Action Express Racing opened its 2017 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship account with a dramatic victory at the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen.
Joao Barbosa and JDC-Miller Motorsports driver Stephen Simpson went into the final 20 minutes side-by-side, after Simpson drew up next to the Action Express Cadillac DPi driver at a restart.
Shortly afterwards, Barbosa slipped past Simpson when the South African became trapped behind a backmarker Audi through the esses.
Barbosa kept his cool in the remaining laps, taking the chequered flag with a margin of 1.183 seconds between the two cars and marking a fitting conclusion to a gripping six hours of racing at the 3.4-mile New York circuit.
It marked a break in the 100% victory chain set by Wayne Taylor Racing drivers Jordan and Ricky Taylor, who finished sixth and three laps ddown following suspension damage to the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R.
Problems deny ESM
Extreme Speed Motorsports driver Pipo Derani led the field away in his No. 2 Nissan-Onroak DPi, from Olivier Pla in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier.
However, the Nissan's advantage only lasted until the second hour, when Scott Sharp, having taken over from Derani, struck the barriers at the Outer Loop following contact with a GTD Mercedes.
Sharp was able to limp the car back to the pits, but in his attempt to stay on the lead lap ran the red light at pit exit, drawing a brace of penalties.
The No. 2 car then ground to a half with 40 minutes remaining when Derani encountered trouble with the throttle system.
ESM's other machine, the No. 22, started fifth and ran promisingly with Bruno Senna and Johannes van Overbeek behind the wheel.
However, Senna was forced to retire in the fifth hour when the car ran into oil pressure problems.
With the two ESM cars out of the running, the Action Express crew – consisting of Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Filipe Albuquerque – worked its way into the mix.
Its journey was aided by issues for numerous other cars, including the championship-leading Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac.
Ricky Taylor ran into Pla's Ligier at the start, damaging his car's suspension.
The other Action Express Cadillac driven by Eric Curran and Dane Cameron lost 10 laps when a right-rear tyre was improperly fitted at a routine stop.
The No. 70 Mazda DPi retired early on with a turbo failure, whilst the PR1/Mathiasen Ligier dropped valuable time through two separate spins for Pla, who later set the fastest lap.
Those incidents effectively created a two-horse race between the Action Express machine and the JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA driven by Simpson, Chris Miller and Misha Goikhberg, while the No. 55 Jonathan Bomarito/Tristan Nunez/Spencer Pigot Mazda slotted into third.
Bomarito finished eight seconds adrift of Barbosa, with Pla charging hard for a podium spot but ultimately running out of time.
The result allows Action Express to eat into the Wayne Taylor squad's huge championship lead, whilst the gap between the two outfits in the four-round North American Endurance Cup has been reduced to one point.
M6 breaks GTLM duck
In GTLM, BMW won its first North American race in two years with Alexander Sims beating Richard Westbrook's Ford to the line by four and a half seconds.
Sims, who shared the No. 25 M6 with Bill Auberlen, recovered from an early puncture and out-ran the rest of the GTLM manufacturers in a frenetic final stint.
The team's sister car retired in the final hour, leaving Sims to battle alone, but the British driver managed to hold off Westbrook's imminent challenge.
Porsche debutant Gianmaria Bruni, who was signed from Ferrari over the winter, finished seventh with team-mate Laurens Vanthoor after picking up a late puncture.
Bruni spent the last portion of the race recovering from a penalty for overtaking under yellow flags, and had reached the podium places before his car's left-rear deflated.
The second Porsche 911 RSR lost a lap when Dirk Werner sustained a puncture following a sideways trip across the kerbs at the chicane.
Third in class was picked up by the championship-leading Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia Corvette, whilst primary title rivals Joey Hand and Dirk Muller settled for fourth having started on pole.
GT Daytona honours went to Acura pair Andy Lally and Katherine Legge for the second race in a row, while Performance Tech Motorsports maintained its 100% win record in Prototype Challenge with another dominant run.
