Mazda Team Joest Earns IMSA Win At Road America

On Sunday morning, all involved with Mazda Team Joest were thinking they’d have a third-place finish at best in the two-hour, 40-minute IMSA Road Race Showcase at Road America.

After all, Acura Team Penske – and specifically the No. 6 ARX 05-DPi shared by Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya – had been the class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Daytona Prototype international (DPi) field throughout the weekend. The No. 6 led all three pre-qualifying practice sessions and Cameron took the Motul Pole Award on Saturday afternoon to lead a front-row qualifying sweep.

The No. 7 Acura DPi shared by Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor led another 1-2 sweep in the Sunday morning warm-up. And when the green flag dropped on the race shortly past 1:30 p.m. local time Sunday, it was again the pair of white and dayglow orange Penske Acuras showing the way for most of the first half of the race.

But long, green-flag runs happen to be the Mazda RT-24P’s strong suit. And as luck would have it for the Mazda team, this race would run its entire distance without a full-course caution.

Harry Tincknell took the lead for the first time an hour and 14 minutes into the race in the No. 55 Mazda DPi he co-drives with Jonathan Bomarito. He did it in turn 1, sweeping past Montoya – who combined with Cameron to lead 20 laps of what would be a record 83-lap race (the previous distance record was 76 laps set in 2015) – in the No. 6 Acura.

Tincknell’s move turned out to be a turning point in the race. Once he got the lead, he only surrendered it two times for two laps each time as the DPi pit-stop sequence played out.

But Tincknell had his hands full in the final two laps of the race, with Cameron hot on his tail. Tincknell even ran wide exiting turn 5 on the final lap, briefly opening the door for Cameron to pull alongside. There was slight, side-to-side contact between the two cars heading into turn 6, but Tincknell kept the lead.

He then won a final drag race uphill to the finish line, taking the checkered flag just 0.227 seconds ahead of Cameron to secure Mazda Team Joest’s third consecutive WeatherTech Championship victory.

“Fantastic race,” Tincknell said. “I couldn’t believe it. On the cooling down lap, I had tears in my eyes. I couldn’t believe we had done it. All weekend we had been there, or thereabouts, but never the ultimate pace. I think we saw that a little bit in qualifying. Honestly going into the race today, I thought P3 would be a really a strong result, but it was very clear very early on the Penskes weren’t pulling away. Once we got into third and on the back of the Penskes, I thought maybe there was a chance.

“We came in right behind them when I jumped in the car. I saw the one car had an issue and we were up to second. We were both saving fuel. Obviously, we knew there was going to be quite a lot going for a splash at the end. We tried to minimize that as much as possible.”

It was the second win of the season for Tincknell and Bomarito in the No. 55, as they scored the first victory for the Mazda DPi program two races ago in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen along with endurance co-driver Olivier Pla. It was the team’s third straight win, as Tristan Nunez and Oliver Jarvis won the most recent DPi race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on July 7.

“It was just a flat-out race, no cautions,” Bomarito said. “It was managing traffic, managing rear tire wear, managing fuel numbers. And pushing like crazy the whole time trying to keep pace with Penske, build gaps in traffic.

“We had no AC in the car at one point. It was super-hot and very physical. Just a tough race. We really had to work for that one today. To come through again on top, we were talking about it on the way (to the post-race news conference). This one almost feels more special because (at) Watkins we had the pace, and it was kind of ours to lose. We just had to fight so hard. It’s almost a little more of a rewarding feeling in the end. What an amazing day.”

While they narrowly missed out on winning the battle at Road America, Cameron and Montoya may have taken another crucial step in winning the season-long WeatherTech Championship war. Their runner-up result was their sixth consecutive podium finish, helping extend their lead in the DPi championship standings to seven points, 239-232, over defending champion Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani with two races remaining on the season.

Nunez and Jarvis combined to deliver the third straight double podium for Mazda Team Joest with a third-place showing in the No. 77. The consecutive podiums have helped them vault from eighth in the DPi standings following Round 5 at Detroit’s Belle Isle in late May to third following Sunday’s race.

