Nick Yelloly and Renger van der Zande took victory for Acura and Meyer Shank Racing at Detroit in the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic, from the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and #6 Porsche Penske car.
Yelloly started the car from pole, but it wasn’t a simple victory, with the car slipping as low as fourth at one point.
Yelloly retained the lead from his teammate, Tom Blomqvist, in the sister #60 Acura ARX-06, at the start of the race. The Briton was holding back Sheldon van der Linde in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 and Nick Tandy in the #6 Porsche 963, who soon switched places after a short caution for debris.
Blomqvist, then, held back his countryman Tandy as Yelloly made his escape, in a British 1-2-3 at the front of the field.
It would stay this way until Blomqvist pitted, the earliest of the GTPs to pit, with his teammate Colin Braun rejoining seventh. Over the next few laps, this triggered other GTP pit stops, with Blomqvist’s teammate Yelloly pitting from the lead shortly after.
This promoted Tandy to the lead, with Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R second and Dries Vanthoor in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 third.
Tandy pitted on lap 31, handing Albuquerque the lead. The Portuguese driver had a 27-second gap to the leading pitstopper, Felipe Nasr, who had replaced Tandy in the #7 Porsche. Renger van der Zande, who had replaced former leader Yelloly, sat third behind Nasr.
When Albuquerque stopped to hand over to teammate Ricky Taylor, the American was able to rejoin second, mere seconds behind Nasr. This, then, was a ginormous overcut, showing the benefit of staying out and pitting late — Albuquerque started that car eighth.
Caution shakes things up
Nasr looked good for the win, keeping a good gap to Albuquerque. But a caution with 36 minutes to go, for on-track debris from one of the many car contact incidents on the narrow street course, bunched the field up.
In an instant, then, the three-second or so gap was eliminated, and at the restart, Nasr’s rivals were tenths, not seconds, behind him.
R. Taylor in second was keen to take the win, and on lap 71 at turn 3, he saw his chance. He got his car to the apex, but in doing so pushed Nasr wide, with the two making front-to-rear contact. While the Brazilian initially was able to hold the position, at Turn 4, R. Taylor would sweep to the inside and take the lead.
Nasr then lost the momentum and slipped to fourth, with van der Zande and Nasr’s Porsche teammate Mathieu Jaminet overtaking him in subsequent corners. A review from race control took no action on R. Taylor’s rather robust challenge for position.
R. Taylor, then, led from van der Zande’s #93 Acura, with the two duking it out for the win. And with just minutes left, van der Zande made his move, a clean pass up the inside to take the lead and the win in General Motors’ and Cadillac’s backyard.
Jaminet was third for Porsche, the German manufacturer’s four-race winning streak over. Fourth was Nasr, while fifth went to #24 BMW’s Philipp Eng. Sixth was Colin Braun, stung by an early pitstop which was not the winning strategy in the #60 Acura, with seventh going to Marco Wittmann in the #25 BMW.
Eighth was Ross Gunn and Roman de Angelis in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie, while ninth went to Jordan Taylor in the sister #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac. The third Cadillac was 10th, Earl Bamber at the wheel of the #31 Action Express Cadillac, while 11th was Tijmen van der Helm in the #85 JDC Miller Porsche.
See here for full results. READ MORE – Ford’s Mike Rockenfeller beats Corvette to IMSA Detroit sprint victory
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