IMSA | Roar: Qualifying Race at Acura-WTR and Lamborghini-TR3

Shot from pole position, Tristan Vautier’s JDC Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi-VR was brilliant, while Tristan Nunez moved up to second, but only as far as the inside of the track, where Renger van der Zande made several overtakes from sixth. place of honor on the Cadillac # 01 of Chip Ganassi Racing.

Tom Blomqvist (Meyer Shank Racing) took his Acura ARX-05 fourth ahead of Filipe Albuquerque’s Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. Alex Lynn moved cautiously on CGR’s second car and slipped sixth ahead of Jimmie Johnson on Ally Racing’s Cadillac AXR.

On lap seventh, Nunez went off the road as he was rounding the GTD cars, allowing both Blomqvist and Albuquerque to take their Acuras to third and fourth place respectively, only to be pushed in by Lynn as well.

Nunez sold the # 31 Cadillac to Pipo Derani on lap 15, while Blomqvist his Acura MSR to Oliver Jarvis at the same time. At the same time, van der Zande put the leader Vautier under pressure, with Albuquerque half a second to catch up on Lynn.

Ganassi’s two cars stopped on lap 18, with van der Zande giving the wheel to Sebastien Bourdais and Lynn to Earl Bamber. The next round Vautier stopped to get Richard Westbrook into the car, handing over the command to Albuquerque. A couple of laps later, both CGR cars had to go through a drive through for exceeding the pit lane speed limit.

Once everyone stopped, Jarvis found himself first with 2 “5 over Derani and Ricky Taylor 6” behind them and under pressure from Westbrook. Kamui Kobayashi took over the Cadillac-Ally from Johnson, but fifth and at 22 “.

On lap 26, Westbrook passed Taylor in the fight for third place in traffic, and began trying to close the 5 “gap from Jarvis-Derani.

The Brazilian made the second stop with 40 ‘to go, leaving Jarvis with a 2 “3 lead over Westbrook and Taylor. But two laps later, the MSR stopped Jarvis and the rest of the DPi cars did the same. Taylor’s Acura finished ahead of Westbrook, with Derani in fourth place followed by Kobayashi, Bourdais and Bamber.

Taylor and Westbrook broke away from the pack battling for the top, Derani passed Jarvis for third place with less than 15 minutes remaining, also followed by Kobayashi, with Jarvis desperately trying to save fuel. Derani failed in this and pitted with four laps to go, dropping to the back of the class and promoting Kobayashi to third place.

On the final lap, Westbrook saw a gap as he dived into Taylor at Turn 1, but the contact between the two sent him into a spin. The JDC Miller driver recovered in time and finished second, keeping behind Kobayashi, Jarvis, the two cars of Chip Ganassi Racing and Derani.

# 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 Acura DPi: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Alexander Rossi, Will Stevens

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

LMP2

In LMP2, Steven Thomas overtook Ben Keating at the start, with Dennis Andersen (High Class Racing) following them ahead of Frits van Eerd (Racing Team Nederland) and Eric Lux (DragonSpeed). On lap six, Keating took the lead, with Andersen finishing over 8 “.

Lux made a comeback by climbing to third on lap 10 and began to approach Thomas.

Once all LMP2s had made their pit stops, Mikkel Jensen and Jonathan Bomarito continued the good work of their PR1 teammates Mathiasen, while Devlin DeFrancesco took over the third DragonSpeed Oreca, pursued by James Allen. (G-Drive by APR) and Dylan Murry (RTN), to battle it out on lap 26.

In the second half of the race, Jensen continued to lead in front of colleague Bomarito, with Fabio Scherer (High Class) and René Rast (G-Drive) behind. DragonSpeed dropped to fifth place.

In the final laps, Rast overtook Scherer and approached Bomarito, but it wasn’t enough to try and grab second place.

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

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

LMP3

Cameron Shields (Muehlner Motorsport) immediately led ahead of the cars of Andretti Autosport and Gar Robinson (Riley Motorsports), but after 6 laps he had problems allowing Orey Fidani (Forty7 Motorsport) to climb third.

However, with just over 40 minutes left, Shields had to re-enter and Josh Burdon (Andretti) took the lead.

The latter won with 1’05 “over Moritz Kranz, Ori’s mate in Muehlner. Kuno Wittmer gave third place to Forty7 even if 3 laps late.

# 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier JS P320: Jarett Andretti, Josh Burdon, Rasmus Lindh, Gabby Chaves

Photo by: Chris duMond / Motorsport Images

GTD Pro

Mathieu Jaminet (Pfaff Motorsport) passed Alex Imperatori (KCMG) at the start in a Porsche-branded fight, Ross Gunn (Heart of Racing – Aston Martin) held third place chased by Andrea Caldarelli (TR3 Racing – Lamborghini) and Ben Barnicoat (Vasser Sullivan – Lexus RC F), as well as the Mercedes of WeatherTech Racing, with Maro Engel overtaking Julien Andlauer’s Porsche on lap five.

Caldarelli overtook Gunn poso later, on lap 18 Andlauer not only passed Engel again, but finished fifth ahead of Barnicoat’s Lexus.

After the pit stops about halfway through the race, Felipe Nasr (Pfaff) remained first, but now with Alessio Picariello’s Porsche (# 79 WeatherTech) behind at 3 “, while that of KCMG with Patrick Pilet at the wheel slipped 10a for a refueling problem that cost the team half a minute.

In third position is Mirko Bortolotti’s Lamborghini-TR3 ahead of Alex Riberas in the Aston Martin-HoR and Kyle Kirkwood’s Lexus-VSR.

The battle for the lead between Nasr and Picariello ended with 30 ‘from the end and finally the WeatherTech car passed first, leaving Nasr to try to fend off Bortolotti. 19 minutes from the end the Brazilian gave up to Trentino, who then took the lead with 14 ‘from the end.

Further back, Kirkwood dropped to seventh, as Jules Gounon’s Mercedes-WTR took fourth ahead of Riberas and the second Mercedes-WTR in the hands of Dirk Muller, who moved up to fifth against Riberas in the closing minutes.

# 63 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3: Marco Mapelli, Andrea Caldarelli, Mirko Bortolotti, Rolf Ineichen

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

GTD

In GTD, Winward Racing’s Mercedes led the first beats in the hands of Russell Ward, chased by John Miller in the McLaren 720S of Crucial Motorsport, while Kenny Habul maintained a good third place from qualifying, ahead of Michael De Quesada in the Mercedes of Alegra Motorsport.

Mike Skeen’s Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports climbed to third place ahead of Habul in the opening stint.

After the pit stops, Lucas Auer kept team Winward ahead, with Paul Holton chasing him behind the wheel of the McLaren-Crucial. Townsend Bell drove VSR’s # 12 Lexus third, just ahead of Guy Cosmo in GKM’s Mercedes.

Jan Heylen took the wheel of Wright Motorsports Porsche and passed Bell for the podium, with Raffaele Marciello fifth in the SunEnergy1 Mercedes ahead of Cosmo.

Up front, Auer held the lead by half a second over Holton.