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Race report
IMSA Road America

IMSA Road America: Porsche 1-2 as Acura strategy falls short in wild race

Less than 1.5s covers the top four after frantic finish; United Autosports wins LMP2; Ferrari scores shock GTD Pro victory

#6 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet

Porsche’s Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy won Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Championship round at Road America, to claim their second victory of the season despite a penalty.

Jaminet/Tandy beat championship-leading Penske team-mates Dane Cameron/Felipe Nasr and Acura’s Filipe Albuquerque/Ricky Taylor following a strategic battle in an incident-packed 2h40m race around the four-mile track that’s renowned as ‘America’s National Park of Speed’ and featured a 47-car entry.

Pole winner Albuquerque led the field to green in his #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, ahead of the #40 sister car of Jordan Taylor. But Taylor grabbed the lead at the exit of the first corner, leading Albuquerque, an aggressive Gianmaria Bruni (Proton Porsche 963) and Renger van der Zande (#01 Cadillac V-Series.R).

Behind them, Pipo Derani’s Action Express-run Cadillac was spun around by Tandy’s #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 at Turn 5, for which Tandy was penalised. That promoted Connor De Phillippi’s #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 to fifth, which had survived a spin on the warm-up lap to run fifth.

Two early yellows were caused by GTD cars, with Alexander Sims getting punted off on the opening lap, while Danny Formal parked his WTR Lamborghini in the Carousel gravel when it suddenly caught fire.

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque lead the field to green

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque lead the field to green

Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images

The second caution led to WTR splitting their strategy, with Jordan Taylor pitting the #40 for fresh tyres and handing over to Louis Deletraz, which meant it tumbled down the GTP order from first to ninth. Albuquerque stayed out to lead from Phillipp Eng’s #24 BMW, which missed qualifying after Jesse Krohn shunted it in practice.

Bruni pitted and rejoined at the head of the GTP cars that had stopped, restarting third ahead of De Phillippi and Cameron in the points-leading #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Van der Zande slipping to sixth, but immediately passed Cameron.

Deletraz made a poor restart and resorted to banging wheels with the recovering Tandy. Deletraz’s stint went from bad to worse when he smashed Richard Westbrook’s JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche 963 into a spin at Canada Corner and earned himself a drive-through penalty. He’d later get another penalty for the team working on the car outside of the pitbox.

Eng pitted the #24 BMW to hand over to Krohn just before the one-hour mark, while Albuquerque stayed out beyond the one-hour mark but dived for the pits to hand over to Ricky Taylor when an LMP2 car stopped at the Kink. The rest of the GTP field followed suit, even though the errant car pulled away again under his own power and the anticipated yellow didn’t arrive.

Sebastien Bourdais spun the #01 Cadillac at Turn 2 just after he took over from van der Zande. Bruni stayed out the longest, before handing over to Bent Viscaal who rejoined in the lead.

The third full course yellow was required when Nick Yelloly, who’d just taken over the #25 BMW from De Phillippi, crashed hard exiting the Carousel. Yelloly was forced out on the spot, while Bourdais needed a new nose after going off behind him to the inside of the corner.

With just over an hour to go, Ricky Taylor blasted past Viscaal for the lead at the restart, and Jaminet (in for Tandy in the #6 Porsche) followed suit to grab second at Turn 2 and Jack Aitken (in for Derani in the #31 Caddy) also moved by him at Turn 4.

#6 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet

#6 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Taylor pulled out a big lead over Jaminet, while Nasr moved past Viscaal to claim fourth in the #7 factory Porsche. A final yellow was required to recover debris from some GTD warfare, not only eradicating Taylor’s 7s lead over Jaminet but he needed to stop again for fuel, which dropped him to ninth when he pitted with 26m to go.

The race went green again with 16m remaining, Jaminet leading Aitken and Nasr. Bourdais attacked Viscaal for fourth and passed him before Turn 5, as Deletraz went off at Turn 2. Taylor was on a charge on fresh tyres and picked up a cluster of cars in front of him at the restart.

Aitken attacked Jaminet for the lead at Canada Corner, but his outside move was repelled. Nasr got a great run on Aitken swept around him on the front stretch, while Taylor jumped to up to fourth past Bourdais at Turn 1.

Nasr got right on to Jaminet’s tail in traffic as they took the white flag. Taylor passed Aitken for third and tagged the rear of Nasr at Turn 4. The top four were covered by 1.4s at the finish.

