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Montoya takes first IMSA win at Mid Ohio for Acura Team Penske

Ex-Williams and McLaren Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya earned his first IMSA SportsCar Championship win at Mid-Ohio, partnered by Dane Cameron to Acura's first victory of 2019

Cameron started the Acura ARX-05, and passed the polesitting Mazda of Oliver Jarvis in the early running when the Joest car had been slowed by traffic.

Montoya took over the car on lap 28 of 123, but the roles were soon reversed as Jarvis capitalised on traffic for Montoya to retake the lead.

The race was ultimately decided by a late-race restart, after Colin Braun's Nissan was beached in the gravel at Turn 4 following the last round of pitstops.

An undercut strategy had worked to hand Montoya the lead back over Tristan Nunez - now in the Jarvis Mazda - and Montoya romped away at the final restart to bag victory by just over two seconds.

It means Mazda is still looking for a first IMSA victory despite taking pole for two of 2019's four rounds so far.

Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor had won the 2018 Mid Ohio race for Acura Penske, but had a nightmare run this year.

After a strong start, Castroneves ran wide at Turn 4 and then clipped 2012 IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay - making his debut with the Mazda squad - into a spin, also causing damage to his own car in the process.

A brilliant save by Hunter-Reay kept him in the mix, but he was overtaken by the Action Express Cadillac of Pipo Derani in the first round of stops via an undercut.

An inspired move a few laps after the stops by Hunter-Reay around the outside of Turn 4 was followed up by a strong final stint by his car-mate Jonathan Bomarito, who had to blend saving fuel with holding Derani's replacement Felipe Nasr at bay.

Nasr did get close enough to challenge, but edged past under a yellow flag and he was given a stop/go penalty.

Bomarito held on to take the final spot on the podium ahead of Nasr and Taylor, finishing the car started by Castroneves.

In a disappointing race for the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs, Renger van der Zande and Jordan Taylor took sixth in the Wayne Taylor Racing entry, as the marque's cars filled the last four spots in the top 10.

Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor steered their Porsche 911 RSR to GT Le Mans honours after Bamber had reeled in the #3 Chevrolet Corvette of Antonio Garcia early on.

Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet finished behind the car Garcia started and Jan Magnussen finished, after a race-long duel with the Team RLL BMW M8 GTE of Tom Blomqvist and Connor De Phillippi.

Richard Heistand and Jack Hawksworth gave Lexus RC F GT3 the GTD class honours with a 19th place finish overall.

Race result

Pos Class Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 DPi J.P.Montoya, D.Cameron Acura Team Penske Acura 123 2h41m05.736s
2 DPi O.Jarvis, T.Nunez Mazda Team Joest Mazda 123 2.022s
3 DPi J.Bomarito, R.H.-Reay Mazda Team Joest Mazda 123 30.050s
4 DPi F.Nasr, P.Derani Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac 123 39.114s
5 DPi R.Taylor, H.Castroneves Acura Team Penske Acura 122 1 Lap
6 DPi R.van der Zande, J.Taylor Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R Cadillac 122 1 Lap
7 DPi S.Trummer, S.Simpson JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac 122 1 Lap
8 DPi J.Barbosa, F.Albuquerque Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac 122 1 Lap
9 DPi W.Owen, K.Kaiser Juncos Racing Cadillac 122 1 Lap
10 DPi M.Goikhberg, T.Vautier JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac 122 1 Lap
11 LMP2 M.McMurry, E.Lux PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 116 7 Laps
12 GTLM E.Bamber, L.Vanthoor Porsche GT Team Porsche 116 7 Laps
13 GTLM J.Magnussen, A.Garcia Corvette Racing Chevrolet 116 7 Laps
14 GTLM P.Pilet, N.Tandy Porsche GT Team Porsche 116 7 Laps
15 GTLM T.Blomqvist, C.De Phillippi BMW Team RLL BMW 116 7 Laps
16 GTLM R.Briscoe, R.Westbrook Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 116 7 Laps
17 GTLM J.Krohn, J.M.Edwards BMW Team RLL BMW 116 7 Laps
18 GTLM S.Bourdais, D.Muller Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 115 8 Laps
19 GTD R.Heistand, J.Hawksworth AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus 114 9 Laps
20 GTD M.Farnbacher, T.Hindman Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura 114 9 Laps
21 GTD B.Sellers, R.Hardwick Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini 113 10 Laps
22 GTD P.Long, M.Seefried Park Place Motorsports Porsche 113 10 Laps
23 GTD F.Montecalvo, T.Bell AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus 113 10 Laps
24 GTD W.Hardeman, A.Riberas Moorespeed Audi 113 10 Laps
25 GTD C.MacNeil, T.Vilander Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 112 11 Laps
26 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally Magnus Racing Lamborghini 112 11 Laps
27 GTD P.Chase, R.Dalziel Starworks Motorsport Audi 112 11 Laps
28 GTD K.Legge, C.Nielsen Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing Acura 112 11 Laps
29 GTD G.Robinson, L.Aschenbach Lone Star Racing Mercedes 112 11 Laps
30 GTD S.Hargrove, Z.Robichon Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 107 Not running
31 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner Corvette Racing Chevrolet 105 18 Laps
32 DPi J.Bennett, C.Braun CORE Autosport Nissan 97 Not running
33 GTD P.Holton, M.Plumb Compass Racing McLaren 82 Not running
34 LMP2 K.Masson, C.Cassels Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 82 41 Laps
35 GTD B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes 34 Not running
36 GTD B.Auberlen, R.Foley Turner Motorsport BMW 1 Not running


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