Watkins Glen IMSA: Action Express scores Cadillac’s sixth win

The polesitting ESM Racing Nissan-Onroak DPi of Ryan Dalziel, Scott Sharp and Pipo Derani led the early stages, but in the second hour, Sharp tangled with the Sun1 Energy Mercedes of Boris Said and struck the barrier.

And that was by no means the only instance of a leading entry taking account of itself on raceday in this sixth round of the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Wayne Taylor Racing drivers Ricky and Jordan Taylor, who won the first five races of the season, knew as soon as the opening lap that its winning streak was over, when Ricky tangled with Olivier Pla’s PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier and lost several laps for repair. The pair eventually recovered to grab sixth, three laps down.

The second ESM Nissan of Johannes van Overbeek and Bruno Senna led, but in the fifth hour, suffered a mechanical failure, while the second Action Express Racing Cadillac, driven by Dane Cameron, Eric Curran and Albuquerque, finished 10 laps down after losing a wheel soon after a pitstop.

One of the Mazda RT24-Ps, that of Joel Miller, Tom Long and Marino Franchitti, also died soon after one-third distance, on a day when its sister car, piloted by Jonathan Bomarito, Tristan Nunez and IndyCar rising star Spencer Pigot, finished third, just a quarter-minute behind the winner.

There were four cars on the lead lap at the checkered flag, but just two in the shootout in the final stages. The well-driven JDC-Miller Motorsports Oreca of Stephen Simpson and Misha Goikhberg held the lead until with fewer than 10mins to go, Barbosa pounced in traffic and grabbed the top spot. The pair would go on to finish just 1.2sec apart.

Behind the Mazda, Pla and Jose Gutierrez were fourth for PR1/Mathiasen, while Marc Goossens and Renger van der Zande took fifth in VisitFlorida Racing’s Multimatic Riley LMP2 machine.

In GT Le Mans, Alexander Sims and Bill Auberlen held off the charging Ford GT of Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe in the closing stages to snatch Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing BMW’s first IMSA win in almost two years, and therefore the first for the M6 model.

The BMW led for most of the race, and even though it picked up a puncture at one stage, a yellow flag right afterward sent everyone else in class to the pits too and so the #25 machine cycled back to the front. Its sister car, driven by John Edwards and Martin Tomczyk might have been able to make it a BMW 1-2 but sadly the team was forced to retire the car due to overheating caused by a punctured radiator, caused by debris.

Joey Hand’s polesitting Ford looked a contender up until the final restart, when too much tire pick-up sent him skittering down the order, allowing the Corvette C7.R of Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia into the final podium slot.

That place should have belonged to Gianmaria Bruni and Laurens Vanthoor in the #912 Porsche, but a front-left puncture with two minutes to go sent the Italian to the pits. He emerged sixth, ahead of teammates Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner, but behind the second Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner.

In GT Daytona, Andy Lally had to work hard in the MSR Acura NSX to hold off Alessandro Balzan/Christina Nielsen/Matteo Cressoni to the checkered flag, eventually prevailing by half a second. It was Balzan and Nielsen’s fourth runner-up finish in five races, and the Scuderia Corsa pair lead the championship.

Third went to the Turner Motorsport BMW M6 of Justin Marks and Jens Klingmann ahead of the Cooper MacNeil/Gunnar Jeanette/Shane van Gisbergen Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3.

The two 3GT Racing Lexus RCFs completed the top six, Robert Alon, Jack Hawksworth and Austin Cindric finishing just four seconds ahead of Scott Pruett and Sage Karam.

In Prototype Challenge, Pato O’Ward, James French and Kyle Masson won by three laps, despite an opening lap spin to avoid the WTR Cadillac wreck.