CTMP Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

***Acura scored its second 1-2 finish of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, following the manufacturer’s triumph at the Rolex 24 at Daytona with Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport having finished in the same order.

***Colin Braun became a six-time winner at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park after previous victories in 2013 (ALMS PC), 2015-16 (PC), 2018 (Prototype, overall) and 2022 (LMP3), all with CORE autosport. His win with Meyer Shank Racing now means the Texan has claimed victories in four different classes at the circuit.

***Filipe Albuquerque battled an engine-related issue in his No. 10 WTR Andretti Acura ARX-06 in the closing laps, which the Portuguese driver initially feared would lead to another retirement for the team. “Luckily enough we were able to cancel the issue we were having, a sensor failure, that enabled us to keep pushing,” he explained.

***Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly delivered the 100th podium finish for BMW M Team RLL in the team’s history with the German manufacturer, which dates back to 2009. The No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 pairing are now only ten points out of the lead of the GTP championship.

***Teammates Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng had a race to forget, with both drivers receiving penalties for on-track conduct, the first by the Austrian for nearly hitting a safety vehicle at Moss Corner while under yellow, followed by Farfus’ incident responsibility after contact with Renger van der Zande in the closing minutes that sent the Dutchman off into the barriers in dramatic fashion.

***Van der Zande’s No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R sustained extensive damage from the crash in Turn 8 that resulted in the race ending under caution. “You never want to retire late in the race, but thankfully I’m OK and we can look to what lies ahead,” van der Zande said. “Our team has made it clear that we will always dust ourselves off and push forward, no matter the circumstances.”

***Action Express Racing’s Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims, who set the race’s fastest lap, saw their points advantage nearly entirely erased with a seventh place result. “We had a good car throughout the race and were very competitive but got caught by yellow flags today,” said Sims. “It was just one of those days that you have to fight through to stay on course for the championship.”

***JDC-Miller Motorsports recorded its second fourth place result of the season, with Dutch teenager Tijmen van der Helm impressively holding off the pair of Porsche Penske Motorsport entries to end up as the highest-placed Porsche 963. It came courtesy of the yellow-colored Porsche having been on the same strategy as the WTR Andretti Acura.

***Mike Rockenfeller said he felt the Minnesota-based team continued to make “small steps” and labeled themselves in the “midfield” in terms of performance. “Of course, we were also a bit lucky,” he said. “We have to be satisfied with that. The team did a great job and Tijmen put up a strong defense at the end. We were the best Porsche. Not bad!”

***The No. 6 Penske Porsche incurred a warning in the opening hour for failure to adhere to the controlled powertrain parameters.

***Felipe Fraga, in his CTMP debut, and Gar Robinson claimed their third consecutive LMP3 class victory in the No. 74 Riley Ligier JS P320 Nissan, following a controversial late-race move from the Brazilian on the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier of Garett Grist for the eventual win.

***Fraga said: “I was expecting some GT traffic, so in the GT traffic, I basically got him two or three seconds in two laps and then I just had a gap. He opened to do the last corner and I don’t think he expected me to try in the last corner and I did it. I tried to put him inside and he just turned in on me. We had big contact again like in Watkins. I think that’s what happens when you fight really hard for the win in IMSA.”

***Grist, meanwhile, had a different view on the incident, which resulted in no further action from IMSA race control. “It’s pretty clear what happened so there’s not much to say,” Grist said. “I raced Watkins Glen clean, here I raced clean. I guess we know how we can race though. There’s three rounds left.”

***Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat’s nine-race podium streak came to an end after the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 was forced to the garage to replace its radiator in the final hour after having an off-course excursion while leading in GTD Pro. The duo were classified fourth in class, 22 laps behind the winning Corvette Racing duo.

***Hawksworth and Barnicoat have seen their championship lead reduced to 96 points ahead of WeatherTech Racing’s Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella, with Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor third, a further 13 points behind.

***The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo rebounded to finish sixth in GTD after starting from the pit lane and serving a drive-through penalty on the opening lap due to not completing the reconnoissance lap because of a pre-race engine change. An incident between Robby Foley and Aaron Telitz led to a further setback in the race.

***Montecalvo and Telitz sit third in the GTD standings, 219 points behind leaders Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, who picked up their third class win in the last five races in their No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. The Heart of Racing’s Roman De Angelis and Marco Sorensen are second in the standings, 212 points from the leaders.

***A broken left-front brake caliber in the final hour dashed hopes of a likely top-five class finish for the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 of Katherine Legge and Sheena Monk, in what relegated the all-female lineup to an 11th place result. Legge led the race after electing to stay out during the second yellow.

***She said: “At least we were able to return to the race once the problem was fixed and salvage a finish and some championship points. All our thoughts right now are with [team owner] Andris Laivins as he deals with a serious illness in his family.”

***Another GTD contender to have hit late-race trouble was the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Philip Ellis, who had a left-rear puncture with 21 minutes to go while running second in class.

***The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW incurred a drive-through penalty for failure to adhere to the minimum refueling time, the same infraction that cost the team victory in Saturday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race.

***Unlike Watkins Glen where there were 11 mechanical black flags for teams not adhering to Michelin’s tire requirements, not a single competitor was brought into the pits during the two-hour 40-minute contest to serve the same infraction.

***The Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park is next up for the GT cars on July 21-22, while all five classes will reconvene at Road America in early August for the eighth round of the season.

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