Lime Rock Post-Race Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia extended their GT Le Mans points lead with their fourth class win of the season and ninth in the last 16 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races for the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

***Lime Rock Park had been the only active WeatherTech Championship track Garcia had not won at prior to Saturday.

***Taylor and Garcia now hold a 191-point lead over teammates Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy in the No. 4 Corvette, which underwent a post-qualifying engine change on Friday. As a result it started third on the GTLM grid.

***Saturday’s race was the second consecutive WeatherTech Championship round red-flagged due to lightning in the area following the WeatherTech 240 at Watkins Glen. However, the Lime Rock race is the first in recent memory to have been called early due to lightning strikes.

***Only 1 hour and 30 minutes of the scheduled 2 hour and 40-minute contest was able to be completed in what had been an otherwise incident and caution-free race up until the arrival of weather.

***IMSA officials were unable to pause the clock due to a local track ordnance requiring all race action to be completed by 6 p.m.

***Both Bryan Sellers and Patrick Long did not drive in the race due to the red flag. Both still scored championship points due to IMSA lifting the drive time requirements on the grounds of force majeure.

“Incidents aside, I’ve never had a race where I wasn’t able to get in,” said Long. “It’s unfortunate we didn’t get to run the final stint. We worked hard this week, and we were certainly hopeful that the final stint was going to come our way.”

***Podium ceremonies were held inside the rather compact media center, where drivers were given ‘champagne to go’ packages by IMSA.

***Mathieu Jaminet believed he could have challenged for the win had the race not gone red. Jaminet’s 25-second deficit in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 was erased when the yellow was called for weather with 1 hour and 12 minute to go.

“It’s just bad luck that the race was stopped,” said the Frenchman, who set the race’s fastest lap. “I think we could have had a really good fight with the Corvettes. The Proton Competition team really has the car performing.”

***WeatherTech Racing was utilizing its spare Porsche race car this weekend for the first time, having opted to swap cars following the last round at Watkins Glen.

***The No. 44 Magnus with Archangel Acura NSX GT3 Evo was forced to serve an early drive-through penalty for starting the race on tires it had not qualified with. It dropped the John Potter-driven entry out of contention.

***BMW factory driver Connor De Phillippi has set up a fundraising page to support victims of recent severe flooding in the region surrounding the Nürburgring. Proceeds go to Kreissparkasse Ahrweiler for the Hochwasserhilfe Fund.

***The death toll across Germany and Belgium had risen to 170 by Saturday, according to Reuters. 

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