Acura wins an endurance race for the first time on Road Atlanta
–
Motorsport-Magazin.com – Acura has two reasons to celebrate at the 6-hour IMSA series race on Road Atlanta: Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor secured a long-distance win for the brand for the first time since the start of the DPi program! In addition, it was an Acura double triumph in the DPi and GTD class for the first time in the IMSA.
For the first time, the Acura-Penske team won an endurance race in the IMSA series. Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor in car # 7 crossed the finish line as winners after six hours. In the end, they had to survive a two-lap shootout after a very late caution, triggered by the sister car # 6 (Montoya / Cameron). They took the lead just under an hour before the end, despite two early pit-stop penalties.
Second was the Mazda # 55 (Bomarito / Tincknell / Hunter-Reay) pushing from behind, but for which it was no longer enough for a final attack, in front of the Action Express Cadillac # 31 (Nasr / Derani / Albuquerque). The Cadillac # 31 also came back after a penalty: Derani was identified as the cause of a collision with the GRT Lamborghini # 44 from the GTD class and had to pay a drive-through penalty for it.
In the extremely thinly occupied LMP2 class, the matter was quickly decided: Since the ERA-Oreca # 18 (Merriman / Tilley / Braun) had to take a long repair break due to a start-up crash, the PR1-Mathiasen-Oreca won from the start # 52 (Kelly / Trummer / Huffaker) almost a done deal. The troop drove the race home confidently.
Road Atlanta: Bruno Spengler celebrates first IMSA class win
Bruno Spengler clinched a class win in the IMSA series for the first time in a BMW # 25 (Spengler / De Phillippi). In a race worth seeing, the vehicle took the lead on the last stop lap and was able to defend it until the finish. The # 4 Corvette (Gavin / Milner) and the second BMW # 24 (Krohn / Edwards) made it onto the podium.
The Porsche # 911 (Tandy / Makowiecki) had everything under control before the last stop and was in the lead. In the final stint, however, it fell back to fourth, ahead of the Corvette # 3 (Garcia / Taylor). The second Porsche # 912, on the other hand, had to struggle with damage and defects again and again and was two laps behind at the finish.
For a long time, events in the GTD class were determined by the Miller-Lamborghini # 48 (Sellers / Snow / Lewis), but on the penultimate stop lap the lead was lost to the Meyer-Shank-Acura # 86 (Farnbacher / McMurry / Michimi). Afterwards Mario Farnbacher could not be deprived of victory, with which Acura achieved the double triumph in the DPi and GTD class for the first time in the IMSA. Third was the Wright-Porsche # 18 (Hardwick / Long / Heylen).
–
