IMSA Roar: Action Express Cadillac wins qualifying race

DPi

With the wet conditions adding around a dozen seconds to the laptimes of the Prototype, Mazda’s Oliver Jarvis retained the lead at the drop of the green but immediately came under pressure from IMSA debutant Kevin Magnussen.

The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac wrested the lead at the end of Lap 1. The pair were pursued by Tristan Vautier in the JDC-Miller MotorSports Caddy, with Nasr not wasting time to move ahead of the Acuras to claim fourth place in the Whelen Engineering #31 AXR Caddy.

At the first restart, Vautier went around the outside of Jarvis at Turn 1 to make it a Cadillac 1-2, while Filipe Albuquerque moved the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 up ahead of Nasr to take fourth and start applying pressure to Jarvis who lost momentum and fell to seventh.

Then the yellow flew again for a GTD shunt, and all the DPi runners pitted for slicks except leader Magnussen. They would rejoin in the order Vautier, Cameron, Ricky Taylor (who had taken over from Albuquerque in the WTR car, Nasr, Jimmie Johnson and Harry Tincknell who was now in the Mazda. However, the RT24-P regained one spot when Cameron stopped his Meyer Shank Racing Acura for a second time.

Following the second restart, Nasr went around the outside of Taylor at the Horseshoe turn, to make it Cadillac 1-2-3, while later around the lap Tincknell would blast past Taylor for fourth. A lap later, Vautier took advantage of being on slicks and Magnussen being on wets on a drying track and the Frenchman moved to the front pursued by Nasr, who took the lead on Lap 20 with 50mins to go. Magnussen would then pit and hand off the Ganassi car to Renger van der Zande.

The Brazilian eased away from Vautier, the gap out to 3.7sec by Lap 28, and the JDC-Miller Cadillac started coming under pressure from Tincknell.

With 34min to go, the final pitstop sequence started, with Nasr handing off to Derani, and Mazda jumping Tincknell ahead of Loic Duval who had taken over the JDC-Miller Cadillac. With 20mins to go, Duval was filling the Mazda’s mirrors until Tincknell seemed to find another level.

Duval, in fact, had to cede third to the Meyer Shank Acura now piloted by Olivier Pla, but Duval moved back ahead as they closed on the Mazda once more as it fell 4.5sec behind leader Derani. However, this three-car battle for second rather dissipated over the final 10mins.

Taylor had a fairly lonely run to fifth at the end, keeping well ahead of Kamui Kobayashi who had taken over the #48 Cadillac from the impressive Johnson and set the fastest lap of the race.

LMP2

At the start, Steven Thomas pushed WIN Autosport’s Oreca to the front ahead of Roberto Lacorte in the Cetilar Racing Dallara and Dennis Andersen’s High Class Racing Oreca, but on the first restart, Thomas fell to third, Andersen fell to fourth, while Lacorte took the lead ahead of DragonSpeed’s #82 driven by Eric Lux.

Following the pitstops Lacorte’s teammate Antonio Fuoco took over and lead the class ahead of Mikkel Jensen in the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry, with Gabriel Aubry third in the Tower Motorsports by Starworks Oreca.

Then, with 11mins to go, Aubry had to relinquish third to Ferdinand Habsburg in the High Class car, and a minute later Jensen squeezed past Fuoco to put PR1 Mathiasen in front. Fuoco then pitted the Cetilar Dallara with a mystery problem, handing second to High Class and third to Tower Motorsports.

LMP3

Rasmus Lindh (Performance Tech Motorsports) and Moritz Kranz (Muehlner Motorsports America) led from the start, while Jon Bennett’s CORE autosport machine took advantage of spins for the other three class starters to move into third. The first restart saw Kranz demote Lindh.

Following the first round of stops Joao Barbosa had the Sean Creech Motorsports car in the lead ahead of Muehlner’ car, now steered by Laurents Hoerr. The latter would retake the class lead following Barbosa’s second stop, and that would promote Ryan Norman’s Forty7 Motorsports entry into second and George Kurtz in the CORE car into third.

