The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 scored its first victory of the season as the No. 31 Cadillac lost its top starting spot because of a Sunday morning warmup crash after qualifying on pole position.
Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr teamed to win by 4.635 seconds in the Porsche over the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist. According to a series release, the race drew the largest IMSA crowd at Road America since the circuit’s debut at the Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, road course in 1979.
“Obviously, we got a little bit lucky with the No. 31 having an incident in the warmup,” Campbell said. “I had such an incredible lack of traffic at the beginning and that’s why the gap got as big as it was at times.”
RESULTS: Click here for the final overall finishing order l Class breakdown
POINTS: Standings after Road America l Sprint Cup standings
The No. 31 finished sixth and lost the points lead after starting from the rear because of the crash involving Alexander Sims. Teammate Pipo Derani qualified on pole Saturday.
Porsche, which re-entered IMSA’s premier prototype category this year with Roger Penske, now has won with both hybrids in Grand Touring Prototype.
“I’m just happy everything finally came together this weekend,” Nasr said. “We came close several times this year. The speed was always there, but we had a couple of reliability issues, a couple of mistakes and some bad luck. It’s a big relief for the whole team. I know how much work the No. 7 crew has put in, and it was about time.”
Acura also claimed the third spot with the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport ARX-06 of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor, who moved into the championship lead by 14 points.
Through seven races this season, there have been six winners in GTP.
Other class winners:
LMP2: The No. 52 ORECA LMP2 07 of Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin cruised to their first win of the season together.
LMP3: The No. 74 Ligier JS P320 won for the fourth time this season as Josh Burdon filled in for Felipe Fraga as Gar Robinson’s co-driver.
GTD Pro: The No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas won from the pole position, the second consecutive victory for the duo.
GTD: The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers scored its fourth victory of the season.
STATS PACKAGE FOR THE SPORTS CAR WEEKEND AT ROAD AMERICA
Fastest laps by driver
Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)
Fastest laps by driver and class after race
Fastest lap sequence
Leader sequence
Lap chart
Race analysis by lap
Stint analysis
Time cards
Pit stop time cards
Best sector times
Race distance and speed average
NEXT: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will resume with the GT classes Aug. 27 in the Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.
