IMSA | Road America: Porsche One-Two in Crazy Race

Mathieu Jaminet/Nick Tandy scored their second IMSA SportsCar Championship win of the season at Road America despite a penalty.

The Porsche Penske Motorsport duo beat teammates Dane Cameron/Felipe Nasr and the Acura of Filipe Albuquerque/Ricky Taylor in a race that was fought over strategy over the 2:40-minute mark with 47 cars battling it out.

Starting from pole position, Albuquerque led the field at the start in his #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, ahead of the sister #40 car of Jordan Taylor, who however took the lead exiting the first turn shortly thereafter, ahead of the lively Gianmaria Bruni (Proton-Porsche 963) and Renger van der Zande (#01 Cadillac V-Series.R).

Behind them, the Action Express Cadillac driven by Pipo Derani was spun by the #6 Porsche of Tandy in Turn 6, forcing the Penske driver to take a penalty. That promoted the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Phillippi, who had survived a spin on the warm-up lap to run fifth, to fifth.

Two early neutralisations were caused by GTD cars, with Alexander Sims being knocked out on the opening lap, while Danny Formal parked his Lamborghini-WTR in the gravel of the Carousel when it suddenly caught fire.

The second neutralization led WTR to split their strategy, with Jordan Taylor opting to run fresh tires on his #40 and handing it over to Louis Deletraz, who dropped down the GTP order from first to ninth. Albuquerque remained in the lead ahead of the #24 BMW of Phillipp Eng, which missed qualifying after Jesse Krohn hit it in practice.

Bruni pitted and rejoined leading the pitted GTP cars, finding himself third ahead of De Phillippi and Cameron in the #7 Penske Motorsport Porsche 963, while Van der Zande slipped to sixth but quickly passed Cameron.

Deletraz couldn’t find his pace and exchanged a couple of wheelies with the resurgent Tandy. The Swiss went from bad to worse when he hit Richard Westbrook’s JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche 963, sending it spinning at Canada Corner, earning him a drive-through. He later received another penalty for working on the car outside the pits.

Eng pitted the #24 BMW to hand it over to Krohn just before the half-hour mark, while Albuquerque stayed out past the half-hour mark, but pitted to hand it over to Ricky Taylor when an LMP2 stopped at the Kink. The rest of the GTP field followed suit, although the Oreca eventually powered away and the expected neutralisation never came.

Sebastien Bourdais spun the #01 Cadillac in Turn 2, just after handing over to Van der Zande. Bruni stayed out longer, before handing over to Bent Viscaal, who retook the lead.

The third neutralisation was necessary when Nick Yelloly, who had just taken over the #25 BMW from De Phillippi, crashed violently at the exit of the Carousel and retired, while Bourdais had to replace his nose after going off the road on the inside of the same corner.

With just over an hour to go, Ricky Taylor passed Viscaal at the restart, Mathieu Jaminet (replacing Tandy in the #6 Porsche) followed suit and took second place at Turn 2, while Jack Aitken (replacing Derani in the #31 Caddy) passed him at Turn 4.

Taylor built up a sizeable lead over Jaminet, while Felipe Nasr leapfrogged Viscaal to take fourth in the #7 Porsche. A final neutralization was needed to clear debris from some GTD cars, which not only erased Taylor’s 7-second lead over Jaminet, but also necessitated another fuel stop, which dropped him to ninth when he pitted with 26 minutes to go.

The race restarted with 16 minutes to go, with Jaminet leading Aitken and Nasr. Bourdais attacked Viscaal for fourth and passed him before Turn 5, while Deletraz went off at Turn 2. Taylor was leading on fresh tyres and recovered a group of cars ahead of him at the restart.

Aitken attacked Jaminet for the lead at Canada Corner, but his move around the outside was repelled. Nasr managed to pass Aitken and get around him in the first sector, while Taylor moved up to fourth by passing Bourdais at Turn 1.

Nasr was hot on Jaminet’s heels in traffic on the final lap. Taylor passed Aitken for third and tagged along on the back of Nasr at Turn 4. The top four were covered by 1.5sec.

Bourdais spun to finish last in the GTP, while Viscaal passed him on the outside for fifth.

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

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

United Autosports wins in LMP2

Ben Keating took an early lead in the #2 United Autosports Oreca, while poleman PJ Hyett (AO Racing) dropped to third at Turn 5, behind Mosport overall winner Nick Boulle (Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen).

The #22 Oreca United Autosports of Daniel Goldburg was given a drive-through penalty for running a red light in the first round of pit stops. Hyett regained second place after the first round of pit stops, but collided with Goldburg, who was a lap down, in Turn 1.

Tom Dillmann, who replaced Boulle, exited the pits with his equipment attached, earning a drive-through penalty that dropped him to seventh.

This led to a head-to-head between Ben Hanley’s #2 and Paul-Loup Chatin’s #99 AO. The final neutralization worked in United’s favor, allowing Hanley to edge out Gerry Kraut/Scott Andrews (JDC-Miller), while Chatin slipped to third.

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

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Conquest’s Ferrari surprisingly queen of GTD PRO

In GTD Pro, the #4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg led the #3 Pratt Miller Motorsports entry of Alexander Sims at the start. However, Sims was eliminated in Turn 5 by the #64 Ford Mustang Multimatic of Mike Rockenfeller, who damaged the right front end, putting both out of the race.

Jack Hawksworth was the main beneficiary in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F, moving up to second ahead of Oliver Jarvis (McLaren 720S – Pfaff Motorsports). At the restart, Madison Snow took second in the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4.

Catsburg dropped down the order during the first round of pitstops, while Giacomo Altoè remained in the lead in the #35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296, ahead of incoming Julien Andlauer, who replaced Seb Priaulx in the championship-leading AO Racing Porsche 911.

Altoè and Daniel Serra had enough fuel to take the win, with a 1.8-second advantage over the BMW of Snow/Bryan Sellers. Ross Gunn, sharing his #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin with Alex Riberas, finished third to close on the AO Racing Porsche, which could only finish fourth.

The #14 Lexus suffered a costly drive-through penalty for a pitting infringement when Ben Barnicoat took over from Hawksworth.

Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher won the GTD class in their Turner Motorsport-prepared BMW M4, after Parker Thompson was forced to retire due to an ill-advised fuel strategy in his Lexus.