The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was at Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval’s Motul 100% Synthetic Grand Prix. The race was pushed back an hour due to Hurricane Delta’s remnants affecting the NASCAR Xfinity Series race earlier in the day.
Rain played a major role in this race. Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia clinched the pole in the No. 3 Corvette Racing for GTLM while Aaron Telitz and Jack Hawksworth won the pole in the GTD class. Six cars were competing in the GTLM class, and twelve in the GTD class.
A minute into the race, the No. 25 BMW of Bruno Spengler was sitting in third when he hit the final chicane and spun his car around to lose three positions landing in sixth place. He was not alone in spinning at the final chicane as Robby Foley in the GTD class, was the latest driver to spin and fall to eleventh place.
Upfront, the No. 24 BMW of Jesse Krohn moved on the inside to take the lead away from Jordan Taylor in the GTLM class. There were spins and hydroplaning, and several turns took their share of victims. The No. 57 Acura of Alvaro Parente spun at turn one, becoming the latest victim.
Several teams had problems, the Porsche 912 team with Laurens Vanthoor at the helm lost control of his car slammed the outside wall hard, knocking off the entire rear bumper section, and parts of the right side of the car was gone. Their day would end, and his team finished in last place in the GTLM class.
Not long after Vanthoor was out, their teammate, the 911 Porsche of Fred Makowiecki, spun at turn one and made contact with the wall to bring out the short caution.
The damage was significant enough to put the 911 car out of the race and finish fifth in the GTLM class. Not long after the restart, the No. 22 Acura of Till Bechtolsheimer, who was running in third place, crashed at the exit of turn one and suffered front end damage to bring out a full-course caution and were out of the race, finishing in twelfth.
The race resumed with an hour and eleven minutes left. Aaron Telitz (GTD) and John Edwards (GTLM) were the leaders of the race. With 46 minutes left, there was a change in the lead for the GTD class as the No. 86 Acura of Mario Farnbacher slid and nearly missed the chicane on the backstretch allowing Robby Foley to pass him for the lead.
With under 25 minutes left, Antonio Garcia took the lead away from John Edwards with an inside pass at turn eight in the GTLM class. With 12 minutes left in the race, the No. 4 Corvette Racing of Tommy Milner reported that something broke in the rear that caused him to spin around at turn 14, hitting the outside wall hard before coming to a stop at the entrance of pit road.
The team was running fourth, and the full-course yellow was out. The race resumed with six minutes left. Both Antonio Garcia (GTLM) and Bull Auberlen (GTD) took wins at Charlotte.
Garcia and the No. 3 Corvette Racing team are now ahead of teammates Tommy Milner/ Oliver Gavin by 24-points in the GTLM standings. The GTD points got tighter with Mario Farnbacher/Matt McMurry how ahead by only points to both No. 16 Porsche of Patrick Long/Ryan Hardwick, and the No. 14 of Jack Hawksworth/Aaron Telitz with three races left in the season.
The Series will now head back to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta next Saturday for ten hours beginning at 12:30 on NBCSN and NBC Sports Gold Track Pass.
