ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. — A frantic finish to the feature race of the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America saw Porsche Penske Motorsport score a dramatic 1-2 overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class finish in Round 7 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
A record crowd for a sports car race at the classic Wisconsin road course watched Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 Porsche 963 hold off Porsche Penske Motorsport teammate Felipe Nasr in the identical No. 7 car through heavy traffic in the closing laps to win Sunday by 0.390 seconds.
Hard-charging Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 crossed the line in third place less than a second behind Nasr, closely followed by Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. The top four were separated by just 1.449 seconds at the checkered flag after two hours and 40 minutes of intense competition.
It was a thrilling spectacle as the exotic GTP prototypes bobbed and weaved through the pack of production-based GT3 cars in the race’s waning moments.
“We had a couple of contacts in the last laps, I touched quite a few cars,” Jaminet said. “That was pure IMSA-style racing. This is why we love it; this is why we want to come back every time.
“You can be nowhere the day before, and nowhere at the start of the race, and two hours later, you come back with a big trophy,” he added. “Big thanks to the team to pull out the strategy, to put the numbers together.”
It was a back-to-front effort by the Porsche pair. Dane Cameron suffered problems Saturday in qualifying in the No. 7 and a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility dropped Nick Tandy in the No. 6 to the rear of the field after a first-lap clash with Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac.
Porsche Penske Motorsport utilized pit strategy to move both cars back into contention. The Porsches and the No. 10 Acura made pit stops for tires, fuel and driver changes under a full-course caution on the 28th lap, with the No. 7 Porsche stopping again four laps later to top off. When the final yellow flew with 37 minutes remaining, Porsche gambled and kept both cars on track while the No. 10 Acura pitted, putting Jaminet and the No. 6 in the lead.
“I knew it was a long shot, but from the moment I got in the car, I had always in my mind that we could make it to the end, depending on the yellows,” Jaminet said. “This is something I was already discussing before, and I was saving fuel like hell.”
When racing resumed with 16 minutes remaining, he pulled out a small lead before encountering a staggering amount of GT traffic for his final two laps.
“It was a pretty wild last few laps, especially when we were catching traffic,” said Nasr, who chased Jaminet hard through the traffic but couldn’t make a move for the lead. “It got dicey out there. But the execution was perfect and it was a great day for Porsche Penske Motorsport with a 1-2 here. I feel like our race was all over the place. At one point, we had to make an extra stop to change the rear tail because I got hit from behind.
“It’s one of those days that making points on the competition was super important, when their cars had issues or didn’t have the desired results. I was just one car from the win, but congrats to the guys in the No. 6.”
Porsche Penske Motorsport has earned four GTP class wins in 2024, two by each car. