Road America United Sportscar: Action Express claims 1-2 result

Action Express Racing enjoyed a one-two finish in the Tudor United Sportscar Championship at Road America, with Dane Cameron and Eric Curran taking victory from Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa

Cameron moved into the lead in the #31 Chevrolet Corvette DP during the second round of pitstops, when he came in two laps earlier than the sister #5 car and the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette that had been part of a three-way scrap for first place.

That meant he assumed the lead when the rest of the frontrunners pitted, and Cameron held onto the top spot to the finish.

Barbosa kept the leader honest for the majority of the race, but the tension was taken out of the lead battle with around 15 minutes to go when Barbosa spun after making contact with the GTD Audi of Christopher Haase at Turn 1.

That cost the #5 car 10 seconds, but it had a big enough buffer over those behind to hang on to second place.

Third went to the pole-sitting Chip Ganassi Riley-Ford DP, which led the opening few laps with Joey Hand before a loose hose caused a loss of power and an unscheduled pitstop.

That ruled the #01 car out of contention for the victory, but Scott Pruett stayed out of trouble to climb back up the order, and he snatched third place from the Ligier-Honda HPD of Oswaldo Negri with eight minutes to go when the #60 car went off track.

Negri was trying to pass a GTD car around the outside of the Carousel when he ran out of grip, sliding wide and taking a trip through the gravel to give up third place.

Of the other early contenders, the championship-leading #90 Corvette DP fell down the order when Richard Westbrook was tagged into a spin on a messy early restart, and the #10 WTR car lost two laps when it suffered a suspension problem due to running over the kerbs.

There was last lap drama in both the PC and GTLM classes, with Bruno Junqueira taking the PC victory for RSR when he pressured Conor Daly into a spin at Turn 5 as they fought for the win.

GTLM honours went to the #911 factory Porsche of Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet, which started at the back of the field following an engine change after qualifying.

The car was quickly up into contention towards the front of the class, and despite a spin for Tandy on an in-lap earlier in the race, it was able to move ahead of the sister #912 machine during the final round of stops, where both cars took left-side tyres only.

The #912 car, which led much of the race early on courtesy of Tandy's Le Mans-winning team-mate Earl Bamber, fell to third behind the #62 Risi Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer (which did not change tyres) during the final stops.

Kaffer spent the final laps defending second place from Jorg Bergmeister, but the pair came to blows just two corners from home, making side-to-side contact before Kaffer lost control and ran out into the grass, losing the position to the #912 Porsche.

RESULTS - 76 LAPS:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 P E.Curran, D.Cameron Action Express Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 2h40m58.639s
2 P J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi Action Express Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 14.359s
3 P J.Hand, S.Pruett Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley/Ford 25.140s
4 P J.Pew, O.Negri Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Ligier/HPD 28.456s
5 P R.Westbrook, M.Valiante visitflorida.com Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 52.449s
6 P M.Rojas, K.Legge Claro / TracFone DeltaWing Racing DeltaWing/Elan 1 Lap
7 PC B.Junqueira, C.Cumming RSR Racing ORECA/Chevrolet 1 Lap
8 PC J.French, C.Daly Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 1 Lap
9 PC J.Bennett, C.Braun CORE Autosport ORECA/Chevrolet 1 Lap
10 PC M.Guasch, T.K.-Smith PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 1 Lap
11 P T.Long, J.Miller Speedsource Mazda 2 Laps
12 PC M.McMurry, D.Burkett BAR1 Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet 2 Laps
13 GTLM N.Tandy, P.Pilet Porsche North America Porsche 2 Laps
14 GTLM J.Bergmeister, E.Bamber Porsche North America Porsche 2 Laps
15 GTLM P.Kaffer, G.Fisichella Risi Competizione Ferrari 2 Laps
16 P R.Taylor, J.Taylor Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette/Chevrolet 2 Laps
17 GTLM J.Magnussen, A.Garcia Corvette Racing Chevrolet 3 Laps
18 GTLM B.Auberlen, D.Werner BMW Team RLL BMW 3 Laps
19 GTLM J.M.Edwards, L.Luhr BMW Team RLL BMW 3 Laps
20 GTLM O.Gavin, T.Milner Corvette Racing Chevrolet 3 Laps
21 GTLM B.Sellers, W.Henzler Team Falken Tire Porsche 3 Laps
22 GTD B.Keating, J.Bleekemolen Riley Motorsports Dodge 6 Laps
23 GTD C.Nielsen, K.Wittmer TRG-AMR Aston Martin 6 Laps
24 GTD P.Lindsey, S.Pumpelly Park Place Motorsports Porsche 6 Laps
25 GTD B.Sweedler, T.Bell Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 6 Laps
26 GTD J.Potter, A.Lally Magnus Racing Porsche 6 Laps
27 GTD C.Haase, D.von Moltke Paul Miller Racing Audi 6 Laps
28 GTD C.MacNeil, L.Keen Alex Job Racing Porsche 6 Laps
29 GTD I.James, M.Farnbacher Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 7 Laps
30 GTD R.Mason, P.Kleinubing Compass360 Racing Audi 7 Laps
31 PC R.van der Zande, M.Schultis Starworks Motorsport ORECA/Chevrolet Not running
32 PC M.Goikhberg, C.Miller JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA/Chevrolet Not running
33 GTD M.Marsal, M.Palttala Turner Motorsport BMW Not running


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