United Autosports USA team principal Richard Dean praised his team for securing a hard-fought LMP2 win at the IMSA Six Hours of the Glen.
The Anglo-American team secured a victory last weekend despite a rain-soaked, hectic six-hour race at Watkins Glen International.
United Autosports USA’s #22 and #2 Oreca 07 LMP2s started the race from third and fourth on the grid, with #2 Oreca of Nick Boulle having taken an early race lead from Luis Perez Companc’s #88 AF Corse Oreca, who started P8 in class.
“I’ve never quite seen a race like it,” said Dean, “It certainly makes up for the disappointment at Le Mans last (previous) weekend.
“I’m just really proud of all the team. These guys [are] incredible. A really hard race.
“I was worried for the whole six hours. It felt like the longest ever last stint, but Paul [di Resta], what a job, same for all three drivers, but Paul, under pressure, was a real professional.”
A heavy rain spell in the first hour caused a significant incident when the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Oreca (Mathias Beche) spun around at Turn 9, resulting in other drivers taking action to avoid the stranded car.
Unfortunately for Steven Thomas in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca, he ineluctably endured a heavy impact into the #52 Oreca.
United Autosports’ other #2 of Nick Boulle, during the rain spell, hydroplaned into a tyre barrier. The team repaired the car with two damaged wishbones and returned to the race despite being 20 laps down.
United Autosports’ Di Resta withstands pressure to the end
The final phase of the race came down to a chase from AO Racing’s #99 ‘Spike the Dragon’ Oreca, Dane Cameron, against Di Resta’s lead.
Di Resta, sharing the #22 with Daniel Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh, drove a stint of 2 hours 6 minutes and 26.132 seconds – excluding time spent in the pit lane – and beat the #99 Oreca by just 0.627 seconds at the checkered flag.
Even though Lindh drove the most track time during the middle of the race at 2 hours 12 minutes and 35.462 seconds before handing the #22 Oreca to Di Resta, the Scotsman withstood pressure to the team’s second win this season after the 24 Hours of Daytona.
“At Sebring, I think we were kind of in a strong position, and I came together with a car, and it kind of put us out of the championship lead coming out of Daytona (before inheriting the LMP2 win).
“But to come here, it’s been a long break. We’ve had a kind of difficult weekend. We came here with a different philosophy, trying to make it work.
“We didn’t quite unleash it […] changed back for today and put the car right back in the window and where it needed to be […] I had to work very hard for it, but that’s what you have to do here.
“We had a bit of a bad pit stop when we were in a strong position, and it put us all the way back, and it’s just very cool to get a win on the back of a Le Mans that was very difficult.”
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