Whelen Engineering Racing has won the Motul Pole Award 100, thus securing pole position for the Rolex 24 at Daytona next week.
Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani took victory in the #31 Cadillac DPi-VR, finishing ahead of the #55 Mazda RT24-P of Oliver Jarvis and Harry Tincknell and the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-VR of Tristan Vautier and Loic Duval in third.
Jarvis started the race from pole position next to Vautier, but the pair of them were immediately challenged by IMSA debutant Kevin Magnussen in the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-VR, who passed them both and take the race lead before the end of the first lap.
Magnussen saw his chance to win on debut fall away, however, when the team waited too long to make the switch from wet tyres to slicks. Instead, Vautier moved the Mustang Sampling Cadillac into the lead.
The Frenchman then lost the lead to Nasr who came charging up in the #31 Cadillac and would not relinquish it, taking the first win of 2020.
Olivier Pla and Dane Cameron finished fourth in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05, with the top five completed by Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor.
PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports came out on top in LMP2, but it was anything but smooth sailing for the duo of Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen. Keating first spun the #52 ORECA 07-Gibson on the formation lap and later served a penalty, dropping him down the order.
Jensen charged back up the order however, and battled for the lead with the #47 Cetilar Racing Dallara P217-Gibson of Antonio Fuoco in the final fifteen minutes, eventually taking the lead with a stunning pass at the International Horseshoe.
Fuoco then pulled into the pits with an issue, thus handing second to the #20 ORECA 07-Gibson of Dennis Andersen and Ferdinand Habsburg. Third went to John Farano and Gabriel Aubry in the #8 Tower Motorsport ORECA, ahead of Giedo van der Garde and Frits van Eerd in the #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA.
The first ever LMP3 race in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship was won by the car that started the race from pole. Laurents Hoerr and Moritz Kranz took the win in the #6 Muelhner Motorsports America Duqueine D08-M80.
The pair dropped down the order in the early running, but when both the Sean Creech Motorsport and Performance Tech Motorsports retired from hte race, Hoerr and Kranz were able to regain the lead, winning ahead of Forty7 Motorsports and CORE Autosport, with neither of the two Riley Motorsports entries taking part of the race.
Corvette Racing returned to winning ways in the first race of the season in GTLM as Alexander Sims and Nick Tandy took the #4 Corvette C8.R to their first win as a duo.
The Corvettes had started the race behind the two BMWs but eventually made their way up, before finding themselves behind the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre. Estre, however was running on a different strategy and pitted before the end of the race, dropping to third.
Tandy and Sims won ahead of the #3 Corvette C8.R of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, with Estre and Cooper MacNeil finishing third. James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi took fourth in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, seeing a potential good result squandered when Pier Guidi spun on pit exit after his stop.
Finally, Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley ensured a pole start for the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 by winning in GTD, ahead of Zacharie Robichon and Laurens Vanthoor in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Mirko Bortolotti and Rolf Ineichen, having briefly led at the start of the race, finished third in the #111 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo. They took third after battling the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz and Oliver Gavin.
The top five in class was completed by Phillip Ellis and Russell Ward in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
| # | Driver | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pipo Derani | #31 Cadillac DPi | – |
| 2 | Harry Tincknell | #55 Mazda DPi | 3.664 |
| 3 | Loic Duval | #5 Cadillac DPi | 4.627 |
| 4 | Olivier Pla | #60 Acura DPi | 6.995 |
| 5 | Ricky Taylor | #10 Acura DPi | 8.997 |
| 6 | Kamui Kobayashi | #48 Cadillac DPi | 19.985 |
| 7 | Renger van der Zande | #01 Cadillac DPi | 1:14.834 |
| 8 | Mikkel Jensen | #52 ORECA LMP2 07 | – |
| 9 | Ferdinand Habsburg Lothringen | #20 ORECA LMP2 07 | 1 lap |
| 10 | Gabriel Aubry | #8 ORECA LMP2 07 | 1 lap |
| 11 | Giedo van der Garde | #29 ORECA LMP2 07 | 1 lap |
| 12 | Garett Grist | #81 ORECA LMP2 07 | 1 lap |
| 13 | Antonio Fuoco | #47 Dallara LMP2 | 1 lap |
| 14 | Paul Loup Chatin | #18 ORECA LMP2 07 | 2 laps |
| 15 | Cody Ware | #51 Ligier LMP2 | 2 laps |
| 16 | Nick Tandy | #4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | – |
| 17 | Nicky Catsburg | #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | 12.054 |
| 18 | Kevin Estre | #79 Porsche 911 RSR – 19 | 22.681 |
| 19 | Devlin Defrancesco | #82 ORECA LMP2 07 | 3 laps |
| 20 | Tristan Nunez | #11 ORECA LMP2 07 | 3 laps |
| 21 | James Calado | #62 Ferrari 488 GTE | 1 lap |
| 22 | Bill Auberlen | #96 BMW M6 GT3 | – |
| 23 | Laurens Vanthoor | #9 Porsche 911 GT3R | 4.424 |
| 24 | Mirko Bortolotti | #111 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 13.346 |
| 25 | Philipp Eng | #25 BMW M8 GTE | 1 lap |
