The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship closed out the weekend at Mid-Ohio Sunday afternoon. The categories that competed in this race were DPi, LMP3, and GTD. On the poles for this race were Mazda Motorsports (DPi), Vasser Sullivan (GTD), and Riley Motorsports (LMP3).
In the GTD race, Vasser Sullivan had a 1.623 lead over Turner Motorsport two hours and twenty-seven minutes into the race. A little while later, there was contact between the No. 66 Acura of Till Bechtolsheimer and the No. 14 Lexus of Aaron Telitz. Both cars had been battling for position. The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus ended up suffering a mechanical failure and finished in last place.
With one hour and two minutes left in the race, the first full-course caution came out when the No. 16 Porsche of Ryan Hardwick was hit from behind by the No. 9 Acura, who had John Potter behind the wheel. Hardwick’s car had a flat right rear tire. In the last hour of the race, the GTD race was intense. In the end, Bill Auberlen won for Turner Motorsport in GTD over the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Zach Veach.
In LMP3, a lead change happened at the two-hour and ten-minute mark when the No. 38 car of Dan Goldburg passed the No. 74 car of Gar Robinson. For the entire race, the lead was held by those two cars. Only one car went out with mechanical failures, and that was the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier. Felipe Fraga won for Riley Motorsports in LMP3
Finally, in DPi, the race for the lead early in the race was between Mazda Motorsports and Konica Minolta. The racing was fantastic, especially in the last 32 minutes. The DPi battle for the win came down to Konica Minolta’s Ricky Taylor and the No. 31 Whelen Engineering of Felipe Nasr. Taylor had a 2.202 lead with six minutes left.
Nasr caught Taylor on the last lap and tried to take the lead but couldn’t due to traffic, and Ricky Taylor held off Felipe Nasr to win for Konica Minolta in DPi.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will return in one month on Saturday, June 12th, for the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at Raceway at Belle Isle Park in Detroit, MI at 5 pm on NBCSN and NBC Sports Gold Track Pass.
