Photo: Gruppe C Photography/Porsche
***Porsche Penske Motorsport claimed its third IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory of the season and first 1-2 finish for the organization in global sports car racing competition. The result has put Porsche into the lead of the GTP manufacturers’ championship heading into next month’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans.
***The top three GTP driver pairings, meanwhile, are now separated by five points, led by Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims, who hold a three-point lead over Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, while Battle on the Bricks winners Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet sit third.
***It marked the 574th win for Porsche in IMSA competition while the first 1-2 finish for Penske since Laguna Seca 2020 when it operated factory Acura ARX-05 cars. Penske’s last 1-2 finish in Porsche machinery came at Petit Le Mans in 2008.
***Action Express rebounded from a brake issue in opening practice to finish fourth on Sunday with its Cadillac V-Series.R, which led for a total of 28 laps after IMSA race control waved by Derani into the lead while under the race’s second caution due to both Penske Porsches not allegedly adhering to the class split protocol.
***BMW M Team RLL’s Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly, who finished third on Sunday, sit 38 points out of the lead of the drivers’ championship, with the No. 7 Porsche Penske duo of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr fifth and 73 points behind the leaders, also still with a mathematical chance of the title.
***Electrical issues ultimately cost the No. 24 BMW of Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng ten laps in the race after initially pitting on Lap 9 for a new right-front tire while running third in the race.
***Eng had a coming together with the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais at the start, resulting in nose damage to the Cadillac and a subsequent drive-through penalty for entering a closed pit.
***Bourdais said: “The run down to Turn 1 at the start is so long and you get a crazy amount of tow. They were all bunched to the right, so the only option was to go left. You know at that point that you’re in a three-wide situation and I was just trying to hold my position. In the process, I got turned and got hit and we had to come in for a new nose and got a drive-thru.”
***Another strong showing by Proton Competition with its customer Porsche 963 was dashed by a drive-through penalty in the second hour due to the crew working on the car outside of the pit box, which relegated Harry Tincknell and Gianmaria Bruni to a ninth place finish, behind the JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche, which was hit by an Acura ARX-06 in the early stages of the race.
***TDS Racing scored its second WeatherTech Championship LMP2 class victory, in a comeback drive for Mikkel Jensen that saw the Peugeot factory driver make up more than 50 seconds on both the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Paul-Loup Chatin and the No. 8 Tower Motorsport entry of Louis Deletraz, who were both in fuel savings mode.
***Jensen pitted three laps later than Deletraz, while Chatin was forced into the pits for a splash of fuel with four minutes to go that cost the Frenchman third place to the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca of Ben Hanley.
***Ben Keating is now tied for the lead of the Jim Trueman Award standings with George Kurtz, with Thomas just 20 points back in third. The winner will receive an automatic invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
***Brendan Iribe, meanwhile, will only need to start Motul Petit Le Mans to be confirmed as the winner of the Bob Akin Bronze Cup championship, which also awards an invite to the French endurance classic.
***Sunday’s LMP3 class-winning No. 17 AWA Duqueine D08 Nissan of Wayne Boyd and Anthony Mantella rebounded from a 360-degree spin by Boyd early into his stint. “I just took too much curb and it didn’t agree. But when we got going again, the pace in the car was unbelievable.”
***Jules Gounon felt like WeatherTech Racing was “gifted” the GTD Pro class win after the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Klaus Bachler was assessed a drive-through penalty for changing lanes prior to crossing the start line.
***Gounon said: “I went on the radio and said he changed lane before the start line, that’s a penalty. Last weekend there was a big contact… which cost us our race and we had to stop and [finish] four laps down, so it showed that there is a bit of karma in racing. At the end, today, it gifted us the win and that was good for us.”
***A fifth place class finish for the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia, and third place points for Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat means that the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 pairing will only need to start the race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta to win the GTD Pro class title.
***The Pratt Miller-run Corvette squad changed the car’s starter motor in less than 15 minutes while on the pre-grid.
***Philip Ellis said his late-race battle with the No. 78 Forte Racing by US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Loris Spinelli got heated after the Italian allegedly attempted to pass Ellis’ Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo through the grass.
***Ellis said: “Initially I was battling with Bryan [Sellers], which was all clean and fair. Then Loris came along and thought he’d play. He tried to pass me on the grass, basically. He drove through our car but luckily it wasn’t too badly damaged. In the end I gave him back what he dished out.”
***Both the No. 54 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P320 Nissan and No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Andretti Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 failed to finish the race, with MLT dropping out late after running third in LMP3 and suspension damage from contact with a LMP2 car curtailing Ashton Harrison’s race after 24 laps.
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