Continental Tire CTMP Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

***A gutsy call to keep Jordan Taylor on slicks during the race’s first downpour nearly delivered Wayne Taylor Racing its sixth win in seven races, but ended when Taylor made contact with the No. 4 Corvette C7.R of Tommy Milner, which damaged the Cadillac DPi-V.R’s rear deck with 22 minutes to go. Taylor, who had a 25-second lead prior to the yellow, kept circulating while behind the safety car and pitted for repairs once the race went green, as the pit lane was closed during the yellow.

“I saw the Ford and the Corvette racing side-by-side ahead of me, so I went where there was some room,” he said. “I’m not sure when we touched, whether it was when I turned in or if he got bumped by the Ford, or got moved over, but it’s obviously disappointing.”

***Jordan and Ricky Taylor’s 7th place finish, however, has only resulted in a slight dent in their Prototype class championship lead, losing just a single point to Action Express Racing’s Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, which fought from a left-front puncture early in the race to finish sixth. 

***Sunday’s race saw a pair of heavy accidents for Milner’s Corvette and the David Ostella-driven No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 Gibson, which ended up on its roof after contact with the barriers. Ostella’s crash resulted in the race ending under caution. Both drivers were evaluated and released from trackside medical, escaping injuries.

***The No. 3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia managed to finish fourth in class, after both Corvettes again struggled for pace all weekend. The Pratt & Miller-led squad has also been on the back foot since a change in refueling rig manufacturers prior to Le Mans that has resulted in a slower refueling time compared to the GTLM competition.

***Magnussen and Garcia’s lead in the championship has been reduced to only three points over BMW Team RLL’s Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims, who scored back-to-back class wins. The class win marked Auberlen’s 57th in IMSA competition, putting him now within three of all-time leader Scott Pruett, at 60. It was also the first 1-2 for BMW in IMSA competition since 2013.

***Stevenson Motorsports scored a long-awaited first win for its Audi R8 LMS, in a dominant run for Lawson Aschenbach and Andrew Davis, who also picked up their first career WeatherTech Championship class victories. The team also claimed overall honors in Saturday’s Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race, the first for the Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R.

***Aschenbach and Davis dedicated the win to longtime crew member Dexter Johnson, who passed away last week following the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

***After leading the early stages, the GTD class pole-sitting No. 14 3GT Racing Lexus RC F GT3 lost significant ground having served two drive-through penalties for pit lane infractions, the first for wheel rotation while up on jacks and another for leaving equipment attached to the car. The No. 15 Lexus, which was rebuilt overnight following Jack Hawksworth’s accident in practice, fell victim to a drive-through, also for putting the car into drive while on air jacks.

***Sage Karam and Scott Pruett brought the No. 14 car home fifth in class, matching the team’s best finish to date in GTD competition after showing their best pace to date. “We’re inching there,” said Lexus Motorsports Manager Mark Egger. “When the Lexus is on pole for how strong it is and when the 15 car was being worked on overnight and was P1 in the morning warmup, it says we know we’ve got a good car. We’ve just got to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to get to that podium and then the next step.”

***It was a race to forget for Visit Florida Racing, which saw their Riley Mk. 30 Gibson stop on track no fewer than four times during the race due to intermittent electrical issues. The Marc Goossens and Renger van der Zande-driven entry ultimately ended up retiring after completing just 35 laps. “We had a $25 part fail which was unfortunate,” team principal Troy Flis said. 

***Jota Sport team principal Sam Hignett was among the notable figures at CTMP last weekend. Hignett is coming off LMP2 class victory for the Jackie Chan DC Racing team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which famously led the race outright and finished 2nd overall with its Oreca 07 Gibson.

Continental Tire Challenge:

***The No. 69 Motorsport In Action McLaren 570S GT4 of Chris Green and Jesse Lazare was moved to the back of the results post-race after its GS class car was found to have been underweight in technical inspection. The pairing initially finished third on the road after dominating the early stages.

***The technical infringement has moved the No. 76 C360R McLaren of Paul Holton and Matt Plumb to third overall. Click Here for the revised provisional results of the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park 120.

***A last-minute mechanical issue for the No. 77 C360R McLaren resulted in Matt Keegan and Nico Rondet jumping over to MIA’s No. 68 McLaren for the race. The car, which was not entered this weekend, sported C360R decals on the hood and was crewed by the Karl Thomson-owned team but recorded team points for MIA. Their run, however, was short-lived as Roundet stopped on track with less than 30 minutes to go after having run inside the top-five.

***It was a tough outing for the pair of Ford Mustangs, with a vibration ending the No. 59 KohR Motorsports entry’s run after just 19 laps. Just moments after KohR’s issues, the debuting No. 7 VOLT Racing Mustang crashed in the hands of Alan Brynjolfsson. The VOLT entry, however, managed to get to the finish, five laps down in 18th overall.

***The No. 54 JDC -Miller Motorsports BMW 328i of Stephen Simpson and Michael Johnson scored a series-best fourth place class finish following a late-race charge by the South African. Johnson, who is paralyzed from the waist-down, enjoyed one of his strongest weekends to date at the wheel of the specially adapted ST class entry.

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