News and Notes from the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America
One race after finishing third at Lime Rock Park, TRG-AMR’s Christina Nielsen placed second at Road America, enabling the driver of the No. 007 Royal Purple/Orion Energy/LaSalle Solutions/PassTime USA Aston Martin Vantage to take the lead in the GT Daytona (GTD) point standings.
Now, she’s ready to take the next step.
“We finished P3 at Lime Rock, P2 here at Road America and now we’re aiming for P1 at VIRginia International Raceway,” Nielsen said. “I just wish we had a bigger fuel tank right now – but if I can’t have that, I’ll take the championship lead. That’s amazing.”
Kuno Wittmer – racing for the third time as Nielsen’s co-driver – pitted for fuel with 20 minutes remaining, handing the lead – and the victory – to Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating in the No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R.
Three races remain for the GTD competitors, who join the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class in headlining the Oak Tree Grand Prix at VIR on Saturday, August 23, before rejoining their Prototype and Prototype Challenge (PC) counterparts for the season-ending rounds at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas on Sept. 19 and Road Atlanta on Oct. 3.
“We went testing at VIR, and it’s a very cool track,” Nielsen said. “I think it will be very good for our car. We’re starting from scratch, and we want to keep
fighting every single lap of every practice session to make it better.”
Strategic Stop Helps Pad GTLM Points Lead: Late-race strategy helped Corvette Racing drivers Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen to add a point to their slim lead in the GTLM championship battle. Garcia stopped the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R a few laps earlier than his competitors for his final pit stop – which allowed him to push on his new tires. As a result, he gained four positions during the final 42 minutes.
Garcia and Magnussen finished fourth – one position ahead of Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner in the No. 25 IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTE. With three races remaining, the Corvette drivers lead their BMW rivals by four points, 217-213.
“We went off sequence (on pit strategy) so we probably forced most everyone to follow us, and at the end of the day it paid off,” Garcia said. “They stayed out as much as they could. I was really aggressive when I needed to be and I passed all those cars when they were on their first two or three laps. We are heading into the last few races of a championship, and everybody needs to run as hard as they can.”
Qualifying Heartbreaker: James French keeps proving the old adage “It’s not over ‘til it’s over.” The driver of the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ric-Man Construction/GO-PUCK/Braille Batteries ORECA FLM09 now has knocked Chris Cumming off the Prototype Challenge (PC) class pole in three of the last four qualifying sessions.
French won the TOTAL Pole Award at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America, while starting on the front row after being unable to knock off Stephen Simpson at Lime Rock Park. Qualifying at Watkins Glen International was rained out.
French and co-driver Conor Daly gave the team its best finish of the season at Road America, finishing second after RSR Racing’s Bruno Junqueira won on a last-lap pass. It was the team’s fourth podium finish of the season, with French third at Sebring International Raceway, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Belle Isle.
“Our plan was to conserve fuel from Lap 1,” said French. “We were able to get a good start and a comfortable lead, but our goal was to make it one hour on a tank of fuel. We put Conor in a decent spot, and he did a phenomenal job. We got as close as you can possibly get.”
The native of nearby Sheboygan led twice for 14 laps – including three overall when the Prototype front runners pitted – while Daly led for 18 laps down the stretch. The IndyCar driver caught traffic at a bad time on the final lap – allowing Junqueira to close in – and then spun after locking his brakes a few turns later.
Denied the pole, Cumming had the last laugh – joining Junqueira in the winning No. 11 AutoMaxUSA ORECA FLM09. It was their second victory of the season, with the pair also winning at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Still Perfect: The second place finish for Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa extended a streak of completing every lap in the history of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship – dating back to the 2014 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Action Express Racing has now logged 12,422 racing miles for the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP over the past 17 consecutive races. That’s a total of 3,870 laps. It’s also the only car to complete every lap this season.
Cameron Leads the List: Sunday’s victory placed Dane Cameron as the leading winner in the short history of the TUDOR Championship. It was his third victory of the season and seventh in series’ history, breaking a tie with Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia.
“I never thought I would be that guy, but I’m really happy to have that,” said Cameron, who now has two Prototype victories this season for Action Express Racing in addition to winning the recent GTD race at Lime Rock Park for Turner Motorsport. “Everyone just renewed all our partnerships at Action Express, so we have a lot of great momentum moving forward.”
The victory allowed Cameron and Eric Curran to pull within two points of Prototype leaders Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante of Visit Florida Weekend, sandwiched between Action Express teammates Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa, who are one point behind.
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