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Tandy Breaks BMW’s IMSA iRacing Pro Series Win Streak

Porsche breaks through for first victory of IMSA iRacing Pro Series season…

Image: Porsche

Porsche has broken BMW’s stranglehold in IMSA iRacing Pro Series competition, with Nick Tandy taking victory in Thursday’s round at virtual Road America.

The Porsche factory driver held off points leader Bruno Spengler by 2.845 seconds in the 90-minute contest presented by WeatherTech.

Tandy took over the lead following a slow pit stop for the pole-sitting No. 47 PPM Ford GT of Rodrigo Pflucker, who dropped to fifth at the time.

A two-tire stop for the No. 7 BMW M8 GTE of Spengler elevated the Canadian to third on the restart following the competition caution and moved into second with 20 minutes to go following an incident for Porsche Junior Ayhancan Güven.

Güven, who had been running second at the time, was collected by a spinning No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Matt Griffin in Turn 13.

Tandy became the first non-BMW to finish on the podium in the four races to date in IMSA’s top level esports series.

Güven’s incident promoted the No. 23 BMW of John Edwards to third at the time although Edwards spun after contact from the No. 11 GRT Grasser Ford of Richard Heistand with five minutes to go.

Heistand and the No. 80 Ford of Kenton Koch, meanwhile, came together moments later.

Phillip Eng emerged in third at the checkered flag in the No. 26 Team Austria BMW, followed by the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing Porsche of Shinya Michimi in fourth.

Edwards recovered to complete the top-five, ahead of Koch.

Six BMWs were classified in the top-nine, including seventh place finisher Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport entry and Connor De Phillippi and title contender Nicky Catsburg in eighth and ninth, respectively.

AJ Allmendinger completed the top-ten in his MSR/NBC Sports Porsche.

Robert Wickens, in his series debut, finished 29th in his Pfaff Motorsports Porsche, while NASCAR star Brad Keselowski, who was announced to take part in a Team Penske-entered Ford, was a no-show in what was scheduled to be a 50-car field.

The next round of the season takes place at virtual Virginia International Raceway on May 28 at 6 p.m. ET.

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

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