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Australia

Lime Rock IMSA: Corvette, Aston Martin win shortened race

The Northeast Grand Prix was brought to a premature halt by lightning in the area, with Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia heading a Corvette 1-2 in GT Le Mans and Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage topping GT Daytona.

#3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R, GTLM: Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor

#3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R, GTLM: Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor

Art Fleischmann

GT Le Mans

The Corvette C8.Rs of Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner held their 1-2 grid positions at the start of the race, with Cooper MacNeil running 3.5sec adrift in the WeatherTech Racing Proton Porsche. However, after half an hour, the two Corvettes were 2.5sec apart and the 911 RSR was a further 20sec adrift.

MacNeil handed off to Mathieu Jaminet on Lap 41, while Milner and Taylor stayed onboard their C8s when they stopped on Laps 42 and 43 respectively, with around two hours left to run. Jaminet emerged around 40sec behind the lead Vette but immediately started trimming that gap down. By Lap 62 / 1hr45min to go, Jaminet was only 30sec behind, and Milner was only 1.5sec behind Taylor.

That lead gap had stretched to 4.5sec by the time the Porsche and the #4 Corvette stopped again on Laps 90 and 91 respectively, with Nick Tandy replacing Milner in the cockpit. Next time by, Taylor pitted to hand off to Antonio Garcia, and once he was up to speed, the #3 car was nine seconds clear, while the #4 Corvette was ‘only’ 20sec ahead of Jaminet’s Porsche.

Then with 70mins to go, the race was halted due to lightning in the area. With 30mins required between lightning and a restart, and a hard curfew of engines off by 6pm in the area, IMSA eventually had no option but to replace the red flag with checkered.

GT Daytona

 

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Roman De Angelis kept the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage clear of Aaron Telitz’s #14 Lexus RC F at the drop of the green, with Richard Heistand’s Carbahn Peregrine Audi R8 in third ahead of the second Lexus.

Madison Snow’s Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan ran fifth ahead of Zach Robichon’s Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R, Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsports BMW M6, Misha Goikhberg in the Grasser Racing Lambo, while the Acura NSXs of Gradient Racing and Compass Racing completed the Top 10.

Snow and Trent Hindman in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 were the first of the lead runners in class to stop, on Lap 45, going off-sequence compared to their rivals. De Angelis and Telitz – the latter of whom had been holding up a train of cars – left it another five laps before pitting. That triggered most of the remaining runners to stop.

PMR’s tactics paid off well: De Angelis had handed over to Ross Gunn, and when he emerged from the pits, he found his mirrors full of Snow’s Lamborghini, which had jumped the #14 Lexus, which was now occupied by Jack Hawksworth. Turner and Pfaff left it until Lap 55 to pit, and swap out Foley for Bill Auberlen, and Robichon for Laurens Vanthoor, respectively.

So the Aston Martin was back at the head of the field again, and once his tires were up to temperature, Gunn pulled away from Snow who was working hard to hold off Hawksworth. Some 11sec further back, Vanthoor and Auberlen ran fourth and fifth ahead of Jeff Westphal who’d replaced Heistand in the Peregrine Audi. Hindman’s Wright Porsche ran seventh until being passed by Franck Perera in the GRT Lambo.

That was the order when the race was brought to its premature halt.

Cla Class Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Pits
1 GTLM Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Corvette C8.R 100 - 3
2 GTLM United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Corvette C8.R 100 18.134 18.134 4
3 GTLM United States Cooper MacNeil
France Mathieu Jaminet
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 100 27.793 27.793 3
4 GTD Canada Roman De Angelis
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 98 2 laps 1
5 GTD United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 98 2 laps 2
6 GTD United States Aaron Telitz
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
Lexus RC F GT3 98 2 laps 1
7 GTD Canada Zacharie Robichon
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 911 GT3 R 98 2 laps 2
8 GTD United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
BMW M6 GT3 98 2 laps 2
9 GTD United States Richard Heistand
United States Jeff Westphal
Audi R8 LMS GT3 97 3 laps 2
10 GTD Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
France Franck Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 97 3 laps 3
11 GTD United States Trent Hindman
United States Patrick Long
Porsche 911 GT3 R 97 3 laps 3
12 GTD Jeff Kingsley
Germany Mario Farnbacher
Acura NSX GT3 97 3 laps 3
13 GTD United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Zach Veach
Lexus RC F GT3 97 3 laps 2
14 GTD United States Till Bechtolsheimer
United States Marc Miller
Acura NSX GT3 97 3 laps 3
15 GTD United States Rob Ferriol
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Porsche 911 GT3 R 96 4 laps 3
16 GTD United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
Acura NSX GT3 95 5 laps 4

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