After a morning that saw the somewhat typical morning marine layer burn off and then the track survive a rough and tumble Continental race, we finally came upon race time.
As the green flag flew, Richard Westbrook led the field across the line and kept the lead. John Edwards led GT across the line also kept the lead. It was behind the leaders that the action was taking place.
First in GT, Byron Defoor was running a bit slow in his BMW Riley DP and the GT leaders swallowed him up. Edwards made it through ok in the Stevenson Camaro, but 2nd placed Boris Said was not so lucky – Alex Tagliani brought his AIM Ferrari up to second in class.
In DP, Westbrook was able pull away from Angelelli. Max fell back and was soon swallowed up by Dane Cameron in the Sahlen BMW Riley. Cameron then took the challenge to Westbrook, typically sticking within about half a second.
Then Cameron had an off while trying to go around Westbrook in traffic and had to bring his very dusty Riley in for a check, fuel, tires and a driver change. They dropped to 20th overall.
In GT, Said got back to second – the remainder of the field was pretty much status quo, excepting ESM, where Mike Hedlund had a spin in his Ferrari. From the looks of the pit stop, the car may have had some damage in the RR suspension. The car was pushed back, behind the wall.
In GX, the championship contending Mazda 6 of Tristan Nunez/Joel Miller pits with reported drivetrain issues.
With the battle up front tightening up – Westbrook over Angelelli, over Franchitti – the Lotus ground to a halt on the front straight. This brought out a caution 30 minutes into the race. At the same time, the #4 Turner BMW was extracted from somewhere near the top of the track and coasted down the hill. Unfortunately Dalla Lana hit pit lane just as the DP competitors were diving in.
Upon returning to the track, it was now Jordan Taylor in the WTR Corvette, over Barbosa, Ricky Taylor and Alex Gurney. This put Corvettes in the top 5 positions. The best of the rest? Scott Pruett for Ganassi.
After the stops for GT, it was Balzan leading for Scuderia Corsa over Lally (Magnus), Tagliani (AIM), Long (Park Place) and finally Liddell (Stevenson).
For the GX Mazda, Dean Case brought us proof of what happened – the production based Mazda diesel had destroyed a race spec U-Joint…
Significant in the points chase, it was Scott Pruett moving up to 4th overall, getting past Gurney in the Gainsco Corvette. Meanwhile, it was J Taylor, heading off into the distance, leading by over 3 sconds.
Just around the 45 minutes run mark, Pruett had moved to 3rd overall and was closing on 2nd. Meanwhile it was still WTR leading, now by over 6 seconds. It GT, Balzan was still leading, but the Porsches of Lally and Long were closing, with Liddell hanging tight in 4th position.
While lapping the GT class leaders, Pruett was able to close right up onto the back wing of Barbosa. While this was happening, Jordan Taylor just continued to drive off into the distance, pulling out a 12+ second lead.
Meanwhile, Scott Dixon and Justin Wilson were moving up, now 6th and 7th in DP. Making progress the wrong way was Starbucks, er, Starworks, as Ryan Dalziel was falling back and then tagged with a stop +60 for avoidable contact. Ouch.
For Stevenson, the news wasn’t good. There appeared to be a clutch issue in the Camaro, and then Eric Curran muscled his way past Liddell in turn 11, dropping the Camaro back to 5th in class.
Now double ouch for Starworks – a stop/go for speeding in the pit lane. Are you swearing yet Peter?
Stops for both Liddell and Curran – this drops then to 8th and 9th in class, but it is also a strategy call, as Stevenson feels strategy is their best chance in this race for a strong result. Before the race, Robin said, “we need to just get points here and stay in the championship chase. We’re strong over a single lap, but the car just isn’t as good over a longer stint as we’d hoped. We just need to hang on here and be in a place to take advantage of our strengths at Lime Rock”
With 1:15 to go, the pit stops start in earnest. When Spirit Of Daytona stopped, it was Westbrook getting back in the car for the duration. At about the same time, Barbosa brought in his Action Express Corvette. He glanced the pit wall and ended up too close for the team to change the left side tires, if they had intended to. This allowed Pruett to pull out of the pits ahead of them.