GT Le Mans

Alexander Sims in his first Corvette outing took the lead from class polesitter Marco Wittmann of BMW soon after the start, while Alessandro Pier Guidi moved the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 into third ahead of the second BMW of Timo Glock, Jordan Taylor’s Corvette and Cooper MacNeil in the WeatherTech Racing Proton Porsche 911 RSR.

After taking over the Ferrari from Pier Guidi, James Calado spun it coming out of the pits and fell to the back of the class. By delaying his second stop, MacNeil’s partner Kevin Estre held the class lead through the middle of the race, stopping only with 17mins remaining.

That left Tandy and Nicky Catsburg running 1-2 in the Corvette C8.Rs up front through to the checkered flag, 12sec apart, but Estre was still third thanks to Augusto Farfus having to make an extra stop in the #24 BMW due to a tire vibration.

GT Daytona

Rolf Ineichen was the early leader in the Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan, ahead of Russell Ward’s Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, but it was bad news for another Lambo team, Madison Snow pitting the Paul Miller Racing machine and staying there.

Zacharie Robichon’s Pfaff Motorsports Porsche ran third ahead of Robby Foley in the Turner Motorsport BMW M6 and Ian James’ Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage. On the first restart, Team Hardpoint’s Porsche driven by Christina Nielsen fell off the track and slid across the wet grass into a tire wall, causing a second yellow.

Bill Auberlen carried on Foley’s good work in the Turner BMW to take the lead as the track continued to dry but remained damp off line, and he was leading in the closing stages, albeit under pressure from Laurens Vanthoor who’d taken over the Pfaff Porsche from Robichon.

The BMW eventually finished 4.4sec clear, while Mirko Bortolotti brought the Grasser Lambo into a podium-finishing position ahead of the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F, which had been shared by Oliver Gavin and Aaron Telitz.

Race results:

