The pure performance of the Porsche 963 in its debut season of racing has not always been present in its debut season. But at the IMSA Sportscar Weekend at Road America, the #7 Penske Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr took home a commanding victory, leading from nearly flag to flag.
There was drama in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, even before the green flag flew for Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute race. In the morning warm-up session, GTP championship co-leader Alexander Sims ran off at Canada Corner (turn 12) and crashed into the barrier, damaging the rear of the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R. Action Express Racing had just two hours to repair the car in time to start the race – which, they did with 30 minutes to spare.
Pipo Derani was able to take the start as scheduled but the #31 Cadillac was moved to the rear of the GTP field when the race began.
Yet, the weirdness didn’t stop once the field of 45 cars began their formation laps. Connor De Phillippi, who along with Nick Yelloly entered the weekend third in GTP points, left the road at the Carousel corner and got stuck in the gravel. When the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 was fetched out of the gravel, De Phillippi was made to start from the rear of the GTD field.
After the first lap was run behind the Safety Car, the field was released and polesitter Campbell led the opening laps.
It took less than ten minutes for De Phillippi’s race to go from bad to catastrophic – once he worked his way through the GTD field, he crashed into the concrete barrier at the Kink, bringing out the first Safety Car of the race. Save for a two-lap cameo from Yelloly after two hours of repair work, the #25 BMW’s race was over – a critical blow to their hopes of a season championship. With an hour to go, the #24 BMW (Philipp Eng/Augusto Farfus) broke down and secured an awful double DNF for BMW M Team RLL.
Campbell resumed and built up a ten-second advantage, then after an hour-long stint he handed the controls over to Nasr. This first pit cycle would be the only time that the #7 Porsche surrendered the lead in the race – for just a single lap.
Nasr led the rest of the way, staying out front after the Porsche Penske Motorsports took left-side tyres and fuel only on its final stop, and withstood a late press from the #60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist to secure the victory by just 4.6 seconds. It was a satisfying win for the duo that had just one podium finish to their name so far this season.
“I’m just happy everything finally came together this weekend,” said 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 #7 crew has put in, and it was about time, I would say.”
“Obviously, we got a little bit lucky with the No. 31 having an incident in the warm-up,” added Campbell. “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.” Campbell now has three IMSA wins at Road America in three different classes – GTD, GTLM, and now GTP. This is Nasr’s second overall win at Road America.
Acura took second and third place, with the #60 of Blomqvist and Colin Braun following up their win at Mosport with a second-place finish. It’s Meyer Shank Racing’s third straight podium of the season – perhaps too late to make a charge for a championship, but enough to build back morale following the “Deflategate” saga at Daytona.
Blomqvist and Braun finished 30 seconds ahead of the #10 Konica Minolta Acura (Ricky Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque), which finished third and took advantage of a difficult day for several title contenders in the GTP class.
While Taylor and Albuquerque still haven’t won a race, their third podium finish of the year gives them a 14-point championship lead over Derani and Sims, who finished sixth in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac.
De Phillippi and Yelloly’s retirement put them 73 points out of the lead, meanwhile, the #6 Penske Porsche (Mathieu Jaminet/Nick Tandy) suffered a right-rear puncture 35 minutes into the race, and would settle for a seventh-place finish, which leaves Jaminet and Tandy 98 points behind.
The #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R (Sébastien Bourdais/Renger van der Zande) had an uneventful, drama-free fourth-place run, ahead of the #5 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche (Mike Rockenfeller/Tijmen van der Helm) which battled to another fifth-place result.
In the first race for the WeatherTech-liveried #59 Proton Competition Porsche, Harry Tincknell and Gianmaria Bruni came home in eighth place in what was effectively an extended test session for the newest Porsche LMDH customer car.
The #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport Oreca 07 of Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin won LMP2 for the first time this season, propelling the duo to the championship lead.
Keating was exceptional over the course of his opening stint, charging from fourth on the grid to the class lead in just three laps. Similar to GTP, Keating and Chatin controlled the race from the moment they gained the lead, leading 63 out of 77 laps completed.
“I had a really good start, didn’t make mistakes, got up to the front. Our car was better in the race than it was in qualifying,” Keating remarked. “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.”
It’s another win in a successful 2023 calendar year for Keating, the two-time World Endurance Champion and Le Mans 24 Hours class winner with Corvette Racing – and for Chatin, his first IMSA win since the 2021 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
TDS Racing’s two cars took the remaining podium places, the #35 (John Falb/Giedo van der Garde) in second, and the #11 (Steven Thomas/Mikkel Jensen) in third, recovering from a puncture in Jensen’s stint to finish on the podium.
Keating and Chatin now lead the standings by 45 points over Thomas and Jensen, while the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca (George Kurtz/Ben Hanley) had a tough-luck race, finishing seventh in class after a pit work violation penalty and needing a splash of fuel in the final minutes. Kurtz and Hanley now trail by 97 points.
Keating also leads the standings for the Jim Trueman Award, given to LMP2’s top gentleman driver – which comes with it an automatic invitation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The #74 Riley Ligier JS P320 continued its dominance in LMP3. Gar Robinson won his fourth straight race of the season, accompanied by “super sub” Josh Burdon this weekend with Felipe Fraga racing in his native Brazil.
Early on, Nico Pino led from pole in the #33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier, and gave veteran co-driver João Barbosa a sizeable lead to work with with the hope of closing out the race.
