Austin IMSA: Taylors dominate, Corvette wins decimated GTLM class
Jordan and Ricky Taylor dominated the fourth round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Circuit of the Americas in their WTR Cadillac, while the GTLM class hit the self-destruct button at the very first corner.
Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images
From the start, WTR’s Ricky Taylor led Johannes van Overbeek’s ESM Nissan and the Action Express-run Cadillacs of Eric Curran and Christian Fittipaldi. Taylor pulled away out front at the rate of one second per lap.
Van Overbeek was soon forced to pit for a new nose after he was driven into by the wayward GTD-class Mercedes of Kenny Habul, dropping the #22 ESM Nissan to 14th.
The #5 AXR Cadillac got past the #31 car by the time of the second full-course yellow, an hour into the race. They battled furiously over second, but had nothing for either Taylor – who could pull away as they chose.
"That was the best car I've ever had," said Ricky Taylor. "Being able to control the race like that was an amazing feeling."
The battle for second was settled when the #5 car of Barbosa needed pushing down the pitlane having run out of fuel.
That promoted Scott Sharp/Ryan Dalziel to third in the #2 ESM Nissan, although Dalziel had to work for it against the #85 JDC-Miller Oreca LMP2 of Misha Goikberg/Stephen Simpson.
Late drama struck the third-placed #2 Nissan when it caught fire with just 15 minutes to go, and after a few more laps of Dalziel nursing it, he pulled off in a huge cloud of smoke, which put the race under a final full-course yellow with just eight minutes remaining.
The Fittipaldi/Barbosa Cadillac also had to battle past Simpson in the closing laps, and was promoted to third in a Cadillac 1-2-3.
The Marc Goossens/Renger van der Zande Multimatic/Riley lost a likely fifth-place finish in the final 25 minutes with a power steering issue, which instead went to the delayed #22 ESM Nissan.
Drama-packed GTLM fight falls to Corvette
A chaotic first corner took out a number of leading lights in the GTLM class, as both Fords ganged up on the sole Ferrari, spinning it around on the exit of Turn 1. The rotating Risi Ferrari of the hapless Giancarlo Fisichella was collected by the #4 Corvette of Tommy Milner and the #912 Porsche of Wolf Henzler.
“All I saw was a red Ferrari sideways in front of me,” rued Milner. “I [hit] it going backwards across the track.”
With both Fords and the Ferrari out of the equation, that allowed BMW to hold an early 1-2 with its M6s, John Edwards leading Alexander Sims, with Patrick Pilet’s #911 Porsche next up.
Pilet passed Sims for second in class on lap 15, and grabbed the lead from Edwards just before the second full-course yellow.
The #24 BMW, with Martin Tomczyk in for Edwards, regained the lead in the pitstops, but the #25 sister car – now driven by Bill Auberlen – pulled away before the fuel hose was disengaged and received a penalty.
The frontrunning #911 Porsche of Dirk Werner (in for Pilet) was then assaulted by a GTD-class Lexus, spinning it around and losing 13s to the #24 BMW – but both Tomczyk and Werner were stung by a penalty for running through the red light at the end of pitlane.
This all played into the hands of Corvette, whose #3 car of Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia took over a huge lead, with the #25 BMW promoted back to second with the #24 BMW in third and the #911 Porsche fourth.
Magnussen said: "Fantastic result, staying out of trouble. Really happy."
Bleekemolen stars in GTD
In GTD, the polesitting Alegra Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet/Daniel Morad led the #48 Lamborghini of Madison Snow/Bryan Sellers, but the car to watch as the race rolled towards its final hour was the #33 Mercedes of Ben Keating and the remarkable Jeroen Bleekemolen.
Bleekemolen outbraked Sellars and Morad in successive laps to grab the lead, and then gapped them by 3.5s on the next tour!
Alessandro Balzan drove a stout final stint in his Ferrari 488 to grab second from Sellars, and Tristan Vautier stole third by lunging past Sellars at Turn 1 on the final restart.
James French and Pato O’Ward dominated the three-car PC class.
Austin results
Pos | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jordan Taylor Ricky Taylor |
Cadillac DPi | 73 | |
2 | Dane Cameron Eric Curran |
Cadillac DPi | 73 | |
3 | Christian Fittipaldi Joao Barbosa |
Cadillac DPi | 73 | |
4 | Mikhail Goikhberg Stephen Simpson |
ORECA LMP2 | 73 | |
5 | Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek |
Nissan DPi | 72 | 1 lap |
6 | James French Patricio O'Ward |
ORECA FLM09 | 72 | 1 lap |
7 | Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia |
Corvette C7.R | 71 | 2 laps |
8 | Bill Auberlen Alexander Sims |
BMW M6 GTLM | 71 | 2 laps |
9 | Nicholas Boulle Stefan Wilson |
ORECA FLM09 | 71 | 2 laps |
10 | John Edwards Martin Tomczyk |
BMW M6 GTLM | 71 | 2 laps |
11 | Patrick Pilet Dirk Werner |
Porsche 911 RSR | 71 | 2 laps |
12 | Joey Hand Dirk Müller |
Ford GT | 70 | 3 laps |
13 | Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
14 | Christina Nielsen Alessandro Balzan |
Ferrari 488 GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
15 | Kenny Habul Tristan Vautier |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
16 | Bryan Sellers Madison Snow |
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
17 | Bret Curtis Jens Klingmann |
BMW M6 GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
18 | Cooper MacNeil Gunnar Jeannette |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
19 | Daniel Morad Mathieu Jaminet |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 69 | 4 laps |
20 | Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 69 | 4 laps |
21 | Lawson Aschenbach Andrew Davis |
Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
22 | Scott Pruett Sage Karam |
Lexus RCF GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
23 | Jeff Segal Oswaldo Negri Jr. |
Acura NSX GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
24 | Dan Knox Mike Skeen |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
25 | Jack Hawksworth Robert Alon |
Lexus RCF GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
26 | Jon Bennett Colin Braun |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 69 | 4 laps |
27 | Andy Lally Katherine Legge |
Acura NSX GT3 | 69 | 4 laps |
28 | Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel |
Nissan DPi | 68 | 5 laps |
29 | Parker Chase Harry Gottsacker |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 68 | 5 laps |
30 | Marc Goossens Renger van der Zande |
Multimatic/Riley LMP2 | 63 | 10 laps |
31 | Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook |
Ford GT | 63 | 10 laps |
32 | Don Yount Buddy Rice |
ORECA FLM09 | 52 | 21 laps |
33 | Tom Long Joel Miller |
Mazda DPi | 52 | 21 laps |
34 | Marco Bonanomi Jose Gutierrez |
Ligier LMP2 | 43 | 30 laps |
35 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner |
Corvette C7.R | 41 | 32 laps |
36 | Jonathan Bomarito Tristan Nunez |
Mazda DPi | 27 | 46 laps |
37 | Corey Lewis Jeroen Mul |
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 22 | 51 laps |
38 | Laurens Vanthoor Wolf Henzler |
Porsche 911 RSR | 10 | 63 laps |
39 | Giancarlo Fisichella Toni Vilander |
Ferrari 488 GTE | 1 | 72 laps |
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