Campbell Had “Incredible Luck” in Early Race Traffic

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Matt Campbell credited “incredible luck” with traffic management as being a key to victory in Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round at Road America.

Campbell and Porsche Penske Motorsport co-driver Felipe Nasr broke through for their first win in the new GTP era, in a commanding race that saw the No. 7 Porsche 963 lead all but one lap in the two-hour and 40-minute race.

While having qualified second, the Australian led the field to the green after the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R missed the recon lap due to an accident in warmup and was forced to start from the rear of the class.

“We got a little bit lucky there at the start of the race with the 31 having the incident in warmup, so taking pole position,” Campbell explained.

“I think for us this was really important to be qualifying at the front and then get lucky with starting on the right side.

“This track with the surface now, it’s incredibly hard to pass and also I think once you get close in high-speed, the aero wash is quite extreme.

“Just having the track position out front [was important].

“Opposite to the 60 car and us towards the end of the race, I had such incredible luck with traffic at the beginning.

“I feel like our pace was really, really good. I was looking after tires well and I was just quite comfortable out front, slowly chipping away.”

Campbell was able to stretch out into a 15-plus second lead during his stint before handing over to Nasr.

“I think we got really lucky with traffic,” he said. “That’s why the gap looked so big at times. Even I was surprised how easy it was to get through.

“For sure it made our race easier.

“It was a phenomenal day. To finally get a win, it feels like it’s a long time coming almost.

“I feel like we’ve had some really good speed at times during this year but mistakes or issues with the car or strategy or anything like that…

“For it to finally come together in such a perfect race today after a difficult start to the weekend was phenomenal.

“I’m really happy for everyone at Porsche Penske Motorsport and nice to finally get one on the board.”

Campbell’s qualifying run on Friday came as a surprise to many after the No. 7 Porsche was mired down on the time charts in both of Friday’s practice sessions at the newly resurfaced track, having placed eighth and ninth out of this weekend’s ten-car GTP field.

“We tested here a couple of months ago but since then the track evolution has been absolutely huge,” Campbell said.

“We came here in practice and we were really struggling in all areas, not only on the car balance but also some stuff on the software and so-forth.

“We made some big swings overnight; we really dug through and found some issues.

“Obviously going into qualifying, it was a big unknown what we were going to have as a package. But luckily it went out way and we were just able to fine-tune the car going into the race.

“Hats off to the team; they were able to really turn it around for us. We were digging through a lot Friday night trying to figure it out. Luckily it’s paid off.”

Nasr added: “I think there’s a combination of factors to put everything together, especially on the software side with all of the hybrid components.

“We struggled here on practice and went through all of the data.

“One area that we could clearly see we were struggling was braking. We mad that better the next day and Matt almost put int on pole.

“You can’t say how many details there are all around. Also having the tire in the window was another thing.

“The tire seems quite sensitive to the track temp as well. There was quite a shift from Day 1 to qualifying day and it seemed like it worked better on our car.

“Today in the race, the car felt great. We took a different approach there to a few other cars, just having the two left sides in the final stint, compared to the [60 car] doing a full set at the end.

“It’s all about managing traffic. I feel like track position is everything in this championship.”

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