Burdon found himself trailing by ten seconds at one point, but gradually chipped away at Barbosa’s lead and was within three-tenths of the leader until he went off at the final corner, somehow only losing two seconds in the exchange.
It took just another ten minutes for Burdon to catch and pass Barbosa, and in the final 20 minutes, the orange and blue #74 Riley Ligier drove away to an 11.7-second margin of victory. After leading 62 out of 75 laps, Pino and Barbosa had to settle for second in class.
The #13 AWA Duquiene D08 (Orey Fidani/Matthew Bell) came home in third place on the weekend where the Canadian team confirmed its future as a Corvette Racing customer team next year.
Robinson now has a virtually unassailable 251-point lead in the LMP3 Drivers’ Championship with two races remaining.
The prototype classes, GTP, LMP2, and LMP3 will return to action on 17 September at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for the Battle on the Bricks sprint race.
The hottest team in GTD Pro is The Heart of Racing Team, and the #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas which claimed its second straight win of the season.
Coming off a Heart of Racing double victory in Lime Rock Park two weeks prior, Riberas started the race from pole position and led early, followed by the #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Jordan Taylor in second.
Riberas brought the #23 Aston Martin in at the first opportunity, clearing his minimum 35-minute drive time before handing the car off to Gunn. Taylor stayed out for another 15 minutes to lead the class, and after a pit stop to change drivers to Antonio Garcia, Corvette Racing resumed ahead of Heart of Racing Team, with Daniel Juncadella now leading in the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Gunn fought his way past Garcia and then Juncadella to regain the lead after an hour and a half, and then Garcia followed him through and the two engaged in a close battle. With 50 minutes left, Gunn and Garcia went side-by-side through turns five and six, and Gunn ran wide at the exit of six to momentarily give the advantage to Garcia.
But with just 25 minutes remaining, Corvette Racing and Garcia’s bid for the win ended due to a drive-through penalty for failing to meet the minimum refuelling time on its final stop. Gunn re-took the lead and led the final 14 laps of the race, to take a second straight pole-to-win victory in GTD Pro.
“We had a big fight for a few laps, which was very enjoyable,” Gunn said of his battle with Garcia and the Corvette. “Hopefully that’s not the last battle we have with those guys this year.”
Gunn was happy to have found form after a woeful start to the 2023 season. “We seem to have found something that’s working very well for us. But to be honest, throughout the whole season we’ve had a package that has been quick enough and competitive enough to be at the front, but it just hasn’t clicked. Now things are starting to work.”
Riberas echoed those sentiments, adding: “Things are starting to click for our side. It just feels like everything is starting to feel a bit more natural. Everything is a little bit more enjoyable. The weekends are just fun.”
“We obviously benefited from the Corvette getting that penalty. Today it was definitely very hard to beat them on track. You’ve got to be there to capitalize on these opportunities.”
The penalty for the #3 Corvette moved the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 (Jack Hawksworth/Ben Barnicoat) up into second place, just under eight seconds ahead of Taylor and Garcia in third. That result gives Hawksworth and Barnicoat a 169-point lead in the GTD Pro championship with three races remaining.
Juncadella and Jules Gounon finished fourth in class in the #79 Mercedes, while the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet) finished in a muted fifth.
And on the day they announced a move to GTD Pro for next season, Paul Miller Racing and the #1 BMW M4 GT3 of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow picked up its fourth win of the year, putting them one step closer to the series championship.
From pole position, the Sellers and Snow show dominated the race while also not exerting themselves, letting the grip of the resurfaced Road America circuit do the work for them. “The evolution from practice to qualifying and the race was that everybody gained quite a bit of respect for the track and what needed to be done,” Sellers said after the race. “I have to say in my career, it was one of the races I had to manage the most in terms of pace and comfort and being on-line.”
Snow, who managed the opening stint, added: “This repave was difficult for a lot of people. Fortunately, it seemed like it really suited the BMW well. It was strong out of the gate.”
Their only noteworthy challenger all day was the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO of Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff, but Sellers and Snow kept them at bay, winning GTD by 2.2 seconds after 72 laps – of which, 63 were led by the Paul Miller Racing BMW.
The top two in GTD were also second and third in the overall GTD classification, ahead of all but the GTD Pro-winning #23 Aston Martin.
That fourth win for Paul Miller Racing, together with a seventh-place finish for the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin (Roman de Angelis/Marco Sørensen), puts Sellers and Snow 205 points ahead in the championship table.
Iribe was genuinely impressive, not just among his Bronze-graded peers. His second-place run has given him a 200-point lead in the race for the Bob Akin Award, which also carries an automatic invite to Le Mans.
Rounding out the GTD podium was the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes (Mike Skeen/Mikaël Grenier) in third, 2.3 seconds ahead of the #78 Forte Racing by USRT Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO (Misha Goikhberg/Loris Spinelli) in fourth. Both cars overcame practice crashes on Friday to secure solid top-five finishes. The #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus (Frankie Montecalvo/Aaron Telitz) finished fifth in class.
Some cars gambled on long runs to try and make it to the end of the race, but ran out of fuel – such as the #77 Wright Motorsports Porsche (Alan Brynjolfsson/Trent Hindman) and #96 Turner Motorsport BMW (Patrick Gallagher/Robby Foley), both of whom failed to see the flag. Winward Racing only wished they could get that far, as the #57 Mercedes (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis) retired with a right-rear suspension failure in the first 40 minutes.
GTD Pro and GTD return to action for the second GTD-exclusive race of the season at VIRginia International Raceway on 27 August.
Images courtesy of IMSA