Kevin Buckler reports that their new Aston Martin is running well – they’re just down on straightline speed. “Coming in new here, I think the series simply mis-judged the restrictor for our car. I know they don’t want to let a new car come in and be to strong out of the box and I understand that. We’ll work with the car, get some weight out of it and hope that we get a bit of a break come next season.”
Andy Lally stretched their run as long as possible, stopping with 1:03 to go, hoping they (Magnus) can go the distance. This vaulted Eric Curran and the Marsh Corvette into the class lead, followed by Long, Balzan and Liddell.
With an hour to go in the race, Jordan Taylor continued to dominate, holding nearly a 30 second lead over Gurney. But Gurney was spending more time watching his mirror than anything else, as Pruett was all over him, looking for a way into second place.
With about 55 minutes to go, the 1st and 2nd place runnier in DP stopped, lifting Pruett to a short lived lead. He then pitted, putting on 3 scrubbed tires and was away for the chase to the end. At the same time, Liddell also pitted, as did Curran – they’re good to the finish now.
With 45 minutes to go, it was the following leading DP
J Taylor
Dixon
Westbrook
Pruett
Bourdais
In GT it was:
Lally
Johnson (Turner BMW)
Balzan
Lazzaro (AIM Ferrari)
Curran
…with Liddell back in 9th.
Back in GX, it has been a back and forth battle, but Sylvain Tremblay was leading Spencer Pumpelly by 12 seconds; Mazda diesel over Porsche Cayman. On the subject of the Mazda, John Doonan did state on Saturday that they intend, “to make the Mazda 6 competitive in the GTD class next year. Now that we’ve got some reliability, we can look at picking up the pace to get to where we need to be to be competitive.”
It’s shoot out time – with 32 minutes to go, it’s the #94 into the nitty gritty kitty litter, bringing out the caution for the second caution of the race.
For the restart, the front of the field looks interesting – Jordan Taylor in front of the second Ganassi entry of Scott Dixon, with the points hungry Pruett right behind. Remember Juan Pablo… Ask Peter, he’ll tell you about Juan Pablo…
Dixon is tight on fuel – it might be a gamble for both them and for the No. 4 8 Star entry.
Green with 18 minutes to go. Dixon had the fastest car on track earlier, but this far he is having a difficult time keeping up with Jordan Taylor. Taylor up 1.3 seconds one lap after the green. For Starworks, this race was a disaster, effectively putting them out of the points chase.
In GT, Balzan tried a low percentage move inside of Johnson, which allowed Lally, the class leader to pull away slightly.
Jordan Taylor is serious – fastest lap of the race, then Cameron tries to make a move on Brandon Hartley. That sends Hartley into the litter box and brings out the 3rd yellow with only 10 minutes to go.
Will it go green again? Will there be enough time for Pruett to slip by Dixon for those extra points? We’ll see…
Green with 3+ minutes to go. Lally over Johnson in GT with Taylor over Dixon in DP. Pat Long is all over Balzan for 4th in GT and eventually makes it past, but there is some very visible damage on the back end of the Ferrari. As expected, Dixon lets Pruett past into second, while Taylor simply motors away for the win. This lengthens the Wayne Taylor racing lead in the points chase. Unofficially, this leaves WTR +8 over Ganassi and +11 over Gainsco.
The Lally/Potter win in GT gives them the points lead back over Scuderia Corsa driver Balzan who finished 5th in class. Stevenson finished 7th overall, giving them points which they needed heading to Lime Rock. The unofficial results leave Magnus +8 points over Balzan and +13 over Stevenson.
In GX, Tremblay/Long held on for the class win.
Gary Horrocks
