Hand, Mueller Score GTLM Win at Road America

Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller picked up their second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans class win of the season with a strong drive in the No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America.

Hand took the lead from Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR on the restart following the race’s third caution with 30 minutes to go and withstood the Belgian the rest of the way to take the win by 0.621 seconds.

It was the third class podium of the season for Hand and Mueller and first since the Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

The duo entered the Road America weekend third in the points standings in part on the strength of their season-opening class win at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Vanthoor held on for a second consecutive runner-up finish for the No. 912 Porsche after finishing behind the sister No. 911 car at Lime Rock Park, while the No. 67 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook completed the class podium in third.

Last-lap contact between the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM of Alexander Sims and Tommy Milner’s No. 4 Corvette C7.R gave teammate Antonio Garcia a fourth place result, consolidating he and Jan Magnussen’s lead in the championship.

The No. 3 Corvette elected to go off strategy early by making an early stop in the opening hour, but was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for contact with the No. 911 Porsche on the race’s second restart with 38 minutes to go.

Milner crossed the line in fifth, behind Sims, who took his BMW across the line without a front wheel.

After starting from the rear of the grid due to an overnight engine change, John Edwards and Martin Tomczyk worked their way up to as high as second in class before Edwards stopped on track at pit-in to bring out another yellow. 

GT Daytona went the way of the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Jens Klingmann and Jesse Krohn, who snagged the lead on the opening lap from class pole-sitter Jeroen Mul in the No. 16 Change Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Krohn and Klingmann dominated the bulk of the race from there en route to the team’s first class win since Circuit of The Americas last year.

Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Lindsey overcame an unscheduled pit stop to take second in class in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Lawson Aschenbach and Andrew Davis third in the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS.

RESULTS: Continental Tire Road Race Showcase