Road America Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Sam Cobb/BMW

***BMW M Team RLL claimed its 24th IMSA victory in Sunday’s Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America, marking the team’s third GTP triumph following its last 1-2 finish in the 2024 edition of the Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and win in the 2023 Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.

***It marked the team’s fourth win at Road America, site of the RLL-BMW partnership’s first-ever victory in the 2009 American Le Mans Series race in a BMW M3 GT2 with Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen, who also led home a 1-2 finish for the Bobby Rahal-led team.

***BMW factory driver Philipp Eng, who has been part of the team’s efforts since 2018, dating back to Team RLL’s BMW M8 GTE program, said: “I actually texted with Bobby [Rahal] yesterday after qualifying, saying ‘Let’s finish this on a high’ and here we are. I guess I should probably text with him more often.”

***It was recently confirmed that Team RLL will not operate BMW’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP program next year, ending a 17-year factory partnership. Belgian squad Team WRT, operators of BMW’s FIA World Endurance Championship programs, are expected to take over the program in 2026.

***Sunday’s 1-2 finish, led by home Eng and Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8, was part of a double win for BMW, which also took top class honors in GTD Pro with the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Madison Snow and Neil Verhagen.

***BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos said: “We are clearly moving in the right direction with our Hypercar [GTP] project, and it’s great to see this reflected in the results. Another heartfelt congratulations to Paul Miller Racing for their second win of the season with the BMW M4 GT3 EVO. This triumph not only underscores the strength of our GT3 car worldwide but also makes an already incredible race day even better.”

***A Team RLL mechanic sustained multiple injuries during the first round of pit stops when he was hit by the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, resulting in a drive-through penalty for the Acura, although a delayed stop for the two BMWs that ultimately put them in position to make an undercut strategy that was rewarded with the win.

***Vanthoor said: “Our driver helper, who always runs around the car to help us get extracted. He got hit by the Acura. It was quite a significant hit. He did a full front flip, but it’s not such a cool story. He for sure has a lot of pain on his leg and his eye and head doesn’t look so nice. But what I’ve heard is that he will be fine. I think that’s the most important [thing].”

***Eng and Vanthoor have closed to within 181 points of the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport duo of Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell, whose fifth place finish on Sunday saw them gain ground on teammates Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr after Tandy was assessed with a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty for incident responsibility with the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Ricky Taylor in the final hour.

***Vanthoor said: “I would love to say yes [we have a chance of the championship] but I think we have to be realistic. [Porsche Penske] has been the benchmark this season in terms of executing the race perfectly. I think today, it probably didn’t work out. They also got a penalty, so we can try and we can try to fight them but I think the gap is just a little bit too much.”

***Runner-up finisher Sheldon van der Linde spoke out post-race on the driving standards of the race, which he felt needs to be “cleaned up” by race director Beaux Barfield.

***Van der Linde said: “I think there’s not many penalties seen in the races and I think if there’s no consequences the drivers are more prone to doing these kind of moves and pushing people wide. For example in WEC if you do these kind of things, you get a penalty, which is probably a bit too much, but somewhere in the middle would be a good compromise.”

***The race featured five full course cautions totaling 1 hour and 12 minutes — nearly half of the race — behind the safety car.

***Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg added: “I’m never shy with a little argy bargy. But today especially the 65 Ford… he was over the limit with driving standards. The Porsche moved under braking everywhere and then the 9 Lambo, they just shove you off like you’re not there. I do feel like it needs to be addressed otherwise racing is not fair anymore.”

***Porsche Penske’s Jaminet and Campbell now hold a 75-point lead over Tandy and Nasr with two more GTP races remaining, after Tandy’s penalty dropped the No. 7 Porsche to a 22nd place overall finish and 11th place result in class.

***Heart of Racing Team scored the best-ever finish for the Aston Martin Valkyrie in worldwide top-class sports car competition, with Ross Gunn and Roman De Angels teaming up for a sixth place result.

***The GTP results from the race remain provisional pending a planned inspection of impounded parts according to a statement from IMSA.

***AO Racing team owner PJ Hyett, who claimed his second consecutive LMP2 win alongside Dane Cameron, characterized it as a “dream weekend” for the Gunnar Jeannette-led operation in LMP2.