No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R co-drivers Nasr and Derani came home fourth, keeping them in contention for the DPi championship. Renger van der Zande and Jordan Taylor rounded out the top five with a fifth-place run in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R.

In the LMP2 class, the No. 52 PR1-Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA co-driven by Matt McMurry and Patrick Kelly scored the victory by 31.356 seconds over the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA shared by Cameron Cassels and Saturday’s LMP2 Motul Pole Award winner, James French.

It was the fourth consecutive victory for McMurry and the PR1-Mathaisen team, enabling him to extend his lead to five points, 200-195, over Cassels with two races left on the season. Kelly, meanwhile, was a winner in his first race in the series.

“It was just perfectly executed by everyone on the team,” McMurry said. “Pat made a huge comeback, coming from not running for nine years and jumping right back in and holding the gap to Cassels. He did exactly what he needed to do, holding the gap to him. I got back in and did what I needed to do by holding another gap back.”

“I’ll tell you, it’s hard to describe,” Kelly added. “I think the last race I was in was Laguna or maybe it was Sebring in GTC, remember when we had the (Porsche 911 GT3) Cup cars that ran in the class. I was in a really horrible crash with a school bus driver who was texting and swerved into oncoming traffic.

“I was just about a year ago able to be cleared to go back. I just said I have to keep a clear head, do what I need to do, do decent lap times, don’t do anything stupid and foolish and just hand it over to Matt in one piece. I’ll admit, it was hard to stay relaxed.”

Briscoe, Westbrook Extend Ford GT Win Streak at Road America to Three In IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM Class

There’s something about Road America that agrees with Ford Chip Ganassi Racing.

On Sunday, a Ganassi entry captured the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) win in the IMSA Road Race Showcase for the third straight year. Even better, the team’s two cars posted a 1-2 finish.

Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook drove the No. 67 Ford GT to victory to repeat their win from 2018. Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand, who won the GTLM event on the Wisconsin circuit in 2017, finished second Sunday in the No. 66 Ford GT.

“I think we’ve always run strong here and I think we were unlucky not to win the first year (2016), too,” said Briscoe, who earned his 19th career IMSA win. “It’s just a track that really suits the Ford GT. The long, fast corners and obviously now, it was more about the consistency than outright speed.

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In a race void of full-course cautions and opting to go with just two pit stops, Briscoe and Westbrook led 34 of the 77 laps in GTLM, including the final 17 on the iconic 4.048-mile permanent road course.

“I think the yellow-free race played to our strength of long runs,” Briscoe added. “It was a pretty straightforward strategy of two stops. We were definitely better at the end of the stints than a lot of the other cars out there. We knew our advantage was going to be on old tires and that showed today. I think that’s where we made the difference.”

Starting second in GTLM, Briscoe took the lead on the opening stint, passing class pole sitter Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R on lap 19, about 40 minutes into the two-hour, 40-minute race. Briscoe turned over the car on a pit stop six laps later to Westbrook, who double-stinted the run to the checkered flag.

Westbrook took the lead for good when Antonio Garcia made the last of three pit stops for the No. 3 Corvette C7.R on Lap 60. It ended up being an extended stop to replace batteries in the Corvette, dropping the No. 3 to a fourth-place finish. From there, Westbrook was never threatened and crossed the finish line 10.657 seconds ahead of teammate Hand.

“The key was being good on the tires,” said Westbrook, who collected IMSA win No. 16. “Really, those last 10 laps on the stint were the important 10 laps, not the first 10 laps. If you fell of the cliff (in tire performance) like the Corvettes definitely did 20 laps into the stint, then you were toast.”

In addition to repeating at Road America, Briscoe and Westbrook claimed their second straight win this season, following a victory two weeks ago at Lime Rock Park. Westbrook noted the difference in race strategy from one win to the next.

