IMSA Road America: Porsche 1-2 as Acura strategy falls short in wild race

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 Penske 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.

Pole winner Albuquerque led the field to green in his #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, ahead of the #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 (#01 Cadillac V-Series.R).

Behind them, Pipo Derani’s Action Express-run Cadillac was spun around by Tandy’s #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 at Turn 5, for which Tandy was penalised. That promoted Connor De Phillippi’s #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.

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque lead the field to green (Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images)

The second caution led to WTR splitting their strategy, with Jordan Taylor pitting the #40 for fresh tyres 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 #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 #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 penalty. He’d later get another penalty for the team working on the car outside of the pitbox.

Eng pitted the #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 #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 #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 Jaminet (in for Tandy in the #6 Porsche) followed suit to grab second at Turn 2 and Jack Aitken (in for Derani in the #31 Caddy) also moved by him at Turn 4.

#6 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet (Photo by: Art Fleischmann)

Taylor pulled out a big lead over Jaminet, while Nasr moved past Viscaal to claim fourth in the #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 tyres 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. Nasr got a great run on Aitken swept 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 #2 United Autosports’ 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 #22 United Autosports ORECA was penalised 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 #2 in Ben Hanley’s hands and the #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 #4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R led Sims’s #3 sister Pratt Miller Motorsports-run car to green. But Sims was punted off at Turn 5 by Mike Rockenfeller’s #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 #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F, rising to second from Oliver Jarvis in the 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 #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 #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 #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.

IMSA Road America - Race results

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Drivers	#		Chassis	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Points	Retirement
1	N. Tandy M. Jaminet Porsche Penske Motorsport	6		Porsche 963	62	-
2	D. Cameron F. Nasr Porsche Penske Motorsport	7		Porsche 963	62	+0.390 0.390	0.390
3	R. Taylor F. Albuquerque Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti	10		Acura ARX-06	62	+1.150 1.150	0.760	1
4	P. Derani J. Aitken Whelen Cadillac Racing	31		Cadillac V-Series.R	62	+1.449 1.449	0.299
5	G. Bruni B. Viscaal Proton Competition	5		Porsche 963	62	+10.084 10.084	8.635
6	T. van der Helm R. Westbrook JDC/Miller Motorsports	85		Porsche 963	62	+10.904 10.904	0.820	1
7	J. Krohn P. Eng BMW M Team RLL	24		BMW M Hybrid V8	62	+11.186 11.186	0.282
8	J. Taylor L. Deletraz Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti	40		Acura ARX-06	62	+12.286 12.286	1.100	3
9	B. Keating B. Hanley United Autosports USA	2		ORECA 07	62	+15.415 15.415	3.129	1
10	G. Kraut S. Andrews JDC/Miller Motorsports	79		ORECA 07	62	+22.100 22.100	6.685	1
11	P. Hyett P. Chatin AO Racing	99		ORECA 07	62	+25.351 25.351	3.251	1
12	S. Wiltshire R. Dalziel Era Motorsport	18		ORECA 07	62	+25.851 25.851	0.500	2
13	L. Perez Companc N. Nielsen Richard Mille AF Corse	88		ORECA 07	62	+27.165 27.165	1.314	1
14	J. Farano C. Eastwood Tower Motorsports	8		ORECA 07	62	+31.045 31.045	3.880	2
15	N. Boulle T. Dillmann Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports	52		ORECA 07	62	+31.359 31.359	0.314	4
16	J. Barbosa T. Kasemets Sean Creech Motorsport	33		Ligier JS P217	62	+40.012 40.012	8.653	2
17	D. Andersen S. Lucas MDK by High Class Racing	20		ORECA 07	62	+1'05.904 1'05.904	25.892	2
18	G. Robinson F. Fraga Riley	74		ORECA 07	62	+1'09.662 1'09.662	3.758	2
19	D. Goldburg P. di Resta United Autosports USA	22		ORECA 07	62	+1'44.835 1'44.835	35.173	3
20	R. van der Zande S. Bourdais Cadillac Racing	01		Cadillac V-Series.R	61	1 lap		3
21	D. Serra G. Altoè Conquest Racing	35		Ferrari 296 GT3	61	1 lap
22	B. Sellers M. Snow Paul Miller Racing	1		BMW M4 GT3	61	1 lap		1
23	R. Gunn A. Riberas Heart Of Racing Team	23		Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo	61	1 lap		1
24	R. Foley P. Gallagher Turner Motorsport	96		BMW M4 GT3	60	2 laps		1
25	B. Iribe F. Schandorff Inception Racing	70		McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	60	2 laps		1
26	L. Heinrich J. Andlauer AO Racing	77		Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	60	2 laps		1
27	A. Garcia A. Sims Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	3		Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	60	2 laps		2
28	T. Milner N. Catsburg Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports	4		Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	60	2 laps		2
29	S. Monk S. McAleer Gradient Racing	66		Acura NSX GT3	60	2 laps		1
30	R. Ward P. Ellis Winward Racing	57		Mercedes AMG GT3	60	2 laps		1
31	O. Fidani M. Bell AWA	13		Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD	60	2 laps		3
32	M. Franco A. Costa Conquest Racing	34		Ferrari 296 GT3	60	2 laps		1
33	M. Grenier K. Koch Korthoff/Preston Motorsports	32		Mercedes AMG GT3	60	2 laps		2
34	M. Kirchhofer O. Jarvis Pfaff Motorsports	9		McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	60	2 laps		2
35	G. Levorato C. Lewis Proton Competition	55		Ford Mustang GT3	60	2 laps		4
36	J. Hand D. Muller Ford Multimatic Motorsports	65		Ford Mustang GT3	60	2 laps		3
37	R. De Angelis Z. Robichon Heart Of Racing Team	27		Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo	60	2 laps		3
38	K. Li A. Fjordbach MDK Motorsports	86		Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	60	2 laps		1
39	F. Montecalvo P. Thompson Vasser Sullivan	12		Lexus RC F GT3	60	2 laps		1
40	J. Hawksworth B. Barnicoat Vasser Sullivan	14		Lexus RC F GT3	60	2 laps		5
41	O. Triarsi A. Rovera Triarsi Competizione	023		Ferrari 296 GT3	57	5 laps		4
42	H. Tincknell M. Rockenfeller Ford Multimatic Motorsports	64		Ford Mustang GT3	53	9 laps		2
43	A. Adelson E. Skeer Wright Motorsports	120		Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	46	16 laps		3
44	M. Goikhberg L. Spinelli Forte Racing	78		Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	45	17 laps		2
45	S. Mitchell D. Formal Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti	45		Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	35	27 laps		2
dnf	C. de Phillippi N. Yelloly BMW M Team RLL	25		BMW M Hybrid V8	29	33 laps				Retirement
dnf	T. Steven M. Jensen TDS Racing	11		ORECA 07	27	35 laps				Retirement
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