.Auberlen, A.Priaulx BMW Team RLL BMW 2 Laps
18 PC F.Montecalvo, G.Jeannette PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 2 Laps
19 GTLM J.M.Edwards, D.Muller BMW Team RLL BMW 2 Laps
20 GTLM W.Henzler, B.Sellers Team Falken Tire Porsche 2 Laps
21 GTLM J.Magnussen, A.Garcia Corvette Racing Chevrolet 2 Laps
22 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner Corvette Racing Chevrolet 2 Laps
23 PC J.Hawksworth, C.Cumming RSR Racing ORECA/Chevrolet 2 Laps
24 PC M.Plowman, M.Drumwright BAR1 Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 3 Laps
25 PC C.Miller, S.Simpson JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 3 Laps
26 PC T.Papadopoulos, J.Mowlem BAR1 Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 3 Laps
27 P J.Miller, T.Nunez Speedsource Mazda 4 Laps
28 GTD J.Bleekemolen, B.Keating Riley Motorsports SRT/Viper 4 Laps
29 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally Magnus Racing Porsche 5 Laps
30 GTD D.Cameron, M.Palttala Turner Motorsport BMW 5 Laps
31 GTD M.Snow, J.Heylen Snow Racing Porsche 5 Laps
32 GTD C.MacNeil, L.Keen Alex Job Racing Porsche 5 Laps
33 GTD C.Haase, B.Miller Paul Miller Racing Audi 5 Laps
34 GTD N.Canache, S.Pumpelly Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi 5 Laps
35 GTD B.Sweedler, T.Bell AIM Autosport Ferrari 5 Laps
36 GTD B.Barker, D.Faulkner GB Autosport Porsche 5 Laps
37 GTD P.Lindsey, N.Siedler Park Place Motorsports Porsche 5 Laps
38 GTD A.Balzan, J.Westphal Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 5 Laps
39 GTD H.Cisneros, K.Giermaziak MOMO / NGT Motorsport Porsche 6 Laps
40 GTD S.Neiman, D.von Moltke, S.Pumpelly Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi 7 Laps
41 GTD P.Dempsey, A.Davis Dempsey Racing Porsche 7 Laps
42 PC M.Fuentes, J.Martin, A.Popow Starworks Motorsport ORECA/Chevrolet Not running
43 GTD M.Klenin, A.Udell Muehlner Motorsports America Porsche 8 Laps
44 GTD K.Al Qubaisi, L.Pegram Muehlner Motorsports America Porsche 10 Laps
45 GTLM N.Tandy, J.Bergmeister Porsche North America Porsche Not running
46 GTD M.Vess, M.Skeen Park Place Motorsports Porsche Not running
47 GTD I.James, M.Farnbacher Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche Not running
48 GTD A.Carter, J.Davison TRG-AMR Aston Martin Not running
49 PC D.Ostella, J.French Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet Not running
50 P S.Tremblay, T.Long Speedsource Mazda Not running
51 PC D.Ende, B.Junqueira RSR Racing ORECA/Chevrolet Not running


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