TUDOR Championship: Action Express scores dominant 1-2 at Road America
Action Express Racing claimed its third TUDOR United SportsCar Championship victory of the season following a dominant 1-2 run for the team in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase.
Dane Cameron took the No. 31 Corvette DP to a 14.359-second win over teammate Joao Barbosa in a relatively clean and green two-hour and 40-minute race at Road America.
Cameron, who took over controls of the Whelen-sponsored entry during the race’s only full-course caution early in the opening hour, held control from the middle of the second hour, following a hard-fought battle with two other Corvette DPs.
It even saw the two Action Express entries make slight contact with each other early, but both held on with no major drama in the second half, which had the defending Prototype champions firmly in control.
The only significant late-race incident came from Barbosa in the final 20 minutes when he spun the No. 5 Corvette DP in Turn 1 but quickly returned to action.
The Prototype class saw its share of attrition, first with the pole-sitting Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford DP of Joey Hand, who dropped back with a turbo gasket issue in the first hour.
Scott Pruett rebounded to a third place finish, ahead the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda of Ozz Negri and John Pew in fourth.
The Shank entry started from the pit lane after a fuel leak in warmup and was running third until a late off-course excursion by the Brazilian.
The Taylor brothers have effectively been eliminated from championship contention after suspected suspension issues saw Jordan Taylor lose three laps and drop them out of contention for the win.
There was also drama for points leaders VisitFlorida.com Racing, after Richard Westbrook spun after contact from Christian Fittipaldi in the opening hour.
Westbrook dropped to 19th at the time but rebounded for a fourth place overall finish, ahead of the DeltaWing, which completed the top-five after a trouble-free run.
The VisitFlorida.com pairing now lead the championship only by a single point over Action Express’ Barbosa and Fittipaldi heading into next month’s penultimate round of the season at Circuit of The Americas.
After a number of near-misses and bad luck, Performance Tech Motorsports appeared to be en route to a breakthrough victory in Prototype Challenge, but a spin by Conor Daly on the final lap dashed threw it away.
Instead, RSR Racing’s Bruno Junqueira picked up class honors, taking his No. 11 Oreca FLM09 to top class honors for the second time of the year.
Junqueira and co-driver Chris Cumming dominated the race from the start, but a fuel saving effort for pole-sitter James French saw Daly take over the lead in the closing stint but slowly came until attack by the Brazilian.
Daly and French had to settle for second on the day, ahead of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett in third, who extend their lead in the drivers’ championship over PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports with two rounds to go.
Title rivals Tom Kimber-Smith and Mike Guasch were fourth, with the BAR1 Motorsports entry completing the top-five in class.
Porsche North America dominated the GT Le Mans class en route to its second straight class win, while Riley Motorsports’ full-season pairing secured its first win of the season in GT Daytona.
The No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet scored the win in GTLM, their second straight, and recovered nicely after a pre-race engine change and a last place starting position in class.
It became a one-two with the No. 912 Porsche in second following some last lap drama.
Pilet started eighth but after a charge up to third in his first stint, handed over to Tandy on the first full course caution, in the opening half hour of the race.
From there, Tandy ran consistently in either second or third. He had a rare spin at Turn 5 after overcooking the entry and locking up, but resumed without losing too much time.
Tandy handed back to Pilet on the second stop, with the team then opting to take two left side tires only on the third and final stop made on Lap 52.
Pilet emerged ahead once Pierre Kaffer pitted the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia from the lead, having taken fuel only on his final stop on Lap 56.
Kaffer was stuck anywhere from three to four seconds back from there and unable to hunt down the Frenchman, and then lost out for second on the final lap after he had played good defense in the waning stages against Joerg Bergmeister in the second factory Porsche.
Kaffer, who took over from Giancarlo Fisichella, held off the Bergmeister’s advances while on older tires, until the final lap.
Kaffer and Bergmeister collided on the final lap, side-by-side, battling for second, before Kaffer ran wide onto the gravel past Turn 13.
Bergmeister took over the No. 912 Porsche RSR from polesitter Earl Bamber, and they finished second. Bamber led early, but was then caught out by pit stop timing, and then a hood pin coming loose that cost time on the pit stop. Bergmeister said the car was great, and was then frustrated to end second.
A tough day for the rest of the GTLM field saw the title contending No. 3 Corvette C7.R and No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE finish fourth and fifth, without having much for either the factory Porsches or the Ferrari.
At one stage, Jan Magnussen’s No. 3 car had slight contact with PC class driver Mirco Schultis at Canada Corner in the second hour.
Riley’s full-season pair of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen finally got on the board in 2015, for their second straight podium in the No. 33 Dodge Viper GT3-R after coming second at Lime Rock Park.
Bleekemolen took the lead on Lap 61 once Kuno Wittmer pitted the then-leading No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 for a splash of fuel and two left side tires.
Bleekemolen, who pitted for the final time with just under 54 minutes remaining, held on from there over Wittmer, who co-drove with Christina Nielsen.
Spencer Pumpelly and polesitter Patrick Lindsey finished third in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America.
Wittmer and Nielsen finished best of the four driver pairings in the GTD title fight, with the No. 63 Ferrari in fourth, No. 48 Audi in sixth, and No. 22 Porsche in seventh.
