Porsche clinched its first GTLM victory of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship with a dominant one-two result at Lime Rock Park.
Dirk Werner and Patrick Pilet delivered the maiden win for the new rear-engined 911 RSR, which made its international competition debut at the start of the year in IMSA and the World Endurance Championship.
Pilet crossed the line 14.500 seconds ahead of Laurens Vanthoor in the sister Porsche, which started from pole position in the hands of Gianmaria Bruni.
Having started from the second row of the grid, Werner jumped the second-placed BMW M6 of John Edwards/Martin Tomczyk before setting off in pursuit of the Italian.
The two Porsches switched around 50 minutes into the 2 hour 40 minute contest when Bruni made a mistake and cut through the grass before pitting for minor repairs to the front bodywork.
Werner stayed out an extra lap before bringing the #911 car in for Pilet, who commanded the remainder of the race to seal Porsche's first GTLM-class victory in 10 months.
Tomczyk came through to finish third for BMW, 40 seconds off the leader, while championship leaders Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen took fourth in their Corvette C7.R.
Ford GT driver Richard Westbrook was on course to take the final podium spot, only for the #67 car to pit with five minutes to go for a splash of fuel.
Westbrook and team-mate Ryan Briscoe had been trying to run the race on one stop only, but the lack of a Full Course Caution period meant the pair fell just short of a perfect strategy call.
The Chip Ganassi-run crew ultimately settled for fifth, ahead of the #25 BMW which finished a lap down.
Alexander Sims and Bill Auberlen's result in their M6 means Garcia and Magnussen extend their points lead to six points with four rounds remaining.
Corvette and Ford's sister cars were eliminated from contention early on when Tommy Milner lost control under braking and took out the Ford GT of Dirk Muller while the duo battled for fifth.
Milner's car finished 30 laps down following lengthy suspension repairs, while Muller and Joey Hand recovered to finish sixth, albeit four laps in arrears.
RESULT: IMSA WTSCC Lime Rock Park
Porsche backed up its overall success with a triumph in the secondary GT Daytona category for GT3 cars, as Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Lindsey earned a first win of the season for Park Place Motorsports.
Having started sixth, Lindsey recovered from bodywork damage caused by contact with another car, to hand over to Porsche factory asset Bergmeister for the run to the flag.
Bergmeister crossed the line 3.473 seconds ahead of Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3, which was started from pole by Madison Snow.
Snow led the class from the getaway, but surrendered his advantage to the Daniel Morad/Patrick Long Porsche 35 minutes in when the Lamborghini driver became caught in traffic.
Bergmeister cycled into the lead during the pit stops after a close battle between the three cars in the middle stint, sealing the manufacturer's second class win of the season and the first for the Park Place squad in almost two years.
Morad and Long took third on their first weekend sharing the same car, while Lawson Aschenbach and Andrew Davis took fourth in the Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8.
Championship leaders Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan maintained their position with a sixth-place finish in their Ferrari 488, although the Scuderia Corsa pair failed to continue their streak of consecutive podium finishes extending back to the 12 Hours of Sebring in March.
Discussion about this post