Bourdais spun down to last in GTP as Viscaal passed him around the outside for fifth.

#2 United Autosports ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Ben Keating, Ben Hanley

#2 United Autosports ORECA LMP2-Gibson: Ben Keating, Ben Hanley

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

United Autosports wins in LMP2

Ben Keating grabbed the early lead in #2 United Autosports’ ORECA, as pole winner PJ Hyett (AO Racing) fell to third at Turn 5, also dropping behind overall Mosport winner Nick Boulle (Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen).

Daniel Goldburg #22 United Autosports ORECA was penalised with a drive-through penalty for running the red light in the first round of pitstops. Hyett regained second after the first round of pitstops, but clashed with Goldburg, who was a lap down, at Turn 1.

Tom Dillmann, who took over from Boulle, left the pits with equipment attached, earning him a drive-through that dropped them to seventh.

That led to a head-to-head between the #2 in Ben Hanley’s hands and the #99 AO car of Paul-Loup Chatin. A perfectly-timed late yellow played into United’s hands, allowing Hanley to stroke him clear of Gerry Kraut/Scott Andrews (JDC-Miller), as Chatin faded to third.

#35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3: Daniel Serra, Giacomo Altoe

#35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3: Daniel Serra, Giacomo Altoe

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Conquest Ferrari scores shock victory in GTD Pro

In GTD Pro, Nicky Catsburg #4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R led Sims’s #3 sister Pratt Miller Motorsports-run car to green. But Sims was punted off at Turn 5 by Mike Rockenfeller’s #64 Multimatic Ford Mustang, which wounded its own right-front corner and took them both out of the reckoning.

Jack Hawksworth was the chief beneficiary in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F, rising to second from Oliver Jarvis in the Pfaff Motorsports’ McLaren 720S). At the restart, Madison Snow charged up to second in Paul Miller Racing’s BMW M4.

Catsburg tumbled down the order in the first round of pitstops, as Giacomo Altoe stayed out to lead in the #35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296, ahead of the incoming Julien Andlauer who’s replaced Seb Priaulx in the points-leading AO Racing Porsche 911.

Altoe and Daniel Serra had just enough fuel to take victory, by 1.8s from the Snow/Bryan Sellers BMW. Ross Gunn, who shared his #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin with Alex Riberas, finished third to close on the AO Porsche in points, which could only finish fourth.

The #14 Lexus was given a costly drive-through for a pit violation as Ben Barnicoat took over from Hawksworth.

Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher won the pro-am GTD class in their Turner Motorsport BMW M4, after Parker Thompson was forced to bail out on a fuel strategy gamble in his Lexus.

IMSA Road America - Race results

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
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2
   
Cla Drivers # Chassis Laps Time Interval Pits Points Retirement
1 United Kingdom N. Tandy France M. Jaminet Porsche Penske Motorsport 6 Porsche 963 62

-

       
2 United States D. Cameron Brazil F. Nasr Porsche Penske Motorsport 7 Porsche 963 62

+0.390

0.390

0.390      
3 United States R. Taylor Portugal F. Albuquerque Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti 10 Acura ARX-06 62

+1.150

1.150

0.760 1    
4 Brazil P. Derani United Kingdom J. Aitken Whelen Cadillac Racing 31 Cadillac V-Series.R 62

+1.449

1.449

0.299      
5 Italy G. Bruni Netherlands B. Viscaal Proton Competition 5 Porsche 963 62

+10.084

10.084

8.635      
6 Netherlands T. van der Helm United Kingdom R. Westbrook JDC/Miller Motorsports 85 Porsche 963 62

+10.904

10.904

0.820 1    
7 Finland J. Krohn Austria P. Eng BMW M Team RLL 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 62

+11.186

11.186

0.282      
8 United States J. Taylor Switzerland L. Deletraz Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti 40 Acura ARX-06 62

+12.286

12.286

1.100 3    
9 United States B. Keating United Kingdom B. Hanley United Autosports USA 2 ORECA 07 62

+15.415

15.415

3.129 1    
10
G. Kraut
Australia S. Andrews JDC/Miller Motorsports
79 ORECA 07 62

+22.100

22.100

6.685 1    
11 United States P. Hyett France P. Chatin AO Racing 99 ORECA 07 62

+25.351

25.351

3.251 1    
12
S. Wiltshire
United Kingdom R. Dalziel Era Motorsport
18 ORECA 07 62

+25.851

25.851

0.500 2    
13 Argentina L. Perez Companc Denmark N. Nielsen Richard Mille AF Corse 88 ORECA 07 62

