Westbrook, Briscoe Score Second Straight GTLM Victory

Ford’s Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe scored their second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans victory of the season at in Sunday’s Road Race Showcase at Road America.

The No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT took the lead 40 minutes into the race when Briscoe overtook the pole-sitting No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin into Canada Corner.

It then continued to lead through the pit stop cycles but was behind the No. 3 Corvette, which had undertaken an alternate pit strategy, heading into the final three-quarters of an hour.

The Corvette team’s call required Antonio Garcia to make a later, and therefore shorter, final pit stop than the other cars in class, but a battery swap cost it track position for the run to the flag.

Garcia, who partnered Jan Magnussen, had a 49-second advantage over Westbrook when he came in with just over half an hour to go, but took 71 seconds at his final stop.

This enabled Westbrook to come through and control the final laps, with the Englishman finishing 10.657 seconds ahead of Joey Hand in the No. 66 Ford GT.

Hand made a late overtake on Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette with six minutes to go to secure a Ford 1-2 result.

A late fuel splash for Milner resulted in him dropping to sixth at the finish, while the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber scooped a podium.

Garcia and Magnussen came through in fourth, benefited by their sister car’s late pit call, beating the No. 25 BMW M8 GTE on the line by seven-tenths of a second.

BMW Team RLL’s sister No. 24 car dropped out of contention when a brake issue took hold with just over an hour to go.

John Edwards had been running in second but lost a handful of positions before pitting, but the BMW M8 GTE struggled to get away from its stall and limped around for one lap before coming in again.

Pfaff Porsche Wins GT Daytona

The Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R claimed its second consecutive GTD class victory with Zach Robichon and Matt Campbell beating the Paul Miller Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo in a race-long duel.

Corey Lewis inherited the lead in the Lamborghini when the upper left suspension bracket snapped on the pole-sitting Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Ben Keating.

Lewis was chased into the first round of pit stops and maintained the advantage through the middle portion of the race with his co-driver Bryan Sellers.

At the final round of stops, Campbell stayed out an extra lap which proved crucial in getting the Pfaff car out ahead of the Paul Miller Lamborghini with Sellers at the wheel.

The Porsche factory Young Professional then eked out a five and a half-second gap to Sellers in the concluding stint to clinch the win.

In third was the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley, which got past the No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth and Richard Heistand late on.

A late stop inn final four minutes for the No. 76 Compass Racing McLaren 720S GT3 dropped that car out of the top five, while Mario Farnacher and Trent Hindman assumed fifth in their points-leading Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo.

The McLaren, which Paul Holton shared with Matt Plumb, ended up down in 12th position.

RESULTS: Road Race Showcase