Pruett, Rojas secure victory in TUDOR Championship race at Circuit of The Americas
Scott Pruett has delivered Chip Ganassi Racing its third Prototype and overall win of TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season, its first since Long Beach in April, in Saturday's Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas. Pruett co-drove the winning No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford with Memo Rojas.
Pruett took the lead on fuel strategy, as the car made one less pit stop (two to three) compared to eventual second through fourth place finishers. The car cut it so close, it ran out of fuel just before Turn 11 on the cool down lap.
Once Pruett got out front, the veteran had to hold off remaining charges from both Joao Barbosa in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP and Alex Brundle in the No. 42 OAK Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda.
Brundle passed Barbosa late, and the Englishman closed down a 13-plus second deficit to Pruett. But due to traffic and running out of time, Brundle ended 2.3 seconds away from a debut win for the car he shared with Gustavo Yacaman, after another near faultless race.
Yacaman made contact with Ricky Taylor at the start in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP but led for the majority of his stint, until he was contacted exiting Turn 1 by another Corvette DP, the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona entry driven by Michael Valiante. Valiante was issued a drive-through penalty for the contact, the first of four handed out during the race.
Meanwhile the Colombian handed off to Brundle at the second pit stop and needed a third for their final run to the finish. Brundle and Barbosa's scrap in the waning stages was one of the highlights of the race.
P class points leaders Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi finished third.
The lone Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b entered in the TUDOR Championship this week, the No. 2 car of Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown, enjoyed a trouble-free run to fourth after Brown pitted earliest of all Prototype class cars to hand over to "JVO." In a strategy similar to the pair's win at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, van Overbeek could then push to the finish.
Michael Shank Racing posted its third top-five in the last four races with Ozz Negri and John Pew, and the pair in the No. 60 Riley-Ford mirrored the winning No. 01 in making only two stops.
8Star Motorsports delivered its second straight Prototype Challenge win with Sean Rayhall and Luis Diaz in the No. 25 Oreca FLM09, from pole. The win is 8Star's second of the season as well, and closes them up within the Team Championship.
Rayhall rebounded from a mid-race spin at Lap 38, when he was contacted by Colin Braun in the No. 54 CORE autosport Oreca FLM09 at Turn 1.
Braun was issued a drive-through penalty for the contact. Still, he and Jon Bennett rebounded to second, and have unofficially clinched the PC class championship, with a points lead north of 40 before Petit Le Mans in two weeks. The max for a win is 35.
Starworks Motorsport rounded out the podium with Renger van der Zande and Mirco Schultis in the No. 8 Oreca FLM09, following a trouble-free drive.
The No. 52 PR1/ Mathiasen Motorsports entry of Gunnar Jeannette and Frankie Montecalvo was fourth, although that car's race featured contact with the then-GT Daytona leading No. 23 Team Seattle/AJR Porsche 911 GT America driven by Ian James and Mario Farnbacher. The No. 23 was issued a drive-through for contact as well.
Hard luck fifth was the No. 08 RSR Racing Oreca FLM09 of Chris Cumming and Jack Hawksworth. Hawksworth inherited the PC class lead after the Rayhall/Braun contact, but had a pit lane issue on his final stop from the lead. Hawksworth ground to a halt in pit lane, out of fuel, and was pushed into the pits to fall from the lead back to sixth.
In the GT classes, the Dodge Viper has taken a double victory in the second-to-last race of the season, with the SRT GTS-R and SRT GT3-R both emerging victorious.
SRT Motorsports has captured a 1-2 finish in GT Le Mans, seizing their opportunity with the pair of Dodge Viper SRT GTS-Rs when the erstwhile dominant No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR headed to pit lane inside the final 20 minutes.
Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer claimed their second win of the year in the No. 93 entry ahead of teammates Dominik Farnbacher and Marc Goossens. The result is the team's first ever 1-2 finish since the Viper GTS-R program premiered in 2012, and second win for the team this season (No. 93 also won at Indianapolis).
Unofficially, Bomarito and Wittmer should move into the GT Le Mans points lead ahead of Antonio Garcia, who struggled to a ninth place finish co-driving with Jan Magnussen in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R.
Nick Tandy and Jorg Bergmeister dominated the race, but Tandy brought the No. 911 in on Lap 67 with just 17 minutes remaining. An apparent driveshaft issue halted their charge after leading a majority of the 10th round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season.
Porsche salvaged at least one podium with Patrick Long and Michael Christensen in third, in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR.
Meanwhile Risi Competizione finished fourth in the No. 62 Ferrari F458 Italia, driven by Pierre Kaffer and Giancarlo Fisichella, coming from 10th on the grid.
The third factory Porsche, the No. 910 Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet and Fred Makowiecki, rebounded from 11th to fifth following an impressive first stint from Makowiecki, that took him into the top 15 overall from 50th on the grid.
BMW Team RLL and Corvette Racing fought through challenging afternoons, ending sixth and seventh (BMW) and ninth and 10th (Corvette), respectively.
GT Daytona saw Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating secure their second win of the season in the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R.
Keating ran cleanly in his stint, before handing over to Bleekemolen. Once the Dutchman took over, he was able to reel in the previously dominant car on the day.
Bleekemolen made a late pass on Dane Cameron, in the No. 300 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3, heading into Turn 12 to take the lead and bring the car home to the win.
Cameron fought to hold back Andy Lally in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America, before Lally also made the move for second at Turn 12 in the waning stages. Lally and John Potter recorded Magnus' fourth podium of the season, and first since Watkins Glen in June.
The Turner BMW of Cameron and Markus Palttala, who led the majority of the opening stint in class, ended third, and broke the three-way tie for the GTD points lead.
Fourth after a solid drive was the Snow Racing/Dempsey Racing No. 58 Porsche 911 GT America of Madison Snow and Jan Heylen.
Leh Keen and Cooper MacNeil made the most of a difficult grid position, as the drivers of the No. 22 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America started from the back of the GTD field (19th) and recovered to fifth. They had originally qualified 16th, then were sent to the back to change tires. MacNeil drove into the fringes of the top-10 in his stint with Keen doing the rest.
AIM Autosport was only able to recover from 15th up to eighth with the No. 555 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler.
The Turner BMW will hold a several point lead on the AJR Porsche heading to Road Atlanta, with the AIM Ferrari a further few points behind.
