Catsburg Wins Dramatic IMSA iRacing Pro Round at Mid-Ohio

Photo: BMW

Nicky Catsburg claimed his first IMSA iRacing Pro Series victory of the season following a dramatic and incident-filled round at the virtual Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course presented by Hagerty.

BMW again claimed a sweep of the proceedings for the third consecutive race.

Catsburg had contact with the No. 97 AIM Vasser Sullivan BMW M8 GTE of Shane Van Gisbergen to take over the lead with 26 minutes to go in the 90-minute GT Le Mans class-only contest.

The Kiwi emerged as the leader following the mid-race competition caution after taking a fuel-only stop although began to slowly fade on double-stinted Michelin virtual tires in final 30 minutes.

Championship leader Bruno Spengler, who led the opening stint from pole, spun after contact with the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Robby Foley while in a three-way battle for the lead just one lap after van Gisbergen’s incident.

Foley, a newly signed esports driver for BS+Competition, put pressure on Catsburg for the lead in the closing laps although had contact with the No. 6 Performance Tech Motorsports BMW of Dan Goldberg in the Keyhole with 5 minutes to go.

It dashed any hopes for the Turner driver for victory, who finished 3.158 seconds behind Catsburg.

Connor De Phillippi completed another podium sweep for the German manufacturer, finishing third with Philipp Eng charging from 46th on the grid to finish fourth, also in a BMW.

The DTM ace benefited from a multi-car accident involving Spengler, the No. 47 PPM Ford GT of Rodrigo Pflucker and Sebastian Priaulx’s No. 111 Multimatic Ford with 12 minutes to go.

It promoted the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports Ford of Harry Tincknell to fifth, with Spengler recovering to sixth thanks to a last-lap spin by the No. 913 Porsche 911 RSR of Porsche junior Ayhancan Guven.

Meyer Shank Racing teammates Shinya Michimi and AJ Allmendinger made it six BMWs in the top-eight, with Richard Westbrook and Kenton Koch rounding out the top-ten in Fords.

The next round of the IMSA iRacing Pro Series is set for virtual Road America on May 14 at 6 p.m. ET.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John