The United Sportscar Championship raced at Road America and the 1-2 finish for Action Express Racing hid the exciting finish in LMPC…
Prototype
Dane Cameron took the lead near the halfway point and never looked back Sunday at Road America, joining Eric Curran in winning the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. It was the second TUDOR United SportsCar Championship victory of the season for the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette started by Eric Curran, leading a 1-2 finish for Action Express Racing.
Cameron beat teammate Joao Barbosa to the checkered flag by 14.359 seconds after leading all but three of the final 41 laps on the 4.048-mile circuit. Barbosa joined Christian Fittipaldi in the team’s No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP.
The finish also dramatically tightened the Prototype championship race with only two races remaining. Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante took fifth in the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP. Unofficially, their lead was cut to one point over Barbosa and Fittipaldi, 248-247, with Curran and Cameron another point behind.
It was a flawless performance for the No. 31 team, while various problems struck others in the Prototype field. The pole-winning No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP of Joey Hand lost more than a minute during its first pit stop during the lone full-course caution period of the two-hour, 40-minute race, after a clamp came loose on the turbocharger. Scott Pruett was unable to significantly cut the deficit during the final two-hours, three minutes of green flag running, despite running the fastest lap of the race. He finished third, 25.140 second behind at the checkered flag.
– See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/no-31-corvette-dp-leads-1-2-sweep-action-express-road-america#sthash.tEWnjv3h.dpuf
PC
Bruno Junqueira passed a spinning Connor Daly on the final lap, giving RSR Racing its second Prototype Challenge (PC) victory of the season in the No. 11 AutoMaxUSA ORECA FLM09 started by Chris Cumming.
Daly recovered to finish second, giving Performance Tech Motorsports its best finish of the season for the No. 38 Ric-Man Construction/GO-PUCK/Braille Batteries ORECA FLM09. James French – a native of nearby Sheboygan, Wis. – won his third TOTAL Pole Award and led twice for 14 laps. Daly took the lead on Junqueira’s final pit stop and led 18 laps through the final circuit.
Colin Braun and Jon Bennett finished third in the No. 54 CORE autosport Flex Box/Composite Resources entry, one position ahead of championship rivals Mike Guasch and Tom Kimber-Smith in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Cuttwood car. That added two points to the lead, with Bennett and Braun now ahead by five points, 253-248, with two races remaining.
– See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/junqueira-passes-daly-final-lap-wins-pc-cumming-road-america#sthash.g4g87XtZ.dpuf
GTLM
Porsche North America capped off an outstanding weekend at Road America Sunday with a 1-2 finish in the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. One day after Earl Bamber drove the team’s No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR to the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class pole, co-drivers Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet rallied from the back of the field to give the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR its second consecutive TUDOR United SportsCar Championship win of the season.
Pilet – who started last following a post-qualifying engine change – finished 5.241 seconds ahead of teammate Joerg Bergmeister, who made a daring last-lap pass on the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia of Pierre Kaffer for the second position. Bergmeister and Kaffer made slight contact in Turn 13, sending Kaffer sliding through the grass. He rebounded to finish third alongside co-driver Giancarlo Fisichella, while Bergmeister and co-driver Bamber matched their season-best finish of second.
The points-leading No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R of Jan Magnussen and Antonia Garcia finished fourth, extending its points lead to four points, 217-213, over the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE of Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner. Auberlen and Werner finished fifth.
– See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/porsche-caps-dominant-weekend-1-2-finish-road-america#sthash.r7HLEakP.dpuf
GTD
Jeroen Bleekemolen inherited the GT Daytona (GTD) lead when Kuno Wittmer drove the No. 007 Royal Purple/Orion Energy/LaSalle Solutions/PassTime USA Aston Martin Vantage V12 onto pit lane for fuel with 20 minutes remaining and never looked back, joining co-driver Ben Keating in giving the No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R its first win of the season.
Wittmer held on to finish second, propelling co-driver Christina Nielsen to the points lead by two points (199-197) with three races remaining. Nielsen took the top spot from No. 48 Castrol EDGE Audi R8 LMS co-drivers Christopher Haase and Dion von Moltke, who finished sixth.
Polesitter Patrick Lindsey led the first 24 laps and finished third in the No. 73 Park Place Porsche 911 GT America co-driven by Spencer Pumpelly. It was the duo’s first podium finish since winning earlier this season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
The race was slowed by full-course caution once for three laps for an incident involving Turner Motorsport’s No. 97 Alvarez & Marsal/IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 of Michael Marsal.
– See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/bleekemolen-keating-win-gtd-while-nielsen-takes-points-lead#sthash.QOp6VZ1o.dpuf