Cla	Class	Num	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Gap
1	DPi	31	Felipe Nasr Mike Conway Pipo Derani Chase Elliott	Cadillac DPi	51
2	DPi	55	Oliver Jarvis Harry Tincknell Jonathan Bomarito	Mazda DPi	51	3.664
3	DPi	5	Tristan Vautier Loic Duval Sébastien Bourdais	Cadillac DPi	51	4.627
4	DPi	60	Dane Cameron Olivier Pla Juan Pablo Montoya A.J. Allmendinger	Acura DPi	51	6.995
5	DPi	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Alexander Rossi Helio Castroneves	Acura DPi	51	8.997
6	DPi	48	Jimmie Johnson Kamui Kobayashi Simon Pagenaud Mike Rockenfeller	Cadillac DPi	51	19.985
7	DPi	01	Renger van der Zande Kevin Magnussen Scott Dixon Marcus Ericsson	Cadillac DPi	51	1'14.834
8	LMP2	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker Nicolas Lapierre	ORECA LMP2 07	51	1'33.798
9	LMP2	20	Dennis Andersen Ferdinand Habsburg Anders Fjordbach Robert Kubica	ORECA LMP2 07	50	1 Lap
10	LMP2	8	John Farano Gabriel Aubry Timothé Buret Matthieu Vaxiviere	ORECA LMP2 07	50	1 Lap
11	LMP2	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert Charles Milesi	ORECA LMP2 07	50	1 Lap
12	LMP2	81	Rob Hodes Garett Grist Rinus van Kalmthout Ben Hanley	ORECA LMP2 07	50	1 Lap
13	LMP2	47	Roberto Lacorte Antonio Fuoco Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto	Dallara LMP2	50	1 Lap
14	LMP2	18	Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley Ryan Dalziel Paul-Loup Chatin	ORECA LMP2 07	49	2 Laps
15	LMP2	51	Cody Ware Salih Yoluc Austin Dillon Mathieu Jaminet	Ligier LMP2	49	2 Laps
16	GTLM	4	Nick Tandy Alexander Sims Tommy Milner	Corvette C8.R	49	2 Laps
17	GTLM	3	Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg Antonio Garcia	Corvette C8.R	49	2 Laps
18	GTLM	79	Cooper MacNeil Kevin Estre Richard Lietz Gianmaria Bruni	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	49	2 Laps
19	LMP2	82	Eric Lux Devlin DeFrancesco Fabian Schiller Christopher Mies	ORECA LMP2 07	48	3 Laps
20	LMP2	11	Thomas Steven Tristan Nunez Thomas Merrill Matthew Bell	ORECA LMP2 07	48	3 Laps
21	GTLM	62	James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi Jules Gounon Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE	48	3 Laps
22	GTD	96	Bill Auberlen Robby Foley Aidan Read Colton Herta	BMW M6 GT3	48	3 Laps
23	GTD	9	Zacharie Robichon Laurens Vanthoor Lars Kern Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 GT3 R	48	3 Laps
24	GTD	111	Rolf Ineichen Mirko Bortolotti Steijn Schothorst Marco Mapelli	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	48	3 Laps
25	GTLM	25	Philipp Eng Timo Glock Connor de Phillippi Bruno Spengler	BMW M8 GTE	48	3 Laps
26	GTD	14	Aaron Telitz Oliver Gavin Kyle Kirkwood Jack Hawksworth	Lexus RC F GT3	48	3 Laps
27	LMP3	6	Moritz Kranz Hoerr Laurents	Duqueine M30-D08	48	3 Laps
28	GTD	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Indy Dontje Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG GT3	48	3 Laps
29	GTD	19	Mikhail Goikhberg Franck Perera Albert Costa Tim Zimmermann	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	48	3 Laps
30	GTD	23	Ian James Roman De Angelis Darren Turner Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	47	4 Laps
31	LMP3	7	Mark Kvamme Ryan Norman Gabby Chaves Charles Finelli	Duqueine M30-D08	47	4 Laps
32	GTLM	24	Augusto Farfus Marco Wittmann John Edwards Jesse Krohn	BMW M8 GTE	47	4 Laps
33	LMP3	54	Jon Bennett George Kurtz Colin Braun Matt McMurry	Ligier JS P320	47	4 Laps
34	GTD	63	Ed Jones Bret Curtis Ryan Briscoe Marcos Gomes	Ferrari 488 GT3	47	4 Laps
35	GTD	16	Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long Jan Heylen Klaus Bachler	Porsche 911 GT3 R	47	4 Laps
36	GTD	12	Robert Megennis Zach Veach Townsend Bell Frankie Montecalvo	Lexus RC F GT3	46	5 Laps
37	GTD	75	Kenny Habul Raffaele Marciello Mikael Grenier Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG GT3	46	5 Laps
38	GTD	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly Mario Farnbacher	Acura NSX GT3	45	6 Laps
39	GTD	97	Maxwell Root Charles Eastwood Ben Keating Richard Westbrook	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	45	6 Laps
40	GTD	88	Rob Ferriol Earl Bamber Katherine Legge Christina Nielsen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	45	6 Laps
41	GTD	28	Daniel Morad Michael de Quesada Billy Johnson Maxi Buhk	Mercedes-AMG GT3	45	6 Laps
42	GTD	21	Mann Simon Nicklas Nielsen Daniel Serra Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GT3	44	7 Laps
43	LMP3	33	Lance Willsey Joao Barbosa Wayne Boyd Yann Clairay	Ligier JS P320	30	21 Laps
44	GTD	42	Alan Metni Andrew Davis J.R. Hildebrand Don Yount	Audi R8 LMS GT3	18	33 Laps
45	LMP3	38	Rasmus Lindh Cameron Cassels LLarena Mateo Ori Ayrton	Ligier JS P320	13	38 Laps
46	LMP3	91	Cox Jim Murry Dylan Austin McCusker Jeroen Bleekemolen	Ligier JS P320	8	43 Laps
47	GTD	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Corey Lewis Andrea Caldarelli	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	2	49 Laps
48	LMP3	74	Gar Robinson Spencer Pigot Scott Andrews Oliver Askew	Ligier JS P320	0
49	GTD	64	Ted Giovanis Owen Trinkler Hugh Plumb Matt Plumb	Porsche 911 GT3 R	0
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