With most sportscar racing series currently on pause for the summer, it’s a good time to look at where things stand in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
There are three races remaining in the season, one of which is a GT-only event at VIR. That leaves just two races for the GTP class before the end of the season, at Indianapolis and Road Atlanta.
At the top of the standings, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor have moved to the top after a podium at Road America earlier this month.
Consistency has been the key to their success, as without a single win, Albuquerque and Taylor have accrued 2171 points in their #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 and sit 14 points ahead of Endurance Cup points leaders Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
After a disappointing 10th place finish at Road America, Team RLL’s Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly are third and on 2098.
“It still means nothing, but it still means something,” Albuquerque said during the Road America post-race ceremony. “Now we are in the lead. It still means nothing for the end. There are a lot of points still in it.”
The points scoring system, which is designed to keep as many teams in contention as possible until the final race, is working as intended. Just 139 points separate the top seven cars in the standings.
With two races to go and 770 points still up for grabs, when you take into account the minimum possible score that a car starting the race can bag, the top seven are in range of the title. And crucially, even if the leading WTR duo take pole and win at Indianapolis, it will still go down to the wire, and likely with multiple cars in the hunt.
In LMP2, Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin, who won in Wisconsin in their #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07, have a 45-point lead over Mikkel Jensen and Steven Thomas, co-drivers of the #11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07.
No team has won more than once this season in LMP2.
LMP3 sees Gar Robinson, who teamed with Josh Burdon to win Sunday in the Riley Ligier JS P320, hold a 251-point lead over Matthew Bell and Orey Fidani, co-drivers of the #13 AWA Duqueine D08.
Robinson and the #74 have won all four points-paying races this year with either Burdon or Felipe Fraga, or both, as his co-drivers.
Meanwhile in GTD Pro, Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth, who have won twice so far in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, are 169 points ahead of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, co-drivers of the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.
Interestingly, the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn are a distant fifth in points, despite winning the past two races.
After victory number four on the year, Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers in the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 extended their lead over Marco Sorensen and Roman De Angelis in the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to 205 points.
Snow and Sellers also reclaimed the lead over Sorensen and De Angelis in the Sprint Cup standings, which measures results of the seven GTD sprint races of the season.
The GT classes resume their championship battle on August 27th with the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR at VIRginia International Raceway. Prototype classes return to action on September 17th with the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
