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Montoya wins IMSA title at Petit Le Mans, Action Express win race

Action Express Racing won the Petit Le Mans after a dramatic late yellow, while Acura Team Penske's Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya sealed the IMSA SportsCar title

Title contenders Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran won the race, but still missed out on the title by five points as Montoya took his first title in his second full season and Cameron followed up his 2016 success.

A full-course caution caused by Toni Vilander spinning the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari into the gravel led the five leading DPi cars to make a splash-and-dash shortly before the end.

Following the restart with 24 minutes to go, suddenly the erstwhile leader, the #5 AXR Cadillac DPi-V.R of Mike Conway, Filipe Albuquerque and Joao Barbosa, pulled in with an exploded brake disc.

That left Derani up front, fending off the Jordan Taylor-steered Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, Ricky Taylor's #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 and the second Penske car of Cameron, Montoya and Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud - the four finishing in that order.

Derani (pictured below) had a late scuffle with the #912 Porsche of Earl Bamber at Turn 10A, but held on for victory in the #31 Cadillac he shared with Nasr and Curran.

The #77 Mazda RT24-P should have been in the hunt too, having delayed its final stop and having therefore led up until the yellow, but a misfire on the restart left Oliver Jarvis helpless and he fell down the field, behind Montoya's lapped title-winning Acura.

Jarvis eventually finished sixth behind the leading JDC-Miller Cadillac in fifth, while the stricken #5 AXR Cadillac was classified seventh ahead of the CORE autosport Nissan DPi on the team's final outing in the DPi class.

Neither of the two LMP2s were running at the finish, but the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca of Dalton Kellett, Gabriel Aubry and Matt McMurry was credited with class victory.

GTLM: Risi Ferrari wins on IMSA return

James Calado did a brilliant job for Risi Competizione to edge away from Ryan Briscoe in the Ford GT in the closing stages, winning by 7.795s while Porsche took the title.

Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra drove a near-spotless race, staying within range of the Fords when they were at their peak through the middle third of the race with Scott Dixon leading, before Pier Guidi pounced on Dixon's co-driver Richard Westbrook.

Tom Blomqvist, Connor De Philippi and Colton Herta took third in the #24 BMW M8 GTE, inching away from the Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen/Mike Rockenfeller-driven #3 Corvette in the C7.R's swansong outing.

Porsche duo Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor won the GTLM title despite a muted run to fifth place for the #912 along with Mathieu Jaminet, having only needed to finish eighth to be sure of the title, ahead of the #911 driven by Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki.

GTD: Auberlen wins for Turner after late drama

There was last-lap drama in GT Daytona as Felipe Fraga in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 ran off the track and out of fuel while Bill Auberlen was on his decklid in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 pushing for the lead.

Victory for the Auberlen/Robby Foley/Dillon Machavern-piloted car meant that Auberlen has now scored 60 IMSA wins - equalling the record held by the now-retired Scott Pruett.

Race result

Pos Class Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 DPi F.Nasr, E.Curran, P.Derani Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac 465 10h00m40.809s
2 DPi R.van der Zande, J.Taylor, M.Vaxiviere Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R Cadillac 465 0.996s
3 DPi R.Taylor, H.Castroneves, G.Rahal Acura Team Penske Acura 465 9.842s
4 DPi D.Cameron, J.P.Montoya, S.Pagenaud Acura Team Penske Acura 464 1 Lap
5 DPi S.Trummer, S.Simpson, C.Miller JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac 464 1 Lap
6 DPi O.Jarvis, T.Nunez, T.Bernhard Mazda Team Joest Mazda 463 2 Laps
7 DPi J.Barbosa, M.Conway, F.Albuquerque Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac 459 6 Laps
8 DPi J.Bennett, C.Braun, R.Dumas CORE Autosport Nissan 457 8 Laps
9 DPi M.Goikhberg, T.Vautier, J.Piedrahita JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac 446 19 Laps
10 GTLM J.Calado, A.P.Guidi, D.Serra Risi Competizione Ferrari 434 31 Laps
11 GTLM R.Briscoe, R.Westbrook, S.Dixon Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 434 31 Laps
12 GTLM T.Blomqvist, C.De Phillippi, C.Herta BMW Team RLL BMW 433 32 Laps
13 GTLM J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, M.Rockenfeller Corvette Racing Chevrolet 433 32 Laps
14 GTLM E.Bamber, L.Vanthoor, M.Jaminet Porsche GT Team Porsche 433 32 Laps
15 GTLM P.Pilet, N.Tandy, F.Makowiecki Porsche GT Team Porsche 432 33 Laps
16 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner, M.Fassler Corvette Racing Chevrolet 431 34 Laps
17 GTLM J.Hand, D.Muller, S.Bourdais Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford 430 35 Laps
18 GTD B.Auberlen, R.Foley, D.Machavern Turner Motorsport BMW 418 47 Laps
19 GTD C.Mies, R.Feller, D.Morad Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi 418 47 Laps
20 GTD S.Hargrove, Z.Robichon, L.Kern Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 418 47 Laps
21 GTD B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen, F.Fraga Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes 417 48 Laps
22 DPi W.Owen, R.Binder, S.Pigot Juncos Racing Cadillac 417 48 Laps
23 GTD C.MacNeil, T.Vilander, J.Westphal Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 417 48 Laps
24 GTD B.Sellers, C.Lewis, M.Seefried Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini 417 48 Laps
25 GTD K.Legge, A.Beatriz, C.Nielsen Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing Acura 417 48 Laps
26 GTLM J.Krohn, J.M.Edwards, P.Eng BMW Team RLL BMW 412 53 Laps
27 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally, S.Pumpelly Magnus Racing Lamborghini 401 64 Laps
28 GTD R.Heistand, J.Hawksworth, P.Chase AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus 329 136 Laps
29 GTD B.Gdovic, D.Yount, S.Michimi Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini 317 Not running
30 GTD F.Montecalvo, T.Bell, A.Telitz AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus 219 246 Laps
31 GTD M.Farnbacher, T.Hindman, J.Marks Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura 201 Not running
32 LMP2 M.McMurry, G.Aubry, D.Kellett PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 201 Not running
33 DPi J.Bomarito, H.Tincknell, O.Pla Mazda Team Joest Mazda 196 Not running
34 LMP2 C.Cassels, K.Masson, A.Evans Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Gibson 65 Not running


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