Porsche’s Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy won Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Championship round at Road America, to claim their second victory of the season despite a penalty.
Jaminet/Tandy beat championship-leading team-mates Dane Cameron/Felipe Nasr and Acura’s Filipe Albuquerque/Ricky Taylor following a strategic battle in an incident-packed 2h40m race around the four-mile track that’s renowned as ‘America’s National Park of Speed’ and featured a 47-car entry.
#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, lead the field to green
Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images
Pole winner Albuquerque led the field to green in his No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, ahead of the No. 40 sister car of Jordan Taylor. But Taylor grabbed the lead at the exit of the first corner, leading Albuquerque, an aggressive Gianmaria Bruni (Proton Porsche 963) and Renger van der Zande (No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R).
Behind them, Pipo Derani’s Action Express-run Cadillac was spun around by Tandy’s No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 at Turn 6, for which Tandy was penalized. That promoted Connor De Phillippi’s No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 to fifth, which had survived a spin on the warm-up lap to run fifth.
Two early yellows were caused by GTD cars, with Alexander Sims getting punted off on the opening lap, while Danny Formal parked his WTR Lamborghini in the Carousel gravel when it suddenly caught fire.
The second caution led to WTR splitting their strategy, with Jordan Taylor pitting the No. 40 for fresh tires and handing over to Louis Deletraz, which meant it tumbled down the GTP order from first to ninth. Albuquerque stayed out to lead from Phillipp Eng’s No. 24 BMW, which missed qualifying after Jesse Krohn shunted it in practice.
Bruni pitted and rejoined at the head of the GTP cars that had stopped, restarting third ahead of De Phillippi and Cameron in the points-leading No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Van der Zande slipping to sixth, but immediately passed Cameron.
Deletraz made a poor restart and resorted to banging wheels with the recovering Tandy. Deletraz’s stint went from bad to worse when he smashed Richard Westbrook’s JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche 963 into a spin at Canada Corner and earned himself a drive-through. He’d later get another penalty for the team working on the car outside of the pit box.
Eng pitted the No. 24 BMW to hand over to Krohn just before the one-hour mark, while Albuquerque stayed out beyond the one-hour mark but dived for the pits to hand over to Ricky Taylor when an LMP2 car stopped at the Kink. The rest of the GTP field followed suit, even though the errant car pulled away again under his own power and the anticipated yellow didn’t arrive.
Sebastien Bourdais spun the No. 01 Cadillac at Turn 2 just after he took over from van der Zande. Bruni stayed out the longest, before handing over to Bent Viscaal who rejoined in the lead.
The third full course yellow was required when Nick Yelloly, who’d just taken over the No. 25 BMW from De Phillippi, crashed hard exiting the Carousel. Yelloly was forced out on the spot, while Bourdais needed a new nose after going off behind him to the inside of the corner.
With just over an hour to go, Ricky Taylor blasted past Viscaal for the lead at the restart, and Mathieu Jaminet (in for Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche) followed suit to grab second at Turn 2 and Jack Aitken (in for Derani in the No. 31 Caddy) also moved by him at Turn 4.
Taylor pulled out a big lead over Jaminet, while Felipe Nasr moved past Viscaal to claim fourth in the No. 7 factory Porsche. A final yellow was required to recover debris from some GTD warfare, not only eradicating Taylor’s 7s lead over Jaminet but he needed to stop again for fuel, which dropped him to ninth when he pitted with 26m to go.
The race went green again with 16m remaining, Jaminet leading Aitken and Nasr. Bourdais attacked Viscaal for fourth and passed him before Turn 5, as Deletraz went off at Turn 2. Taylor was on a charge on fresh tires and picked up a cluster of cars in front of him at the restart.
Aitken attacked Jaminet for the lead at Canada Corner, but his outside move was repelled. But Nasr got a great run on Aitken to sweep around him on the front stretch, while Taylor jumped to up to fourth past Bourdais at Turn 1.
Nasr got right on to Jaminet’s tail in traffic as they took the white flag. Taylor passed Aitken for third and tagged the rear of Nasr at Turn 4. The top four were covered by 1.4s at the finish.
Bourdais spun down to last in GTP as Viscaal passed him around 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 grabbed the early lead in United Autosports’ No. 2 Oreca, as pole winner PJ Hyett (AO Racing) fell to third at Turn 5, also dropping behind overall Mosport winner Nick Boulle (Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen).
Daniel Goldburg No. 22 United Autosports Oreca was penalized with a drive-through penalty for running the red light in the first round of pitstops. Hyett regained second after the first round of pitstops, but clashed with Goldburg, who was a lap down, at Turn 1.
Tom Dillmann, who took over from Boulle, left the pits with equipment attached, earning him a drive-through that dropped them to seventh.
That led to a head-to-head between the No. 2 in Ben Hanley’s hands and the No. 99 AO car of Paul-Loup Chatin. A perfectly-timed late yellow played into United’s hands, allowing Hanley to stroke him clear of Gerry Kraut/Scott Andrews (JDC-Miller), as Chatin faded to third.
#35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3: Daniel Serra, Giacomo Altoe
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Conquest Ferrari scores shock victory in GTD Pro
In GTD Pro, Nicky Catsburg No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R led Alexander Sims’s No. 3 sister Pratt Miller Motorsports-run car to green. But Sims was punted off at Turn 5 by Mike Rockenfeller’s No. 64 Multimatic Ford Mustang, which wounded its own right-front corner and took them both out of the reckoning.
Jack Hawksworth was the chief beneficiary in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F, rising to second from Oliver Jarvis (Pfaff Motorsports’ McLaren 720S). At the restart, Madison Snow charged up to second in Paul Miller Racing’s BMW M4.
Catsburg tumbled down the order in the first round of pitstops, as Giacomo Altoe stayed out to lead in the No. 35 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296, ahead of the incoming Julien Andlauer who’s replaced Seb Priaulx in the points-leading AO Racing Porsche 911.
Altoe and Daniel Serra had just enough fuel to take victory, by 1.8s from the Snow/Bryan Sellers BMW. Ross Gunn, who shared his No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin with Alex Riberas, finished third to close on the AO Porsche in points, which could only finish fourth.
The No. 14 Lexus was given a costly drive-through for a pit violation as Ben Barnicoat took over from Hawksworth.
Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher won the pro-am GTD class in their Turner Motorsport BMW M4, after Parker Thompson was forced to bail out on a fuel strategy gamble in his Lexus.