Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron celebrate after winning Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Detroit’s Belle Isle Park for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series. Photo: IMSA Wire Service
Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron, co-drivers of the No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi, accomplished something in Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic that never has been done since IMSA began racing on Detroit’s Belle Isle Park.
Before Saturday, General Motors race cars won their class in all nine IMSA races held on Belle Isle from 2007 through 2018, including overall victories from 2012 through last year. But on this day, Montoya and Cameron came away with their second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory in a tight, 100-minute battle on the 2.3-mile street circuit.
After claiming the Motul Pole Award in qualifying Friday, Montoya got a fantastic jump at the start to take the lead, which he held for the first 19 laps of what would be a 58-lap race before pitting under the second of the race’s five full-course caution periods to turn the car over to Cameron. Montoya’s stop turned the lead over to Tristan Nunez, who was on a different pit-stop strategy in the No. 77 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P DPi.
Following the ensuing restart, however, Cameron picked up where Montoya left off, taking the lead away from Nunez on the first green-flag lap. Cameron surrendered the lead for one more lap when he came in for his final pit stop but retook the lead on lap 35.
Cameron led the field to the green flag for the final restart with just under 22 minutes remaining, but he quickly had last year’s Detroit winner, Felipe Nasr in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, right on his tail. Nasr filled Cameron’s mirrors all the way to the checkered flag, but never could get quite close enough as Cameron crossed the stripe 0.820 seconds ahead of the No. 31 to take the victory.
“Certainly, we’ll take that,” said Cameron, who won at Detroit in 2015 in the Whelen Engineering Corvette DP with then-co-driver Eric Curran. “It’s a little bit unexpected for us. Usually the street course is pretty good for the Cadillac, so we knew they were going to competitive here, but obviously we were looking for more of a podium than wins here and get some good points.
“I’m super excited to win here and get two in a row. Lots of people who get two wins in a row get championships, so hopefully that’s a good omen for the balance of the season.”
Cameron and Montoya also won last month’s Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. It was Acura’s second overall victory in Detroit, the first coming in the 2008 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) race on Belle Isle when James Rossiter and Franck Montagny won for Andretti-Green Racing.
It was Montoya’s fifth career IMSA win (two WeatherTech Championship and three GRAND-AM) and was Cameron’s 14th (12 WeatherTech Championship, one GRAND-AM, one ALMS).
“To win in Detroit finally, it’s good,” said Montoya. “It’s nice to be here. It’s nice to be here with Acura – it’s an amazing program – and Team Penske. (Team owner) Roger (Penske)’s home race. I felt yesterday I did a really good job in qualifying. To convert that into a win, Dane did an amazing job out there today too. We did everything we needed to do again. We just need to keep doing that every week.”
The victory moved Cameron and Montoya into second in the WeatherTech Championship DPi standings, but Nasr and co-driver Pipo Derani slightly extended their lead to five, 152-147, with the runner-up result. But the No. 31 duo came up just short of extending General Motors’ hometown win streak.
The run included back-to-back American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GT1 class wins by Corvette Racing in 2007 and 2008. Corvette Daytona Prototypes won overall in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series in 2012 and 2013, as well as IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races from 2014 through 2016. Cadillac DPi race cars won in both 2017 and 2018.
Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor picked up their third podium result in five races this season and made it two Acura Team Penske DPis in the top three with a third-place showing. They are third in the DPi championship standings at the halfway point of the 10-race season for the DPi class, trailing Montoya and Cameron by just one point.
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Hawksworth, Heistand Score Second Consecutive GTD Win
Don’t look now, but AIM Vasser Sullivan is getting comfortable atop the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup standings.
In Saturday’s 100-minute Chevrolet Sports Car Classic, the No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth and Richard Heistand crossed the finish line first in the GT Daytona (GTD) class to score their second consecutive victory in the new-for-2019 championship.
The WeatherTech Sprint Cup – contested solely by GTD teams – encompasses the class’ seven races that are two hours and 40 minutes or less in length.
After Heistand qualified the car in fourth and held steady in the top five, Hawksworth got behind the wheel and closed in on Patrick Long in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. Long, who inherited the lead from substitute teammate and polesitter Zacharie Robichon, gave way as Hawksworth ducked inside the Porsche to steal the lead with 51 minutes remaining.
Although Long was able to keep Hawksworth in his sights, the No. 14 Lexus did not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the race.
“We got a bit of a streak going, don’t we?” said Hawksworth. “It was a good race. We did good job qualifying yesterday and were able to have a good stint and put it in the top five. We had a really good pit stop. To be honest, we knew it would come down to that stop because the GTD class was a lot shorter than normal, in terms that we normally have 40 seconds to fuel between driver change, fuel, and tire change. We knew the driver change would be important, and it went well. We ended up coming out in third and I minded my way.”
While it was a victory celebration for AIM Vasser Sullivan’s No. 14 Lexus, the team’s second entry of Frankie Montecalvo and Townsend Bell in the No. 12 earned a podium finish of its own to stand next to their teammates with a third-place finish. Sandwiched between the two Lexus RC Fs were Long and Robichon for a runner-up finish.
“Fundamentally, racing is about getting the basics right,” said Hawksworth. “This team is what we’re really focusing on. The race pace needs to be good. Pit stops need to be good. We’ve got a really good silver driver in Richard and a great package in pit lane. And when you put that all together, it’s a testament to what the team is doing and that’s how you end up winning races.”
With wins in the first two races of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup – the first being at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course four weeks ago – Hawksworth and Heistand now have opened up a 10-point lead, 70-60, in the standings over Long.
It’s a tie for third place with Montecalvo and Bell, along with the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 drivers Bryan Sellers and Ryan Hardwick, with 56 points. Hardwick and Sellers finished fifth on Saturday behind another Lamborghini, the No. 44 for Magnus Racing and drivers Andy Lally and John Potter.
Next up for the WeatherTech Championship is the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Sunday, June 30.
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