Philipp Eng headed a BMW RLL 1-2 finish at the checkered flag following a hectic 180-minute IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix sprint at Road America.
The #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 duo of Eng and Dries Vanthoor secured victory after 66 laps of hectic, action-packed racing at America’s National Park of Speed.
It was Eng’s second time leading a 1-2 race finish for the Bavarian manufacturer in the GTP category, since doing so in last year’s six-hour Indianapolis enduro.
BMW RLL executed masterful timing in pitting both cars as the race headed into the final hour, soon before the fifth full-course-yellow caution period went out.
From then on, they turned a flawless performance into triumph with the pole-sitting #93 Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 of Renger van der Zande chasing down the #24 and #25 BMWs towards the end.
The #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R duo of Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken secured fourth place, followed by the highest-placed Porsche Penske 963, the #6, of Mathieu Jaminet and his team-mate Matt Campbell.
Heart of Racing claimed a worthy sixth position, their best race finish, in the #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie, driven by Ross Gunn and Romain De Angelis.
Tom Blomqvist took seventh for the #60 Meyer Shank Acura team with his co-driver, Colin Braun, after a drive-through penalty for running over equipment during the first pit stop phase halted their chances of a strong result, despite evidently being one of the fastest cars in the field.
Ricky Taylor and his #10 Wayne Taylor Cadillac team-mate Filipe Albuquerque claimed eighth after an incident with another GTP car sent them off-course but not out, followed by the other #40 Wayne Taylor Cadillac of Louis Deletraz and his team-mate Jordan Taylor rounding out the top 10 GTP finishers.
Yelloly heads the field at the start
At the race start, Nick Yelloly asserted strong form in the #93 Acura — as he did numerous times during his time behind the wheel — to retain the lead ahead of both BMWs behind him.
After only two minutes of green flag racing, race control brought out the first caution.
Daniel Goldburg of the #22 United Autosports USA Oreca 07 LMP2 made contact with George Kurtz’s #04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca before spinning around as the rear-left corner hit the tyre barrier. Remarkably, they did return to the race much later on after a lengthy recovery and repair job, with 45 minutes left of the race.
With the racing incident cleared, the race resumed with 2 hours and 26 minutes left on the clock.
Yelloly continued his run with a strong restart and consistently established a subtle lead gap, only for two minutes to pass before the second caution; Brendon Iribe of the #70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (GTD class) went off at Turn 7 on his own after taking slightly too much curb.
As the race resumed, Yelloly repeated his effort to keep the lead, although it was #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac driver Albuquerque who got himself fighting for the podium places.
Naveen Rao of the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca triggered the third caution just before the end of the opening hour after a heavy impact after going wide at Turn 10.
After all GTPs pitted, the #93 Acura fell back in the busy pit stop cycle as the #6 of Matt Campbell led the pack of GTPs with Bamber behind him, as well as the #10 driven by Ricky Taylor.
BMW RLL make their race-winning call
The Road America sprint headed into the final hour, and BMW made their strategic call to bring both cars in for their final stops with 59 minutes remaining, clearly anticipating the race’s fifth caution period.
Back to the track action, #7 Porsche driver Nick Tandy passed R. Taylor’s #10 Wayne Taylor Cadillac at Turn 3 for fourth place. Furthermore, their battle continued when Tandy defended across at the Turn 5 corner exit, but made contact, which spun the #10 up the hill.
Fifty-three minutes remained for this caution drew all GTPs into the pits, apart from the BMWs, who pitted earlier, therefore inheriting the lead at the restart.
Unexpectedly, Tandy jumped the #6 Porsche of Campbell after their respective pit stops, although Tandy was awarded a stop-and-60-second penalty for earlier incident responsibility with the #10 Cadillac.
As Eng and Wittmann headed the BMW 1-2 formation on the restart, the attention sprang on van der Zande’s #93 Meyer Shank Acura, which dodged and weaved passed the two Porsche Penskes before reeling in Wittmann’s #25 BMW.
AO Racing wins from pole in LMP2
In the LMP2 category, AO Racing’s #99 ‘Spike the Dragon’ Oreca 07 pairing of PJ Hyett and Dane Cameron secured victory from pole position.
Inter Europol Competition, starting 10th on the grid, claimed second place in the hands of Connor de Phillippi and Jeremy Clarke ahead of the #11 TDS Racing Oreca of Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen.
Ben Hanley finished in fourth position in the #2 United Autosports USA Oreca with his co-driver Phil Fayer, as Era Motorsport finished their #18 Oreca in fifth.
Kaku Ohta, teamed with Tobias Lutke, fought within the top three and four positions until he went wide into Turn 5 towards the end.
Malthe Jakobsen brought the #04 Crowdstrike Oreca in sixth with his team-mate George Kurtz, followed by Sebastien Bourdais’/John Farano’s #8 Tower Motorsport Oreca and the #73 Pratt Miller Motorsport Oreca duo of Pietro Fittipaldi and Chris Cumming.
Scott Andrews and Gerry Kraut finished ninth in the #79 JDC Miller MotorSports Oreca ahead of the 10th-placed pairing of Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson, and their #74 Riley Oreca.
See here for the full results – Stay tuned for the in-depth GTD Pro / GTD race report
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