“Polar opposite of Lime Rock, when we won on a three-stopper,” Westbrook said. “Today, we made the two-stopper work. Just feels awesome. Ryan did a killer job today, put me in a really strong position.

“The 3 car definitely came into play at one point; we were a bit nervous about them. There was lots of chat on the radio about the 3 car. I’m going, ‘OK, here we go,’ but unfortunately they had a bad stop at the end, and in the end it was quite comfortable.”

Hand passed Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette to move the No. 66 into second place with seven minutes left in the race. Milner stopped for a splash of fuel shortly after, allowing the No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR with drivers Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor to claim the final spot on the GTLM podium.

With three races remaining in the WeatherTech Championship season, Bamber and Vanthoor lead the GTLM standings with 248 points. Teammates Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy, who finished seventh Sunday in the No. 911 Porsche, are second with 234 points. Briscoe and Westbrook are third with 230 points, one ahead of No. 3 Corvette drivers Garcia and Jan Magnussen.

Pfaff Goes Back-to-Back: Campbell, Robichon Secure Second Win for WeatherTech Championship GTD Porsche

From the shortest track to the longest, Pfaff Motorsports has proven it can get the job done.

The Canadian team – new to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship this year – came to Road America this weekend on the heels of its inaugural win in the GT Daytona (GTD) class one race ago.

That first win came at the 1.478-mile Lime Rock Park circuit, the smallest on the WeatherTech Championship calendar. To repeat at Road America, the longest track on the schedule at 4.048 miles, would take an entirely different approach.

The team nailed it.

Zacharie Robichon – who scored his first IMSA victory at Lime Rock with one-off co-driver Dennis Olsen – paired with fellow Porsche driver Matt Campbell this weekend in the No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3 R. Robichon qualified the car in fourth, but jumped early into second place in Sunday’s race, where he held steady for the entirety of his stint.

Campbell slid into the car midway through the race and began to hunt down the leading No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Bryan Sellers. Under constant pressure, Sellers succumbed to Campbell with 50 minutes left in the two-hour, 40-minute contest.

The No. 9 Porsche went on to win by an entire lap, as the overall-leading Daytona Prototype international (DPi) separated the Porsche from the Lamborghini, which put Sellers a lap down as he crossed the finish line.

“The middle stint was the most important part of the race,” said Campbell. “We knew we had really good speed. Zach did an awesome job bringing me the car in in P2. We had great pace at the start of the stint and we were able to catch the Lamborghini car. But then we knew it was going to be really fast, so we started to conserve fuel as much as possible and that’s what won our race today.”

“I think it’s a totally different atmosphere from behind the wheel,” Robichon said. “Last race was a little more chaotic with the short track, (where) everything happens a lot more quickly. Here at Road America – a beautiful track; I think every driver says it’s one of their favorites and there is a reason for that – it’s very fun to drive and also very challenging. It’s a completely different challenge from a driver’s point of view, but at the end of the day the execution is the important thing.”

As the only full-time driver in the No. 9 entry, Robichon holds a solo position in the GTD championship standings with 176 points, jumping from seventh to third following Sunday’s win. Robichon also assumed a five-point lead in the championship standings for the WeatherTech Sprint Cup, which consists of all races two hours, 40 minutes in duration or less solely for the GTD class.

“That’s one thing you keep in the back of your mind, but you also can’t focus too much about,” Robichon said of the championship standings. “You’ve got to keep working on that one lap at a time, as they say. Hopefully, we can keep the momentum for the last few races.”

The runner-up finish for Paul Miller Racing is the team’s best of the season thus far. Sellers co-drove this weekend with Corey Lewis, subbing the rest of the season for Ryan Hardwick, who suffered an injury last month at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley placed third Sunday in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 to extend their run of podium finishes to four straight races.

Five manufacturers made up the top-five finishing order on Sunday, with the No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Richard Heistand and Jack Hawksworth and GTD championship leaders Mario Farnbacher and Trent Hindman in the No. 86 Acura NSX GT3 for Meyer Shank Racing finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.