Credit: LAT Images / Copyright: © 2023 Geoffrey M. Miller
Felipe Nasr brought the dominant #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports GTP to victory as the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Tom Blomqvist chased him down in the closing stages at the SportsCar Weekend at Road America.
It was a dry and warm afternoon at Road America, and several dramas took place before the 2-hour and 40-minute race began and during the opening stages.
After Pipo Derani crashed his #31 Wehlen Engineering Cadillac V Series.R during Warm-Up, he started in eighth place which nulled the Brazilian’s efforts in qualifying to claim pole.
At the start, Matt Campbell started the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports and fended his lead well from Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac and the #60 Acura ARX-06 of Colin Braun.
After dropping off the circuit and to the back of the overall field, the #25 BMW M Team RLL driven by Connor De Phillippi climbed up the order past both GTD classes, but crashed the left side of his BMW M Hybrid V8 into the left concrete barrier at The Kink.
The damage was not initially substantial, but it ended their race as it was stopped and did not get going again until much later on for a test outing.
After a challenging qualifying for Ben Keating’s #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07-Gibson in fourth, he charged his way into the LMP2 class lead.
In GTD, Korthoff Motorsports made his way into third as Brendon Iribe held onto second, and Madison Snow in first.
Contact occurred when the #30 J III Racing hit and spun the #85 JDC Miller Motorsports Ligier JS P320 into Turn 8.
Ari Balogh was awarded a drive-through penalty for his contact with Gerry Kraut’s #30 Ligier.
When the circuit went back to green and still two hours and 18 minutes remaining, the fight for sixth in GTP ended with Phillip Eng in the #24 making contact with Mike Rockenfeller’s #5 Porsche 963 Hybrid after Eng closed the door into Turn 8.
#5: JDC Miller MotorSports, Porsche 963, GTP: Tijmen van der Helm, Mike Rockenfeller – Credit: LAT Images / Copyright: © 2023 Jake Galstad
After 40 minutes of racing, the GTPs caught up with GTD traffic for the first time as the faster class negotiated the lapped traffic.
Just after this, Nick Tandy of the #6 Porsche 963 picked up a rear-right puncture and was forced to pit. This initial setback meant they were amongst the LMP2 field.
During the pit stop cycle, George Kurtz of the #4 Crowdstrike Racing by APR grasped the LMP2 lead from Ben Keating after staying out a lap further, and asserted strong pace for in- and out-lap.
However, it later emerged the #4 had not met the minimum refuel time during the pitstop, thus negating their lead as they served a drive-through.
Meanwhile, Matt Campbell held a strong lead at 10 seconds over the second-placed Boardais.
With 1 hour and 39 minutes remaining, the first GTP pitstop was completed by the #5 Porsche with Rockenfeller handing the car to Timo van der Helm.
A battle ensued between van der Helm as he got his tyres up to temperature as he chased Ricky Taylor had a small lock-up into Turn 8.
He then went on to the grass briefly as he got to terms with his #60 Acura’s cold tyres after their pit stop.
Felipe Nasr in the #7 retained the lead in GTP, as Ben Keating held an LMP2 lead of almost 30 seconds over the #4.
The #33 Sean Creech Motorsport held the lead in LMP3 as Joao Barbosa held 10 seconds over the #29 Jr III Racing.
Dani Juncadella had grasped GTD Pro lead in his #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo narrowly ahead of the #3 Corvette Racing who had Antonio Garcia in the seat.
The #79 was within a second of the #3, thus the pair hunted down the win. The #23 Heart of Racing winner from Lime Rock Park was behind in third.
#23: Heart of Racing Team, Aston Martin Vantage GT3, GTD PRO: Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas – Credit: LAT Images / Copyright: © 2023 Geoffrey M. Miller
After a brief half-spin into Canada Corner, Turn 12, Alexander Sims continued to recover with strong pace from his Cadillac, and had to defend his sixth place from Tandy behind.
Although due to Tandy’s earlier puncture, he was off-strategy to the rest of the GTPs.
With one hour to go, the #3 held a lead over the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3.R.
Colin Noble had a head-on crash into the barrier at Turn 13 resulting in front-end damage and brought his #29 Ligier back into the pits.
More trouble for BMW as the #24 of Philipp Eng had an initial loss of power just after exiting the pits, and made it back around.
He made it back around at medium race speed, albeit marking a SportsCar Weekend to forget for BMW RLL with both GTPs out of the running.
It was a vital blow for Corvette’s chances at a GTD Pro win after they were awarded a drive-through for a pit refuelling infringement, thus Garcia handed the lead over to the #23 Aston Martin of Ross Gunn.
In the final stages, it was an intense chase from the #60 Acura of Tom Blomqvist on the dominant #7 Porsche with Nasr behind the wheel, although it was not enough as the #7 made to victory.
The top-three in GTP was rounded off by the #10 Konica Minolta Acura, and debutantes #59 Proton Competition finished eighth overall.
In LMP2, the #52 secured the win in the hands of Keating and Loup Chatin ahead of the #35 TDS Racing of Giedo van der Garde and John Falb, as the sister #11 TDS Oreca 07 finished third.
In the LMP3 category, the #74 Riley Ligier JS P320 took victory just 11 seconds ahead of the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier, with the #13 AWA just 14 seconds behind them for third.
GTD Pro was won by the #23 Heart of Racing, who’s Alexa Riberas and Ross Gunn secured a consecutive win from Lime Rock Park. Their Aston Martin was far ahead of second and third-place finishers, the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 and the #3 Corvette Racing crews.
Finally, the GTD class was won by the #Paul Miller Racing duo of Brian Sellers and Madison Snow. It was an impressive showing by the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 crew of Brendon Iribe and Frederick Schandorff who finished second.
Rounding off the podium positions was the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG.
Keyword: Nasr fends off Blomqvist for victory at IMSA Road America