The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship were at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA, for the TireRack.com Grand Prix Saturday afternoon. Seven cars were competing in the DPi class, two for LMP2, six for GTLM, and five for GTD.
On the poles for this race were Acura Team Penske’s Ricky Taylor/Helio Castroneves for the DPi class. PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports had Scott Huffaker, Simon Trummer, and Patrick Kelly. Porsche Motorsport’s Fred Makowiecki/Nick Tandy for GTLM, and AIM Vasser Sullivan’s Bryan Sellers, Corey Lewis, and Madison Snow for GTD.
Just as the green flag was waving, Dane Cameron’s car went around as the No. 18 Era Motorsport LMP2 car of Colin Braun and the No. 85 JDC MotorSports DPi car of Stephen Simpson made contact on the front stretch. The race was flagged with a full course yellow. Both cars suffered suspension damage while Cameron escaped with no damage. Once the cleanup was complete, it was time to go back to racing.
The No. 55 Mazda Motorsports DPi car driven by Harry Tincknell was being pursued by the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac of Rengervander Zande as Tincknell tried to get by the GTLM No. 25 BMW car of Connor De Phillippi. Tincknell drove up on the curve and hit Phillippi, knocking off his right-side mirror in the process of bringing out the full course yellow for debris. During the caution, teams went to pit road. Helio Castroneves was penalized for speeding onto pit lane and served a drive-through penalty.
Once the track crews picked up the debris, the race was back underway with five hours and change left in the race. More contact this time in the GTD class involving the No. 57 Heinricher Racing w/Meyer Shank Racing of Trent Hindman when he hit the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Robert Foley. The No. 12 GRT Magnus of Spencer Pumpelly was forced to go into the grass.
The caution would once again come out for the third time for debris as the No. 4 Corvette Racing GTLM car of Tommy Milner’s left rear tire shredded, and he sat at the entrance of pit road. Once the debris was picked up, the race resumed with four hours and change left.
Problems continued for the No. 57 Heinricher Racing w/Meyer Shank Racing, who was involved in an earlier incident, he had his hood come flying off the car and nearly hit a couple of Porsche cars behind him. Luckily, the debris did not hit anyone else, and no caution came out as the debris was off the track.
Two DPi cars almost made contact as the No. 77 Mazda Motorsports of Olivier Pla nearly hit the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing of Filipe Albuquerque, causing Albuquerque to spin around. With a little over two hours left in the race, Mazda Motorsports No. 77 car, now driven by Tristian Nunez, took the lead away from Dane Cameron.
Another caution came out with under two hours left when the DPi No. 31 car of Pipo Derani, who had just taken the second position from Dane Cameron, made contact with No. 44 GRT Magnus of Spencer Pumpelly, sending Pumpelly into the tire wall.
With under an hour left in the GTLM class, the No. 25 BMW Team RLL of Connor De Phillippi passed the No. 911 Porsche of Nick Tandy for the lead.
More drama unfolded in the DPi class as Ryan Briscoe did not hit the brakes fast enough and hit the back of Juan Pablo Montoya entering pit road.
With five minutes left of the race, the full course yellow would once again come out for another incident involving the No. 6 DPi car of Juan Pablo Montoya and the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa GTD of Toni Vilander. Vilander was off the track and in the grass and as he was coming back onto the track, he made contact with Montoya. Once cleanup was complete, racing resumed with two minutes left.
Helio Castroneves took the win in the DPi class for Acura Team Penske, Patrick Kelly took the win in the LMP2 class for PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, Connor De Phillippi took the win in GTLM class for BMW Team RLL, and Mario Farnbacher took the win in the GTD class for Heinricher Racing w/Meyer Shank Racing.
The next race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be on Sunday, September 27th at 2 pm on NBC Sports Gold Track Pass.
