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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