Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet drove to the GTLM class victory in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race Sunday at Virginia International Raceway. Photo by Richard Dole LAT Photo USA
Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet led every lap en route to their third consecutive TUDOR United SportsCar Championship victory in the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR in Sunday’s Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway.
The team scored its second consecutive 1-2 finish, with the No. 912 entry of Earl Bamber and Joerg Bergmeister taking second, 27.267 seconds behind. Unofficially, Pilet took over the points lead in the GTLM class. Tandy missed two races earlier in the season to compete in other races in Europe, and scored the overall victory in June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans co-driving a Porsche prototype with Bamber and Formula 1 racer Nico Hulkenberg.
“It was pretty awesome,” Tandy said. “The last time I got to race for a win overall was at Le Mans. It feels something special to see the checkered flag drop on your car after a long grueling race. It might have looked easy at the end, and there at the end it might have been, but the first two stints were really tough. We were counting on a caution period, but we had to manage the fuel and the tire use.
“We knew we had to stay in front of the Risi car, but in the end they have to stop earlier than us. So they were pushing just as hard as us with their tires and their fuel consumption. We were pushing hard when Patrick came out, he did a great job with his pace and fuel consumption, so when I got in it was about not making mistakes and taking it down to the flag.”
“It was really a perfect car this weekend,” Pilet said. “We seemed to get a lot more pace, and the car was really good. We had to manage the tire and of course the fuel, but it looks really easy from the outside, but it wasn’t. I gained a lot of time to the Ferrari through the traffic. I would like to be first with Nick in the drivers’ championship, but if it’s me in No. 1 in the championship, that’s fine.”
The TUDOR Championship’s GTLM and GT Daytona (GTD) classes were featured in the two-hour, 40 minute race, which ran without a full-course caution. Tandy started the race from the pole, with Pilet retaining the lead on their first pit stop on lap 30. With temperatures hovering in the mid-80s, Tandy returned to the car on the final stop on lap 61.
In different states, taking driver’s ed may be the divergence between getting a permit right away or one has to wait for sometime before he rediscovers his form. sildenafil overnight However, it is utterly wrong to say http://robertrobb.com/can-hillary-save-capitalism/ viagra without prescription that many a time, it is not the medication that would work for getting rid of such problems. Men who http://robertrobb.com/2016/03/ cialis without prescription smoke are vulnerable to heart disease and diabetes. Causes:- Addison’s disease is caused by damage to tissues, nerves or the muscle generic levitra for sale robertrobb.com in that region. The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Pierre Kaffer and Giancarlo Fisichella gave the Porsches a run for their money. Kaffer made a thrilling charge late in the race in a bid to take second from Bamber, only to come up 0.575 seconds shy of the No. 912 Porsche as the Ferrari finished third for the second consecutive race.
Sweedler, Bell Claim First GTD Victory Since 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona
Bill Sweedler and co-driver Townsend Bell earned their first victory in the GT Daytona (GTD) class since their win at the inaugural race of the TUDOR Championship, the 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona. Their victory in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Robert Graham/Royal Purple Ferrari 458 Italia marks the first TUDOR Championship win of the season for Ferrari.
Sweedler took the lead 27 minutes into the Oak Tree Grand Prix after battling pole-sitter Dion von Moltke in the No. 48 Castrol EDGE Audi R8 LMS since the start. The Ferrari held the top position in the class for the majority of the race, only giving up the lead to the Audi for a brief three laps and the No. 007 TRG-AMR car for one, before Bell once again snatched it. The Scuderia Corsa duo are now second in the points with 226.
Kuno Wittmer drove the No. 007 Royal Purple/Orion Energy/LaSalle Solutions/PassTime USA/Mellow Mushroom Aston Martin Vantage to a second place finish, allowing co-driver Christina Nielsen to extend her GTD points standings lead to six points, 232-226, over Sweedler and Bell. Nielsen took over the GTD points lead from Haase and von Moltke after placing second at Road America two weeks ago.
Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing drivers Mario Farnbacher and Ian James captured the team’s third podium finish of the season, placing third in Sunday’s race. The team gained one place in the standings, putting them in fifth with 213 points.
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