Pilet, Werner win at Lime Rock in new Porsche

Published Jul. 22, 2017 6:53 p.m. ET

LAKEVILLE, Conn. (AP) Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner led a Porsche GT Team sweep Saturday in the IMSA SportsCar Championship race at Lime Rock Park, the first victory for the new mid-engine Porsche 911 RSR.

Pilet finished the 2-hour, 40-munute race, beating teammate Laurens Vanthoor by 14.5 seconds. Pilet and Werner drove the No. 911 Porsche, and Vanthoor teamed with Gianmaria Bruni in the No. 912 Porsche.

''It means a lot,'' Pilet said. ''Since the first race of the season, we've fought for the victory but never achieved that. It was great because everybody worked so hard. It went smooth all weekend since first practice. Both cars were really quick, especially the 912. We managed to get a really good pace during the long runs and we knew it was a key here to be strong during the long runs and it went perfectly.''

Martin Tomczyk and John Edwards were third in the No. 24 BMW in the event that featured the two GT classes. It was the first IMSA race to be run without a full-course caution since another GT-only race at Virginia International Raceway in 2015.

Porsche also won the GT Daytona class with Patrick Lindsey and Joerg Bergmeister in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports 911 GT3 R. Bergmeister has seven victories at the 1.5-mile Lime Rock Park circuit.