+27.165

27.165

1.314 1    
14 Canada J. Farano Ireland C. Eastwood Tower Motorsports 8 ORECA 07 62

+31.045

31.045

3.880 2    
15 United States N. Boulle France T. Dillmann Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports 52 ORECA 07 62

+31.359

31.359

0.314 4    
16 Portugal J. Barbosa T. Kasemets Sean Creech Motorsport 33 Ligier JS P217 62

+40.012

40.012

8.653 2    
17 Denmark D. Andersen
S. Lucas MDK by High Class Racing
20 ORECA 07 62

+1'05.904

1'05.904

25.892 2    
18 United States G. Robinson Brazil F. Fraga Riley 74 ORECA 07 62

+1'09.662

1'09.662

3.758 2    
19 D. Goldburg United Kingdom P. di Resta United Autosports USA 22 ORECA 07 62

+1'44.835

1'44.835

35.173 3    
20 Netherlands R. van der Zande France S. Bourdais Cadillac Racing 01 Cadillac V-Series.R 61

1 lap

  3    
21 Brazil D. Serra Italy G. Altoè Conquest Racing 35 Ferrari 296 GT3 61

1 lap

       
22 United States B. Sellers United States M. Snow Paul Miller Racing 1 BMW M4 GT3 61

1 lap

  1    
23 United Kingdom R. Gunn Spain A. Riberas Heart Of Racing Team 23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo 61

1 lap

  1    
24 United States R. Foley United States P. Gallagher Turner Motorsport 96 BMW M4 GT3 60

2 laps

  1    
25 United States B. Iribe Switzerland F. Schandorff Inception Racing 70 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO 60

2 laps

  1    
26 Germany L. Heinrich France J. Andlauer AO Racing 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 60

2 laps

  1    
27 Spain A. Garcia United Kingdom A. Sims Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 60

2 laps

  2    
28 United States T. Milner Netherlands N. Catsburg Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports 4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 60

2 laps

  2    
29
S. Monk
United Kingdom S. McAleer Gradient Racing
66 Acura NSX GT3 60

2 laps

  1    
30 United States R. Ward Switzerland P. Ellis Winward Racing 57 Mercedes AMG GT3 60

2 laps

  1    
31 Canada O. Fidani United Kingdom M. Bell AWA 13 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD 60

2 laps

  3    
32
M. Franco
A. Costa Conquest Racing
34 Ferrari 296 GT3 60

2 laps

  1    
33 Canada M. Grenier United States K. Koch Korthoff/Preston Motorsports 32 Mercedes AMG GT3 60

2 laps

  2    
34 Germany M. Kirchhofer United Kingdom O. Jarvis Pfaff Motorsports 9 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO 60

2 laps

  2    
35
G. Levorato
United States C. Lewis Proton Competition
55 Ford Mustang GT3 60

2 laps

  4    
36 United States J. Hand Germany D. Muller Ford Multimatic Motorsports 65 Ford Mustang GT3 60

2 laps

  3    
37 Canada R. De Angelis Canada Z. Robichon Heart Of Racing Team 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo 60

2 laps

  3    
38
K. Li
Denmark A. Fjordbach MDK Motorsports
86 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 60

2 laps

  1    
39 United States F. Montecalvo Canada P. Thompson Vasser Sullivan 12 Lexus RC F GT3 60

2 laps

  1    
40 United Kingdom J. Hawksworth United Kingdom B. Barnicoat Vasser Sullivan 14 Lexus RC F GT3 60

2 laps

  5    
41 O. Triarsi Italy A. Rovera Triarsi Competizione 023 Ferrari 296 GT3 57

5 laps

  4    
42 United Kingdom H. Tincknell Germany M. Rockenfeller Ford Multimatic Motorsports 64 Ford Mustang GT3 53

9 laps

  2    
43
A. Adelson
E. Skeer Wright Motorsports
120 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 46

16 laps

  3    
44 Canada M. Goikhberg Italy L. Spinelli Forte Racing 78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 45

17 laps

  2    
45 United Kingdom S. Mitchell Costa Rica D. Formal Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti 45 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 35

27 laps

  2    
dnf United States C. de Phillippi United Kingdom N. Yelloly BMW M Team RLL 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 29

33 laps

      Retirement
dnf United States T. Steven Denmark M. Jensen TDS Racing 11 ORECA 07 27

35 laps

      Retirement

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