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At the drop of the green, the two Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet locked up at Turn 2. Both Campbell and Jaminet ran wide, allowing the fast-starting Colin Braun (Meyer Shank Racing Acura) to get into the lead, followed by Pipo Derani (Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R).
Jaminet recovered to claim third ahead of the two BMW M Hybrid V8s of Connor De Phillippi and Philipp Eng, and Ricky Taylor’s Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. Campbell fell to seventh ahead of Bourdais’ Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac and Tijmen van der Helm in the new JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche 963.
After Campbell nudged Jarett Andretti’s Aston Martin into an accident at pitlane entry, all nine GTP cars pitted, and leader Braun dropped to seventh having taken both fuel and tyres. Derani now led De Phillippi, Bourdais, Eng and van der Helm. Meanwhile, Porsche’s day got worse as Campbell was given a drive-through penalty for the incident with Andretti.
Braun elbowed his way past Eng’s BMW on Lap 33 on the climb from Turn 5 to Turn 6, and the BMW’s loss of momentum allowed Filipe Albuquerque (WTR Acura) and Jaminet to also lever their way through to demote the #24 BMW to seventh.
With 1h42m to go, John Farano crashed the Tower Motorsports LMP2 car at Turn 5, packing the field back up. All GTP cars hit pitlane, and MSR gave Braun fuel only, so his Acura took the lead ahead of Derani and Albuquerque.
Nick Tandy took over the #6 Porsche to emerge in fourth, ahead of the #25 BMW now steered by Nick Yelloly, and the #7 Porsche now driven by Felipe Nasr. Renger van der Zande replaced Bourdais in the Ganassi Cadillac, ahead of Augusto Farfus’ #24 BMW and Mike Rockenfeller’s JDCM Porsche.
Derani kept the pressure on Braun and, on the second lap after the restart, he passed the MSR Acura at Turn 3 to hit the front. Further back, the #7 Porsche of Nasr went off exiting the Corkscrew soon after passing Tandy, and the impact was hard enough to send him into the pits for repairs.
Tandy dropped to fifth behind van der Zande, who found himself stacked behind the two Acuras. Van der Zande then passed Albuquerque to claim third and closed on the struggling Braun. Once he demoted Braun, Albuquerque followed him through.
So with 70m left it was a Cadillac 1-2, with Derani and van der Zande running 14s apart. Tandy grabbed fourth from Braun into Turn 2 on lap 55, with the BMWs also demoting the struggling MSR machine. Yelloly was on a roll and demoted Tandy for fourth with just over an hour remaining.
That triggered Tandy to pit, and then Derani stopped as well, handing the car to Alexander Sims with a 20s lead. The rest followed shortly after, with Tom Blomqvist replacing Braun in the MSR Acura.
The last of them to pit – CGR’s Caddy and the BMWs – got in just before IMSA threw the fourth full course caution for Aaron Telitz parking the Lexus RC F in the wall on the outside of the final corner.
For the restart with 41m to go, Sims led van der Zande, with Yelloly, Tandy, Albuquerque and Farfus completing the top six. Van der Zande went around the outside of Sims at Turn 3 to grab the lead.
Tandy then prised third place from Yelloly. Ten minutes later, Albuquerque also got around the #25 BMW, as Yelloly dropped down the order.
Tandy passed Sims for second with a quarter of an hour to go, and now had 4.4s to close on van der Zande. Although the gap fluctuated in traffic, van der Zande’s winning margin was 3.8s at the flag.
Sims was a further seven seconds adrift but over 10s clear of the WTR Acura.
LMP2
Ben Keating of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports took the lead at the start of the race from George Kurtz’s Crowdstrike Racing by APR entry, ahead of Steven Thomas of TDS Racing.
However, with 25m to go, Kurtz’s co-driver Ben Hanley tipped Ryan Dalziel’s Era Motorsports car into a half-spin on the front straight, allowing Mikkel Jensen to take the win for TDS Racing.
#9: Pfaff Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), GTD PRO: Klaus Bachler, Patrick Pilet
Photo by: Perry Nelson / Motorsport Images
GTD Pro and GTD
Klaus Bachler’s GTD Pro Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R led the GT field, with Roman de Angelis in close pursuit in the lead pro-am GTD car, the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.
That was chased by two more GTD Pro cars, the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes of Daniel Juncadella and Alex Riberas in the second HoR Aston. Alec Udell’s Kellymoss with Riley Porsche was next up, ahead of Jordan Taylor’s Corvette and Madison Snow’s Paul Miller Racing BMW M4.
After a yellow Bachler jumped the red light at pit exit – for which he would receive a stop and 60sec hold penalty – so it was Taylor’s Corvette that took the lead in GTD Pro class ahead Jack Hawksworth’s Lexus.
Following the third yellow, Kellymoss with Riley ran 1-2, with Alec Udell ahead of Kay van Berlo having just pitted before the yellow, and they were chased by the Turner M4s of Bill Auberlen and Robbie Foley. In GTD Pro, Alex Riberas’ HoR Aston led ahead of Antonio Garcia who was now in the Corvette.
Udell had to pit with 63m to go, van Berlo stopping next time by, leaving Turner and Paul Miller to run 1-2-3 for BMW just briefly until they pitted too.
Andy Lally led GTD for Magnus Racing (Aston), ahead of van Berlo and Auberlen, while Ross Gunn led GTD Pro ahead of Garcia. However, the latter pair had blown the wave-by rules under yellow and had to pit for stop-and-hold penalties.
That left Jules Gounon’s WeatherTech Mercedes leading GTD Pro, ahead of the earlier penalized Pfaff Porsche and the #14 Lexus, albeit in 12th through 14th overall in GT. Van Berlo passed Lally after a slightly physical confrontation with 20m to go, and soon Lally also had to give up second to Auberlen. With under 10m to go, Lally also lost third to Julian Andlauer (in for Udell).
Van Berlo won GTD by 10s ahead of Auberlen who had two seconds in hand over Andlauer.
Gounon took GTD Pro victory by eight seconds from the #14 Lexus, as Ben Barnicoat nipped Patrick Pilet for second by a mere 0.2s.
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