Road America Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Jordan Lenssen/Porsche

***The No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr has become the sixth different winner in seven IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP races so far, with the duo breaking through to claim a dominant win Sunday at Road America. It marked Porsche Penske Motorsport’s second victory of the season after Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jamninet’s triumph on the streets of Long Beach in April.

***Porsche Penske managing director Jonathan Diuguid said: “We didn’t have the pace on Friday, but we saw today that the team worked together to perform well in the race. Both cars had great pace. Unfortunately, our No. 6 entry lost positions due to a puncture early in the race, but at least it managed to get back into the same lap as the leader. Matt and Felipe did a perfect job in the No. 7 car – and that effort earned us our victory.”

***The top-seven teams in the drivers’ championship are now separated by less than 140 points heading into the final two GTP races of the season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for Motul Petit Le Mans. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque have taken over the points lead.

***With another double podium finish, Acura has closed the gap to Cadillac in the GTP manufacturers’ championship to 35 points, with Porsche moving into third, a further 12 points back. BMW, meanwhile, dropped to fourth after a double retirement for its Team RLL-run BMW M Hybrid V8s.

***The No. 25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi spun into the gravel trap on the pace lap, followed by a left-side impact with wall at the Kink in the early stages after having to start the race behind the entire GTD field. The car returned to action nearly two hours later only to stop in a run-off area with Nick Yelloly at the wheel.

***De Phillippi said his spin into the gravel ultimately affected the balance of the car, which he didn’t notice at first. “It was only when I had overtaken all the GTD vehicles and went through ‘The Kink’ at full speed for the first time that I suddenly lost the rear of the car and hit the wall,” he explained.

***Philipp Eng, meanwhile, parked the No. 24 BMW with an electrical issue in the second hour after briefly stopping on track prior to a systems reset.

***Porsche’s GTP customer teams both got to the finish, and on the lead lap, with the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports entry of Mike Rockenfeller and Tijmen van der Helm recording another top-five, with the WeatherTech Championship-debuting No. 59 Proton Competition Porsche of Harry Tincknell and Gianmaria Bruni finishing eighth.

***PR1/Mathisen Motorsports claimed its first victory of the LMP2 season that has propelled Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin to the lead of the standings. Keating also leads the Jim Trueman Award standings now, 20 points over George Kurtz, which will award an auto-invite to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***Kurtz and CrowdStrike Racing by APR co-driver Ben Hanley were forced to settle for a seventh place class finish in LMP2 after a late-race puncture. The car also was forced to serve a drive-through penalty earlier in the race for failure to adhere to the minimum refueling time, which had dropped it from the class lead to third at the time.

***The No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Mikkel Jensen lost the class lead with 1 hour to go, also due to a puncture.

***Gar Robinson notched his fourth consecutive LMP3 class win, dating back to the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Sunday’s triumph came alongside Riley’s Michelin Endurance Cup driver Josh Burdon, who was filling in for regular driver Felipe Fraga due to his Brazilian stock car commitments.

***Burdon got around the class pole-sitting No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Joao Barbosa to lead through GT traffic with 20 minutes to go after rebounding from two off-course excursions earlier in the running.

***Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat extended their championship lead in GTD Pro with a second place class finish, benefitting from a final hour drive-through penalty for the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R for not meeting the minimum refueling time, an infraction that the Pratt Miller-led team fought with series officials for some time before finally serving.

***Antonio Garcia had been leading the race in class at the time. “A very disappointing result and a shame about the penalty. We had strong pace and good strategy calls that put us in the lead late. It was a hard but fair fight with the Aston late. Instead of gaining points in the championship, now we have lost more.”

***Garcia and the eventual GTD Pro class-winning No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn enjoyed an intense battle for the lead on multiple occasions. It marked Gunn and co-driver Alex Riberas’ second consecutive win after taking overall honors at Lime Rock Park last month.

***Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow not only extended their season-long championship lead but retook the WeatherTech Sprint Cup points lead with their fourth GTD class win of the season. The Paul Miller Racing duo are now 59 points ahead of The Heart of Racing’s Roman De Angelis and Marco Sorensen heading into next month’s Sprint Cup title-decider at The Brickyard.

****Sellers explained that it was his decision to put Snow back into the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 for the closing stint, following his controlling start to the race and and as a “show of faith” for the Silver-rated driver. “There’s always something that’s very special about being able to finish a race. I felt today, undoubtedly, that he could be the one to do that and should be the one to do that,” Sellers said.

***Inception Racing’s Brendan Iribe leads the Bob Akin Award standings in GTD. Iribe and Frederik Schandorff combined for a season-best second place class finish in their McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. The Dane took nearly 11 seconds out of Snow’s lead in the closing ten minutes of the race to finish 2.261 seconds behind the BMW.

***The No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Andretti Acura NSX GT3 Evo22, which was running second in class in the closing stages with Mario Farnbacher, was forced to pit with ten minutes to go for fuel after being on an alternate strategy. Farnbacher and Ashton Harrison came home eighth as a result.  “We made a great strategy call, unfortunately we didn’t catch a yellow at the end,” Harrison said.

***The Jon Mirachi-led team confirmed that it will contest next month’s Battle on the Bricks round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before closing out the season at Motul Petit Le Mans in October with its Endurance Cup lineup of Harrison, Kyle Marcelli and Danny Formal.

***An all-time attendance record was set for the WeatherTech Championship at Road America on Sunday. Although figures were not released by track officials, it’s understood to have been the largest crowd for an IMSA race at the four-mile track since 1979.

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