Ford's new GT car claims first win in Laguna IMSA SportsCar race
Ford's new GT car took the first class win of its debut season with Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe in Sunday's IMSA SportsCar Championship round at Laguna Seca
The Chip Ganassi Racing team's decision to save fuel after a delay at the car's first pitstop paid off handsomely as Westbrook was elevated to the GTLM class lead when the rest of the frontrunners made late stops.
He took the flag sixth overall and 12 seconds clear of the Alessandro Pier Guidi/Daniel Serra Scuderia Corsa Ferrari in GTLM.
Laguna was only the Ford GT's fifth race, and up to then fourth places in class in the previous IMSA round in Long Beach and in the World Endurance Championship opener at Silverstone were its best results.
The Ganassi-run programme is fielding two cars in both the WEC and IMSA series this season.
The overall IMSA race win at Laguna went to Ligier-Honda crew John Pew and Oswaldo Negri Jr, as Michael Shank Racing ended a victory drought stretching back to the 2012 Daytona 24 Hours.
Mazda had dominated practice and qualifying with its rapidly improving Lola-based Prototype.
But the Tom Long/Joel Miller entry retired with a loss of power while Tristan Nunez spun the pole-winning car he shared with Jonathan Bomarito as he chased Negri for the lead, consigning them to fourth.
Though Action Express duo Dane Cameron and Eric Curran lost out to SDR's Marc Goossens and Ryan Dalziel - up from the back of the field - in a tight battle for second, they moved into the championship lead following a collision between fellow title contenders Christian Fittipaldi and Ricky Taylor.
Reigning champions Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa lost four laps in the incident, but Taylor and brother Jordan salvaged eighth overall and sixth in the P class.
RESULTS - 80 LAPS:
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | P | J.Pew, O.Negri | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Ligier/HPD | 2h00m11.145s |
2 | P | M.Goossens, R.Dalziel | Visit Florida Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 30.099s |
3 | P | D.Cameron, E.Curran | Action Express Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 30.954s |
4 | P | T.Nunez, J.Bomarito | Mazda Motorsports | Lola/Mazda | 1m03.035s |
5 | P | K.Legge, S.Rayhall | Panoz DeltaWing Racing | DeltaWing/Elan | 1m08.594s |
6 | GTLM | R.Briscoe, R.Westbrook | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford | 1 Lap |
7 | GTLM | A.P.Guidi, D.Serra | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari | 1 Lap |
8 | P | R.Taylor, J.Taylor | Wayne Taylor Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 2 Laps |
9 | GTLM | E.Bamber, F.Makowiecki | Porsche North America | Porsche | 2 Laps |
10 | GTLM | A.Garcia, J.Magnussen | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 2 Laps |
11 | GTLM | G.Fisichella, T.Vilander | Risi Competizione | Ferrari | 2 Laps |
12 | GTLM | J.Hand, D.Muller | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ford | 2 Laps |
13 | GTLM | O.Gavin, T.Milner | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 2 Laps |
14 | GTLM | P.Pilet, N.Tandy | Porsche North America | Porsche | 2 Laps |
15 | GTLM | B.Auberlen, D.Werner | BMW Team RLL | BMW | 2 Laps |
16 | GTLM | J.M.Edwards, L.Luhr | BMW Team RLL | BMW | 2 Laps |
17 | P | J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi | Action Express Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 4 Laps |
18 | P | T.Long, J.Miller | Mazda Motorsports | Lola/Mazda | Not running |
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