***Hyett said: “From the race, the championship points standings, home race, getting pole, winning… It’s hard to beat what happened here this weekend. It’s my favorite race track in the country and to bring home a victory for the AO crew is just amazing.”

***When asked what he will do to celebrate, Hyett said will go train more on his bike as he doesn’t want to “rest on our laurels.” He added: “I want to go home, see my family, and I want to continue to train and be the best driver I can possibly be.”

***The No. 74 Riley Oreca 07 Gibson of Felipe Fraga, which was running third in class with less than ten minutes to go, was relegated to a 11th place finish after running out of fuel on the final lap according to team principal Bill Riley.

***With Daniel Goldberg’s opening lap crash, it has given AO’s Cameron and Hyett a sizable 107-point lead in the LMP2 championship standings over the Bronze-rated United Autosports driver heading into the final class races of the season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

***Sunday’s GTD Pro class win for Madison Snow was only his second WeatherTech Championship victory without longtime co-driver Bryan Sellers. The only other one came in 2015 when Snow had claimed GTD class honors at Motul Petit Le Mans in a Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America.

***Sellers has since moved onto becoming the DXDT Racing program manager. “I was definitely watching their car,” said Snow. “They almost had a win there it looked like, with a couple of minutes left. I was really hoping it was going to happen for him. But I’ll definitely be hanging out tonight to celebrate for sure.”

***The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurin Heinrich pitted from the GTD Pro class lead with 14 minutes to go, after gambling on the hopes of several late-race yellows, which failed to materialize.

***Heinrich said: “We knew that our pace alone wouldn’t get us very far, which naturally put us in a vulnerable position. So, we took a bit of a gamble with our strategy – sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on our side today, and we have to accept that. Still, I’m very proud of my team, because at least we gave it a go.”

***A third place class finish for the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 has seen Albert Costa close to within 30 points of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia in the GTD Pro title fight.

***Pfaff Motorsports completed work on Forte Racing’s loaned Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, although faced a last-minute hurdle when the car’s chassis plate was missing, prompting Lamborghini and Forte to produce further documentation to IMSA in order for the car to be permitted to race.

***It’s understood that Pfaff has given back the chassis to Forte following Sunday’s race, with the Canadian squad now seeking its own replacement car in time for the next round at Virginia International Raceway in three weeks’ time.

***Triarsi Competizione, which broke through for its first WeatherTech Championship victory, had never previously been on the podium in GTD competition, with a best result of fourth, coming four times, including at this year’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen for its No. 023 Ferrari.

***Koch, who made the switch to the Florida-based team following the issues at Korthoff Motorsports, sits fourth in the GTD drivers’ standings, 196 points behind leaders Philip Ellis and Russel Ward of Winward Racing, which finished tenth in class on Sunday after Ellis received a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Tom Gamble.

***Gamble’s full season co-driver, Casper Stevenson, sits third in the GTD title race, 117 points back, with the Vasser Sullivan duo of Parker Thompson and Jack Hawksworth a further five points ahead.

***Koch confirmed to Sportscar365 pre-race that he will be in the Triarsi Ferrari for the remainder of the GTD season.

***Forte Racing scored its first podium of the season, its No. 78 Lamborghini of Misha Goikhberg and Mario Farnbacher finishing second in class following a wild closing stint that saw the running order change multiple hands.

***Farnbacher said: “For the last pit stop, when the final full course caution came out, we managed to beat a few cars out of pit lane. I had a lot of balance problems behind those cars and was struggling for speed, so that contributed massively to where we ended up. We were lucky, but we also made the right strategy call. If we’d waited one lap longer, we would have fallen back in the pack. As a team, we really earned this result.”

***The shark fin of the No. 61 Team Tonis Oreca carried the names of several people and a fellow team that helped rebuild its LMP2 car following a testing accident in the build-up to the weekend. Among those that lent a helping hand was Chris Dyson Racing, which Matthew Brabham races for in Trans-Am.

***Next up for the WeatherTech Championship is the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR on Aug. 22-24, which is again the the lone GTD Pro and GTD-only race of the season. All four classes will be back in action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sept. 19-21 for the six-hour Battle on the Bricks Michelin Endurance Cup round.

Jonathan Grace contributed to this report

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