ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — The battle for the season-long Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class title in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship played a supporting role at Road America’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend.
The two incoming points leaders in the GTP standings, the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R and No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, encountered trouble before the green flag even flew for Sunday’s 2-hour, 40-minute race. That was of little concern to Felipe Nasr and Matt Campbell, who drove Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 Porsche 963 to a commanding victory in front of the largest IMSA crowd at Road America since the sanctioning body’s debut race at the venue in 1979.
Campbell built a 10-second lead during his opening stint in the winning car, and Nasr managed the gap during his double-stint to cross the line 4.635 seconds ahead of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 shared by Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist.
The path to the first win of the season for the No. 7 Porsche, the 11th in IMSA competition for Campbell and the ninth for Nasr, was made easier when the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 31 Cadillac was forced to start from the back of the GTP field due to Alexander Sims’ crash in the morning warm-up, less than two hours before the race. Sims and Pipo Derani finished sixth Sunday, dropping to second in the standings.
“Obviously, we got a little bit lucky with the No. 31 having an incident in the warm-up,” said Campbell, who claimed his third career victory at Road America – the first in a prototype. “I had such an incredible lack of traffic at the beginning and that’s why the gap got as big as it was at times.
“We’ve been fast on quite a few occasions, but luck has never been on our side. Today we just executed perfectly and it’s nice to get a win on the board after a tough year.”
“I’m just happy everything finally came together this weekend,” added Nasr. “We came close several times this year; the speed was always there, but we had a couple reliability issues, a couple mistakes, and some bad luck. It’s a big relief for the whole team. I know how much work the No. 7 crew has put in, and it was about time, I would say.”
Blomqvist threw all he had into catching the No. 7 Porsche in the closing stages, getting within 1.7 seconds of the leader with eight minutes remaining. But Nasr had a smoother run through traffic in the final laps.
“It was difficult to pass, but the car was working really well, and I was happy that the gap came down,” Blomqvist said. “I chipped away, but obviously they had that gap and were kind of controlling things. Traffic always ebbs and flows, and I guess he got through a little better at the end. But it’s one thing getting close and passing is a completely different matter.”
Acura claimed two positions on the podium, as Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor drove the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 to third place and took over the GTP championship lead by 14 points over Derani and Sims.
There have been six different winners in the seven GTP races so far in 2023. The No. 60 Acura is the only two-time winner.
“We did the fastest lap of the race, which shows we had speed in the car,” Albuquerque said. “We were managing the situation with the championship, but we are happy with P3, though obviously we wanted more.
“Leading the championship is nice; but it means nothing,” he added. “There are still a lot of points to come, and we have seen how quickly things can change in one weekend.”
Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly (No. 25 BMW) dropped to third in the standings after a dismal day at Road America that saw De Phillippi run off track prior to the start, crash on Lap 2 and then make a brief appearance before retiring from the race having run four laps.
The WeatherTech Championship resumes August 25-27 at VIRginia International Raceway with the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR featuring the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and GTD classes. Prototypes rejoin the fray for the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sept 15-17.
PR1 Mathiasen Dominates at Road America for First LMP2 Win of Season
Ben Keating is usually a Motul Pole Award contender anytime he qualifies a Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) car. But a rare off session Saturday left the 13-time polesitter fourth on the grid in the No. 52 ORECA LMP2 07 he shares with Paul-Loup Chatin, needing to charge forward in Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend race at Road America.
Mission accomplished.
Keating produced a storming first stint where he gained two spots by the second lap, took the lead by Lap 4 and placed the car in a strong position. With a lead of nearly half a minute before turning over the car to Chatin, Keating put the No. 52 car in excellent position to bring home a win.
Once Chatin took over past the halfway point of the 2-hour, 40-minute race, he was able to cruise with a 20-plus second lead the majority of the race. He took the checkered flag by 9.517 seconds to deliver his second and Keating’s 20th WeatherTech Championship victory.
Surprisingly, these wins are the first in IMSA for Chatin and Keating since the 2021 Rolex 24 At Daytona and 2022 Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, respectively.
“I had a really good start, didn’t make mistakes, got up to the front,” said Keating. “Our car was better in the race than it was in qualifying. I think I did a lap close to my quali lap with a lot of fuel and on used tires. A great day for the championship.”
Chatin paid tribute to Keating’s efforts: “Ben did, as always, an incredible job. He gave me the car in the best position possible with a great strategy. I just had to finish the job at the end.”
The win was also hugely important in the LMP2 class championship battle. Entering the weekend, George Kurtz and Ben Hanley (No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA) led Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen (No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA) by three points and Keating and Chatin by six. Unofficially, the No. 52 pair of Keating and Chatin now lead the points.
TDS Racing managed to bank a double podium with its ORECA cars, with the No. 35 ORECA (Giedo van der Garde, John Falb) and No. 11 ORECA (Thomas and Jensen) in second and third. It marked a great recovery from a pair of incidents on Friday.
Burdon Super-Subs his Way to Riley’s Fourth Straight LMP3 Win
No Felipe Fraga? No problem.
Riley Motorsports called on its Michelin Endurance Cup third driver, Josh Burdon, to substitute for Fraga this weekend at Road America as he had a scheduling conflict.
But just as Fraga did in the previous three points-scoring Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) races this season with Gar Robinson, Burdon put the team’s No. 74 Ligier JS P320 on top of the box.
Sean Creech Motorsport dominated the race, with 18-year-old Nico Pino controlling the pace from the green flag in the No. 33 Ligier JS P320. Upon turning the car over to Joao Barbosa, it looked as though Creech was due to convert its second straight pole at Road America to an elusive victory. Yet for the second straight year, it slipped through their grasp.
After taking over from Robinson, thanks to what he called an efficient car, Burdon quietly and stealthily closed the margin. He went from 10-plus seconds behind earlier in the race to within three tenths of a second with just 36 minutes remaining.
The next lap, it nearly all came unglued. Burdon ran wide exiting the Carousel, but corralled his Ligier to get back on the road while only losing just over two seconds. He later said that was one of several he’d had all race.
Just 15 minutes later, he’d cleared Barbosa and immediately pulled out a gap of 1.805 seconds. He took the checkered flag by 11.785 seconds.
The victory is his third in WeatherTech Championship competition, and Robinson’s 12th.
“I’m extremely happy to deliver my job for the team and points,” said Burdon. “We felt quite confident with the setup we elected to run. We didn’t have the outright fastest car, but it was confidence inspiring. After my few lawnmower excursions, I’m quite happy to bring home a trophy!”
While a hard-luck runner-up, second for Barbosa and Pino equaled their best finish of the season which they also achieved at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Matt Bell and Orey Fidani finished third in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine D08, marking their fourth straight top-five result in as many different positions.
The WeatherTech Championship resumes August 25-27 at VIRginia International Raceway with the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR featuring the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and GTD classes. Prototypes rejoin the fray for the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sept 15-17.
Keyword: No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Breaks Through for First GTP Win