The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was held at Belle Isle late Saturday afternoon in the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic. On the pole for this race was CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing Audi (GTD), Corvette Racing (GTLM), and Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing (DPi). The LMP2 and LMP3 classes were off for this race. Six cars competed in DPi, two for GTLM, and twelve in GTD.
In the GTLM category, there were only two cars in this race, both from Corvette Racing. The No. 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia led the opening eight laps before Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette took the lead on lap nine and never looked back. A late caution had these two teams neck and neck, with Nick Tandy coming out the winner. He won by .226 seconds.
In the DPi category, it was all Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing. They led the first 33 laps before pitting when Konica Minolta’s Filipe Albuquerque lead two laps before the lead went back to Chip Ganassi. Late in the race, Kevin Magnussen clipped the tire wall and managed to stay on pace while Felipe Nasr of Whelen Engineering Racing chased him. Kevin Magnussen drove the No. 01 car to victory lane.
In the GTD class, this category saw the most action in the race. There was a collision between Jeff Kingsley in the Compass Racing Acura and Alegra Motorsports Mercedes Michael De Quesada sending debris on the track early in the race. De Quesada was involved in another accident with the No. 88 Porsche of Katherine Legge that brought out the first caution.
In another incident, the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini of Madison Snow hit Vasser Sullivan Lexus’s, Frankie Montecalvo. Snow was penalized for incident responsibility and served a drive-through.
Late in the race, Bill Auberlen’s car suffered a mechanical failure that brought out a caution with ten minutes left. When the race restarted, it was down to Jeff Westphal of Audi Racing and Ross Gunn of Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin. Jeff Westphal of CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing won the race by 5.652 seconds over Ross Gunn.
However, CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing were penalized for a faster refueling time and not meeting minimum time and were disqualified, making Ross Gun and Heart of Racing the winners in GTD.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will head to Watkins Glen International for the Six Hours at the Glen on Sunday, June 27th, at 10:35, am on NBC Sports Gold Track Pass.
