IMSA Watkins Glen: Albuquerque beats Blomqvist after red flag for lightning

With 90 minutes of the race remaining the red flags were shown when lightning struck, but with the clock still running the race resumed for a 21-minute sprint finish.

The two leading Acuras had been at the front all race long, with Albuquerque and Taylor seemingly in control when the caution flags waved due to a nasty crash for the Carbahn with Peregrine Racing GTD Lamborghini of Jeff Westphal, who was the innocent victim of a squabble between two LMP2 drivers on the downhill plunge toward Turn 7.

But before the wreckage could be cleared away, the red flags were displayed when some nearby lightning strikes triggered an immediate halt to the proceedings.

The thunderstorm passed close by with little precipitation, but it took almost an hour before the threat of electrical strikes had passed and the race was able to resume.

Albuquerque knew his best opportunity to take the win would come at the restart, when he took advantage of Blomqvist’s draft on the main straight to get alongside.

Albuquerque hadn’t entirely cleared his rival as he headed toward the chicane, but he threw his car into the right-left complex anyway, making significant contact with Blomqvist as he barged past, leaving a disgruntled British driver to settle for his team’s fourth consecutive second-place finish.

Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande took the flag only 1.4s back in third place in the lead Cadillac for Chip Ganassi, followed by team-mates Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn, who barely held off the Whelen Engineering Cadillac of Olivier Pla, Mike Conway and Pipo Derani.

#52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca LMP2 07: Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen, Scott Huffaker

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

In LMP2, Scott Huffaker took a fine victory with co-drivers Mikkel Jensen and Ben Keating, as the PR1-Mathiasen Motorsports squad held off a late charge from the identical Tower Motorsport ORECA of Louis Deletraz, John Farano and Rui Andrade by just 0.107s.

Riley Motorsports with Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Kay van Berlo claimed the team’s third straight Watkins Glen victory in LMP3.

Both GTD Pro and GTD featured tremendous battles throughout the race, although both were ultimately decided by the red-flag stoppage causing teams not to meet the minimum drive-time requirements.

The BMW Team RLL of Connor De Phillippi, John Edwards and Augusto Farfus and Winward Racing Mercedes of Russell Ward, Mikael Grenier and Philip Ellis were relegated to the back of their respective classes due to the drive-time penalty.

That saw Heart of Racing Aston Martin to take a clean sweep with the #23 of Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas winning in GTD Pro and the #27 sister car of Roman De Angelis, Maxime Martin and Ian James taking victory in GTD.

The #25 RLL BMW had been running fourth in the closing stages, but late pitstops for the leading Risi Ferrari of Daniel Serra, Mathieu Jaminet's Pfaff Porsche and the Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Kyle Kirkwood delivered Edwards to first - although the win proved short-lived.

RLL technical director Brandon Fry explained: "The red flag came with roughly 90 minutes remaining. John Edwards had entered the car some time before that. If not for the interruption, during which the race time continued to run down, but the drive time did not, John would easily have been within the original minimum drive time of 90 minutes.

"However, when this was adjusted to just 1:17 hours, despite the longer break, it meant John was no longer able to meet the requirement after the restart. Our strategy was solid and a proven winner. The adjustment to the minimum drive time came too late for us to be able to react and adapt our strategy."

IMSA Watkins Glen - Race Results

Cla		Class	Num	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1		DPi	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Acura DPi	162	-
2		DPi	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist	Acura DPi	162	0.861	0.861	0.861
3		DPi	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais	Cadillac DPi	162	2.267	2.267	1.406
4		DPi	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn	Cadillac DPi	162	4.176	4.176	1.909
5		DPi	31	Olivier Pla Pipo Derani Mike Conway	Cadillac DPi	162	4.211	4.211	0.035
6		DPi	48	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson	Cadillac DPi	161	1 lap
7		DPi	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval	Cadillac DPi	160	2 laps
8		LMP2	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	ORECA LMP2 07	160	2 laps
9		LMP2	8	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade	ORECA LMP2 07	160	2 laps
10		LMP2	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Dylan Murry	ORECA LMP2 07	160	2 laps
11		LMP2	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer	ORECA LMP2 07	160	2 laps
12		LMP2	81	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya	ORECA LMP2 07	159	3 laps
13		LMP2	11	Thomas Steven Josh Pierson Jonathan Bomarito	ORECA LMP2 07	159	3 laps
14		LMP2	18	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel	ORECA LMP2 07	158	4 laps
15		LMP3	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo	Ligier JS P320	154	8 laps
16		LMP3	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz	Ligier JS P320	153	9 laps
17		LMP3	36	Jarett Andretti Josh Burdon Gabby Chaves	Ligier JS P320	153	9 laps
18		LMP3	38	Daniel Goldburg Rasmus Lindh Cameron Shields	Ligier JS P320	153	9 laps
19		LMP3	40	Nico Varrone Max Hanratty James Vance	Duqueine D08	151	11 laps
20		GTD PRO	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Augusto Farfus	BMW M4 GT3	148	14 laps
21		GTD	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst	Mercedes AMG GT3	148	14 laps
22		GTD	27	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin Ian James	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	148	14 laps
23		GTD	70	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Jordan Lee Pepper	McLaren 720S GT3	147	15 laps
24		GTD	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan	BMW M4 GT3	147	15 laps
25		GTD	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand	Lexus RC F GT3	147	15 laps
26		GTD PRO	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	147	15 laps
27		GTD	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GT3	147	15 laps
28		GTD PRO	62	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GT3	147	15 laps
29		GTD	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	147	15 laps
30		GTD PRO	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet	Porsche 911 GT3 R	147	15 laps
31		GTD PRO	14	Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	Lexus RC F GT3	147	15 laps
32		GTD PRO	79	Cooper MacNeil Maro Engel Mikael Grenier	Mercedes AMG GT3	147	15 laps
33		GTD	42	Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	147	15 laps
34		GTD PRO	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	Corvette C8.R GTD	147	15 laps
35		GTD	16	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	146	16 laps
36		GTD	59	Jon Miller Paul Holton Patrick Gallagher	McLaren 720S GT3	146	16 laps
37		GTD	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Stefan Wilson	Porsche 911 GT3 R	145	17 laps
38		GTD	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson	BMW M4 GT3	144	18 laps
39		GTD	32	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller	Mercedes AMG GT3	138	24 laps
40		LMP3	33	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Lance Willsey	Ligier JS P320	132	30 laps
41		GTD	39	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	129	33 laps
42		LMP3	30	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel	Ligier JS P320	126	36 laps
43		LMP3	58	Dakota Dickerson Josh Sarchet Tyler Maxson	Ligier JS P320	108	54 laps
44		GTD	21	Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GT3	76	86 laps
45		LMP3	7	Anthony Mantella Matthew Bell Wayne Boyd	Duqueine D08	67	95 laps
46		GTD	66	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher	Acura NSX GT3	44	118 laps
47		LMP3	13	Orey Fidani Kyle Marcelli Lars Kern	Duqueine D08	43	119 laps
48		LMP3	6	Ugo De Danny Formal Dillon Machavern	Duqueine D08	35	127 laps
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