What could have been an interesting battle turned into a dominant display for Porsche Penske Motorsports in the IMSA Sportscar Weekend at Road America as several contenders caused their own woes, some of them well before the green flag waved.
Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr started on pole in their No. 7 Porsche 963 thanks to the No. 31 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R that had qualified first having a crash in the warmup. From there they were never headed and led the entire race, which was green for 2h18m after one early full-course caution.
A late-race charge by Tom Blomqvist looked like it might thwart them, but Nasr survived to take the No. 7’s first GTP victory in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Campbell and Nasr became the sixth different GTP winners in seven races.
“I’m just happy that everything finally came together this weekend,” said Nasr. “We’ve been close several times — the speed was there, just a couple of reliability issues along the year. But the whole weekend I felt was felt like we’ve done a great job all around to set up for the race. Matt did a great qualifying, maximizing the package and getting up front in the race and just looking after his tires looking after his pace. He’s done a great job all weekend, to be honest. It’s a big relief for the whole team because I know how much hard work has put on that 7 crew. So I’m very proud of everybody.”
Campbell was able to put a bit of a gap on the field and looked fairly comfortable out front in the first stint, and Nasr had no issues maintaining that gap and controlling the race when he got into the car at the first pit stop.
“I feel like our pace was really really good,” declared Campbell. “I was looking after the tire as well and I was just quite comfortable out in front, slowly chipping away. I think we got really lucky with traffic; that’s why the gap looked so big at times because even I was surprised just how easy it was to get through. So for sure it made our race, especially at the start, quite a lot easier.”
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Blomqvist was making a hard charge in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 he shares with Colin Braun, and closed the gap to under two seconds. That was as close as he would get to Nasr, however, and a couple of bad breaks in traffic in the final laps left the gap at 4.635s and the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park winners had to settle for second.
“What hurt us the most was the 01 [Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac] looked like it was struggling a bit and I was stuck behind it for probably a little bit too too long,” explained Blomqvist. “It was difficult to pass if you don’t find an opportunity in traffic. Thankfully, I got one halfway through that first stint and then the car was working really well.
“Traffic always ebbs and flows and I guess he got a bit more fortunate than I did towards last five laps or so of the race. Obviously it’s one thing getting close, but passing is a completely different matter. But I’m really happy with the job our boys did today — good execution, clean stops and a bit of fortune fell away as well.”
The other big winners of the weekend, despite the fact that Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuqerque finished a distant third in the No. 10 Acura, were Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport. With the woes for Action Express Racing and the No. 25 BMW, they emerged with the championship lead, despite the fact that they are still looking for their first victory. Albuquerque and Taylor lead Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani by 14 points, 2171 to 2157.
Derani had qualified the No. 31 on pole for AXR, but Alexander Sims lost the car in the morning warmup. The AXR crew went to work, completing a swap of gearbox, rear suspension, hybrid components, undertray and rear bodywork and wing in 90 minutes and get the car to grid before the cars rolled off. That was critical, as it allowed Derani to start at the back of the GTP field rather than starting from pit lane and also having to serve a drive-through. While ultimately the team didn’t rediscover the pace it had all weekend, a sixth-place finish kept the day from being a complete disaster for the team that had been leading the championship.
It was disaster, however, for BMW. While the two BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s hadn’t shown top-flight pace at Road America, Connor De Phillippi was starting the car fourth with the No. 31 at the back. However, De Phillippi spun on the first pace lap, and had to be fished out of the gravel. Now starting at the back, De Phillippi worked his way through the GT field in two laps, but flew off at The Kink and pancaked the wall.
De Phillipi’s spin had cause the first lap after the clock started to be a third pace lap, and now he had brought another full-course caution, the only two cautions of the race. The car came back to the pits on a flatbed, and the crew got the car back out with Nick Yelloly at the wheel, but it only made two more laps before Yelloly pulled off track. The No. 24 BMW had a rough day as well, coasting to stop before refiring and making it back to the pits, where it stayed for the duration.
The No. 01 Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande had shown good pace all weekend and started second, but they were never really a factor in the race and finished fourth. JDC-Miller Motorsports looks to be getting a handle on their Porsche 963 in their fourth race with the car, and Mike Rockenfeller and Tijmen van der Helm finished fifth.
Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin came away with the first LMP2 victory of the year for the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA after their chief competitors in the championship struck trouble.
“We chose not to test here to save the money and the time — that really put us behind this weekend,” related Keating. “Any data we’ve had in the last five or six years is useless on a new surface. It’s basically a brand-new track and a lot of our competitors have tested here for a couple of days. We made big gains every time we went out, but really felt like we were behind even throughout the race.
“I had a really good start. I guess I would say I didn’t make the mistakes that the other guys I was around were making and I was able to get up to the front courtesy of their mistakes. And our car was better in the race than it was in qualifying. I think I did a lap that was pretty close to my qualifying lap when I was full of fuel on old tires. It was really nice to drive in the race and I still felt like I was learning at the end. Our big competitors each had problems whether it was penalties or punctures, so it’s a really great day for the championship.”
Giedo van der Garde and Jon Falb were second in the No. 35 TDS Racing ORECA, followed by Mikkel Jensen and Steven Thomas in the No. 11 TDS Racing entry. Polesitters George Kurtz and Ben Hanley had a late-race puncture and other issues that left them last in the seven-car field. Keating and Chatin now lead the LMP2 points by 45, followed by Jensen and Thomas, with Hanley and Kurtz another 52 points back.
The No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier led most of the LMP3 race from pole, first with Nico Pino and then Joao Barbosa. But Josh Burdon in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier chased Barbosa down and took over the lead with 22 minutes to keep an unbeaten record for the team and for co-driver Gar Robinson. Robinson had been partnering with Felipe Fraga for the sprint races, but Fraga had a commitment elsewhere so the team’s endurance driver stepped in.
“We had a very raceable car,” declared Burdon. “The traffic and the fluctuations in lap time and the risk to reward and how you had to drive the race, I feel allowed me to attack a little bit harder and feel a little bit more confident to take a little bit more risk than others. So I think we did have a bit of a pace advantage. But the majority of it over the 33 was in traffic and just a little bit of efficiency — and maybe they didn’t mow the grass and I did three times, so I was pushing quite hard!”
Pino and Barbosa ended up second with Matthew Bell and Orey Fidani finishing third in the No. 13 AWA Racing Duqueine. Robinson now has a massive 251 points gap to Bell and Fidani in the championship.