Team Penske takes unlikely victory in spectacular Road Atlanta 6H race

Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves have taken the victory in the TireRack.com Grand Prix, recovering from a pair of penalties to win from pole.

Castroneves started the #7 Acura ARX-05 from pole position in a race that was halted after less than a single lap because of an incident involving the #6 Acura in the hands of Dane Cameron, which was squeezed onto the kerb at turn 12 before taking the flag and spun, triggering a collision between the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-VR of Matheus Leist and Dwight Merriman’s #18 Era Motorsports ORECA 07-Gibson.

The JDC-Miller Cadillac was retired, while the #18 ORECA lost a huge amount of laps as suspension damage had to be repaired.

Castroneves’ victory hopes were seemingly dashed during another safety car period later on, when the Brazilian incurred a pair of penalties for two pit lane infringements. This promoted the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-VR into the lead, which led for the majority of the race’s first half before a puncture put the championship leading car off sequence.

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This then handed the lead back to the recovering Cameron, who having taken over the #6 Acura, moved into the lead of the race before being passed on a pitstop cycle by the #77 Mazda RT24-P of Tristan Nunez.

Nunez looked set for victory until the Mazda was struck by technical issues, handing the lead back to Cameron before the reigning DPi champion lost the lead when he was passed by team-mate Ricky Taylor. Taylor handed over to Castroneves, who retained the lead despite a charging Harry Tincknell in the #55 Mazda RT24-P.

The victory for Taylor and Castroneves was then sealed when, during a tight battle for third place in DPi, Toni Vilander ran wide in the #63 Scuderia Cora Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo after a touch from Tristan Vautier’s #5 Cadillac DPi-VR and subsequently tagged Juan Pablo Montoya’s #6 Acura and sent it crashing into a wall.

The race initially seemed to end under caution, but a two-lap sprint at the end saw no changes in the race order.

Taylor and Castroneves took their second win of the 2020 season, with Harry Tincknell, Jonathan Bomarito and Ryan Hunter-Reay finished second in the #55 Mazda. Felipe Nasr took a late third after slipping past Vautier during the Montoya incident, completing the podium for the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-VR driven by Nasr, Pipo Derani and Filipe Albuquerque.

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports took a dominant victory as Simon Trummer, Patrick Kelly and Scott Huffaker took an easy run to the flag in the #52 ORECA 07-Gibson after their only LMP2 adversary was damaged in the opening lap incident.

BMW snaps Corvette’s undefeated streak

In GTLM, Connor de Phillippi and Bruno Spengler took victory in the #25 BMW M8 GTE, breaking the Corvette winning streak that had been going since the post-lockdown season restart.

Porsche led the way for a considerable portion of the race, with the #911 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Frederic Makowiecki and Nick Tandy seemingly headed for a certain win until Nick Tandy unexpectedly dropped down the order after the final round of pitstop and could do no better than fourth place.

De Phillippi and Spengler inherited the lead and won, ahead of the #4 Corvette C8.R of Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin, which did well to recover from an early puncture to finish second. John Edwards and Jesse Krohn finished third in the #24 BMW M8 GTE ahead of Makowiecki and Tandy, who saw another seemingly certain victory fall away in the closing stages.

Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor finished fifth in the #3 Corvette C8.R despite leading the race at various points, but ultimately fell down the order.

Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor fell victim to another mechanical mishap. After serving a drivethrough penalty early on, the #912 Porsche 911 RSR-19 was struck by a brake issue, which dropped it out of contention. The pair finished sixth.

Double win for Acura

Acura took a double win in the six-hour enduro as Mario Farnbacher, Matt McMurry and Shinya Michimi took the GTD victory in the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo, beating out Paul Miller Racing’s Lamborghini squad.

The #48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo led the majority of the race after it captured the lead amidst the opening lap chaos and ran virtually unchallenged until the penultimate hour, when Farnbacher jumped Paul Miller Racing’s Madison Snow during a round of pitstops.

After the final restart, Farnbacher held off Snow to win, while the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long, Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen completed the podium.

Lawson Aschenbach, Gar Robinson and Ben Keating finished fourth in the #74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, ahead of Townsend Bell, Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo in the #12 Lexus RC F GT3, completing the top five.