Van der Zande Leads Opening Hour as Acuras Hit Trouble

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Renger van der Zande leads the TireRack.com Grand Prix at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta following an incident-filled opening hour of the six-hour enduro.

The Dutchman in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R holds a 2.772-second lead over the No. 6 Team Penske Acura ARX-05 of Dane Cameron, who rebounded from a spin at the start of the race that resulted in a multi-car accident.

Both the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac and No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson went behind the wall after getting collected in the chaos that resulted in the race’s first full-course caution.

Felipe Nasr, in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac, was handed incident responsibility for contact with Cameron and served a drive-through penalty as a result. 

Cameron was forced to pit for new Michelin tires as the field restarted but has since worked his way back up through the pit stop cycle.

The pole-sitting No. 7 Acura DPi, however, received a double blow with two pit lane infringements for Helio Castroneves that has put the car one lap down.

Castroneves was found to have exceeded the pit speed and also run the red light at pit-out, resulting in separate drive-through and a 60-second stop-and-hold penalties.

The GT Le Mans class is being paced by the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Tommy Milner, who passed the class pole-sitting No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Nick Tandy following the second yellow.

Tandy’s teammate, Earl Bamber, meanwhile, has been assessed a drive-through penalty for running over pit equipment during his first stop.

The No. 11 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Steijn Schothorst is out front in GT Daytona although is yet to make a pit stop, in what’s currently a Lamborghini 1-2 with the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing entry in second.

LMP2 is being led by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson of Patrick Kelly, which is now in a class of its own after the early problems for the Era Oreca which has cost it more than 30 laps.

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