Porsche Penske Leads Road America at Halfway

Julien Andlauer held the lead at the midpoint of the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix after a lengthy caution in the third hour.

Andlauer in the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 was just ahead of teammate Kevin Estre in the No. 6 Porsche at the three-hour, points-paying mark for the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.

The race was neutralized as the timer ticked over to Hour 4 after a crash for Connor De Phillippi in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

A hefty crash for Fran Rueda in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo earlier in the race ushered in an extended safety car period which shuffled up much of the race order.

The No. 7 Porsche, which had worked its way into the top five after an early pit stop, managed to snatch the lead from Dries Vanthoor and the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 in the pits after the whole GTP field pitted under caution.

Kevin Estre in the No. 6 Porsche followed his teammate up the order.

Colin Braun was fourth in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06, ahead of Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

The Spider-Man-liveried No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 had maintained a healthy lead after scampering away from the rest of the field in the second hour, but the safety car eliminated its advantage.

The sister No. 25 BMW sat firmly in second after deciding to stay out under the first pit window and adopt an alternative fuel strategy. However, back-to-back penalties for pit lane speed violations dropped driver Philipp Eng to the back of the class at the restart.

Eng was one of many drivers to incur a penalty in the pitstop during the safety car period. Teams including the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac and the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie were also hit by speeding penalties.

In LMP2, The No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca 07 Gibson had been just off of the pace of the leading No. 43 Inter Europol entry, but a lucky break under the caution saw it inherit the lead.

Inter Europol’s Bijoy Garg had fended off Jonny Edgar in the No. 99 AO Racing machine throughout the opening hours. The battling duo were around 20 seconds ahead of the rest of the LMP2 field but were caught out by the full-course yellow.

Both teams were forced into the pits to make an emergency pit stop for fuel. This meant that they would have to pit again immediately after the pit lane reopened.

To add insult to injury, the No. 43 car was slapped with a raft of penalties for improper pit conduct and taking more than the allocated amount of fuel in the emergency pitstop.

By contrast, Toby Sowery and the APR crew were in the pits when the yellow flag flew so did not need to pit again and were essentially handed the lead in class when the race resumed.

The No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen entry was just behind Sowery in second after overcoming a drive-through penalty earlier in the race.

AO Racing still sat third in LMP2 despite its pitstop misfortune.

The team’s GTD Pro entry was also at the sharp end of the field with Nick Tandy and the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo holding onto the class lead.

Nicky Catsburg was second in class with the No. 4 Pratt Miller Chevrolet Corvette ZO6 GT3.R, with the Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo in third.

The Heart of Racing’s GTD-entered No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo sat first in class after a dominant run in the opening half of the race.