The IMSA Fastlane SportsCar Weekend at Road America came to a close with the main event in the damp Wisconsin weather this afternoon, as Filipe Albuquerque started and finished the day on top with his #10 Konica Minolta Acura.
Changeable conditions, a handful of yellow flags and traffic galore made for an exhilarating day at the National Park of Speed.
The DPi class was the main story of the day but LMP2 and LMP3 saw some battles as well. Louis Deletraz in his #8 Tower Motorsport car took the fight to Ryan Dalziel in his #18 Era Motorsport for the top spot in LMP2.
In the end Dalziel took the class victory with Deletraz in P2 and the #20 High Class Racing piloted by Fabio Scherer in P3.
LMP3 had a relatively quiet day, until a massive shunt by Jerrett Andretti in his #36 Andretti Autosport which sent #32 Sean Creech Motorsport driver Malthe Jakobsen into the wall in an effort to avoid the out of control Andretti.
The Incident caused a full course yellow and sent Jakobsen out of the race. Felipe Fraga found his way to the top of the class in his #74 Riley Motorsport machine. He was joined on the podium by Mathew Bell in the #13 AWA Machine and Colin Braun in the #54 CORE Motorsport.
Ben Barnicoat turned a Jacks Hawkworth pole position into a win with the #14 Vasser Sullivan team in GTD Pro. Barnicoat finished the race with almost 2 straight hours of drive time after an early driver change. Barnicoat was joined by the Pfaff Motorsport #9 and Mathieu Jaminet as well as the #3 Corvette with Antiono Garcia at the helm on the podium.
GTD ended with Philip Ellis and his #57 Winward racing on top of the class. Ellis was accompanied by Jeff Westphal in the #39 CarBhan with Peregrine Racing and Aaron Telitz in the #12 Vasser Sullivan machine.
DPi had a wild day with the changing conditions. All but Richard Westbrook in the JDC-Motorsports #5, stayed on slicks when the rain got worse around 50 minutes into the race. This gamble allowed Westbrook to get a monster lead on the field but after a series of yellows the rest of the field was able to catch up once the track dried out.
The closing stages of the race saw Albuquerque and Oliver Jarvis in the #60 Meyer Shank Acura fighting through traffic for the lead. Jarvis went for a move but with pressure from Earl Bamber in the #02 Cadillac behind him, Jarvis went off track and made massive contract with the wall.
The yellow was brought out to clear the debris field, but Jarvis was able to crawl his way around for the last 5 minutes and finish P4 on a flat tire.
Albuquerque was joined on the podium by both factory Cadillacs with Bamber in the P2 and Renger Van Der Zande in the #01 Cadillac. IMSA returns with a GT race at Virginia International Raceway on August 28th.
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