Lime Rock IMSA: Campbell/Jaminet win for Porsche amid late drama

The race around the historic 1.5-mile road course in Lakeville, Connecticut was ultimately decided by a nine-minute shootout after Ryan Eversley shunted his Rick Ware Racing Acura NSX at the final corner.

Jaminet blasted away from the final restart, as Alex Riberas (Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage) held off Ben Barnicoat’s VasserSullivan Lexus RC F for second.

Behind them, it was all action in the non-Pro GTD class as Philip Ellis shoved his Winward Racing Mercedes past the second Lexus of Aaron Telitz at Turn 1 on the restart, clipping its left-front corner and damaging the Lexus’s hood as they touched.

Bryan Sellers (Paul Miller Racing BMW M4) passed the RC F for second in class on the following tour, and Telitz then tumbled as he struggled for visibility and was forced to pit to have the entire hood removed.

Ellis then lost the GTD victory on the very last lap as he crawled across the finish line, apparently out of fuel, handing the win to Sellers from Maxime Martin in the second HoR Aston.

#1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3: Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow

Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images

Earlier in the day, Campbell led from the pole ahead of Jack Hawksworth (Pro Lexus), Ross Gunn (Pro HoR Aston) and Jordan Taylor’s factory Corvette.

Taylor passed Hawksworth in the first round of stops but was ordered to give the position back again as Hawksworth had an overlap on him in the fast lane.

Their earlier stops gave them track position over the Pfaff Porsche, which ran for eight more laps and took a full 24s fuel-fill – which set them up for the strategic advantage later on.

Hawksworth led for the majority of the middle stint – until Campbell blew by him with an hour remaining – but the Lexus was destined for a longer final pitstop, which put Barnicoat behind the Aston.

The Corvette challenge evaporated when a strange pitstop strategy put Antonio Garcia into a pack of non-Pro GTD cars and he hit the WeatherTech Mercedes of Jules Gounon. That damaged the right-rear corner of the C8.R and put him five laps down.

The other Pro class car, the RLL BMW M4 of Connor De Phillippi/John Edwards, suffered an even worse race: it was sent to the back of the grid after failing the ride-height check after qualifying and then retired with a technical failure after 77 laps.

Cla	Class	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Retirement	Pits
1	GTD PRO	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet	Porsche 911 GT3 R	174	2:40'43.134			2
2	GTD PRO	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	174	2:40'45.017	1.883		2
3	GTD PRO	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	Lexus RC F GT3	174	2:40'47.212	4.078		2
4	GTD	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	BMW M4 GT3	174	2:40'51.976	8.842		4
5	GTD	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	174	2:40'52.607	9.473		2
6	GTD	Robert Megennis Jeff Westphal	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	174	2:40'52.666	9.532		3
7	GTD	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer	Mercedes AMG GT3	174	2:40'52.775	9.641		3
8	GTD	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	Mercedes AMG GT3	174	2:41'01.094	17.960		3
9	GTD	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	174	2:41'05.451	22.317		3
10	GTD PRO	Cooper MacNeil Jules Gounon	Mercedes AMG GT3	174	2:41'16.934	33.800		4
11	GTD	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	Lexus RC F GT3	174	2:41'23.410	40.276		3
12	GTD PRO	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	Corvette C8.R GTD	169	2:40'57.815	5 Laps		4
	GTD	Ryan Eversley Aidan Read	Acura NSX GT3	150	2:17'33.645	24 Laps	Retirement	3
	GTD PRO	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards	BMW M4 GT3	77	1:14'24.536	97 Laps	Retirement	4
	GTD	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen	BMW M4 GT3	33	31'45.347	141 Laps	Retirement	3
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