It was a good day to be a GT polesitter in the IMSA SportsCar weekend at Road America.
While the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 squad had a lot of difficulties in the early part of the season, plus a big crash at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park that required a complete rebuild of the car, they’ve come on strong with consecutive wins, with Sunday’s Road America victory coming from pole.
The day might have gone to the No. 3 Corvette C8.R of Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia had the team not made a small error in refueling time. Instead of continuing to fight off Gunn for the lead, Garcia had to roll through the pits late in the race, costing the No. 3 C8.R any shot at victory.
“We’ve had a package that has been quick enough, competitive enough to compete at the front,” said Gunn. “But things just hasn’t haven’t quite clicked. So happy that now things are starting to work and obviously we’ve had two back-to-back wins. And ideally we want to keep that momentum going. We were a bit fortunate today as well. We were really probably trailing Corvette for the majority of the race; we had a really good fight — nice hard fight with Garcia which was fun — but at the end of the day they made a small mistake and they had to pay for it. We got lucky that we got the win.”
Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth ended up second in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, followed by Taylor and Garcia. The Lexus duo now lead the Corvette squad by 169 points in the GTD PRO standings, with WeatherTech Racing’s Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon third, another 47 points back.
Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers might have won their fifth GTD race of the season, and won from pole going virtually flag-to-flag, but hey had a McLaren breathing down their neck the entire time. While Frederik Schandorff and Brendan Iribe were close, they could never mount a real attack on the No.1 BMW.
“We came out of the gate strong,” said Snow. “This repave was difficult for a lot of people. Fortunately it seemed like it really suited the BMW well. It just handled great out the gate and qualifying was the best car I’ve ever had handling wise.
“When the race started, I got the GTD pro cars past me. It’s a decision you have to make whether you want cars between you to help or whether it’s better to have them ahead. They ended up going around me and that was that — was perfect for me because then I wasn’t worried about having them right behind me. Then I just pushed hard as I could to try and get a gap back. The McLaren was fast and strong all day and never gave us a break.”
Snow both started and finished the race, with Sellers handling the middle stint. That was a decision made mid-race, and one Sellers says he asked for.
“I asked because I felt like his opening stint was so strong and I felt like we had a very good car,” Sellers explained. “There’s always something very special about being the one to finish a race, being the one that gets across the checkered flag and I felt that today – everyday, but today undoubtedly – that he could be the one to do that and should be the one to do that. You want these things right? You want them for the people you share the car with and you want those moments and everyone to be able to experience those moments. For me, it’s just a show of faith that we have in Madison and what he’s capable of.”
Mikael Grenier and Mike Skeen recovered from a big practice crash to finish third in the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG. Loris Spinelli and Misha Goikhberg were fourth in the No. 78 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Lamborghini Huracán, followed by Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F.
Madison and Snow padded their GTD lead, now 205 points over Marco Sorensen and Roman De Angelis for Heart of Racing. Iribe and Schandorff are third, another 134 points back.