Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya took victory at the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio, beating the #77 Mazda Team Joest crew of Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez to victory.
Missing out on pole position in qualifying, the #6 Acura Team Penske car started from third on the grid, with the sister #7 Penske entry joining the pole-sitting #77 Mazda RT24-P on the front row.
Securing a strong start for the 2 hour and 40 minute-affair, the #6 Acura moved into second place on the opening lap after Helio Castroneves in the #7 was hit by Pipo Derani in the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadilac.
With Jarvis maintaining his lead after starting from pole, Cameron in the #6 continued to run in second, taking the lead after 10-minutes of racing, overtaking the leading Briton in Turn 1 when battling through heavy traffic early on.
After 37 minutes of running, Cameron pitted from the lead, jumping out of the cockpit to put Montoya at the helm, the Colombian racer rejoining in fourth place before filtering back through to first after the lead group of DPi runners pitted for fresh rubber and fuel.
Just as Cameron had overtaken Jarvis, Jarvis overtook Montoya with just under two-hours of running remaining, regaining the lead for the #77 crew.
Opening up a small advantage, Jarvis pulled the #77 into the pit lane with one hour and 20-minutes remaining with Nunez jumping in the car.
By using the overcut strategy, the #6 of Montoya regained first, placing Acura Team Penske in a strong position for the remainder of the race.
Extending his lead over Nunez, the gap between first and second was reset when the safety car was deployed when Colin Braun took the #54 CORE Autosport Nissan on a trip through the gravel at China Beach, unable to continue.
The green flag waved with 23-minutes to go and as a master of racing on cold tyres, Montoya streaked ahead of Nunez to remain unchallenged to the chequered flag, taking Acura Team Penske's first win of 2019.
Following Montoya across the line in second place, Nunez fronted a Mazda Team Joest 2-3 result, with the #55 crew of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jonathan Bommarito holding off the #31 car of Derani and Felipe Nasr.
In GTLM it was the #912 Porsche 911 RSR of Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber that took victory, beating the #3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen while Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet stood on the final step of the podium in the #911 Porsche, fighting back through the field following a drive-through penalty on lap 1 after a jump start.
The #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan-backed Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth and Richard Heistand took a narrow victory in an intense GTD battle, beating the '#86 Acura of Michael Farnbacher and Trent Hindman while Bryan Sellers and Ryan Hardwick took third for Paul Miller Racing.
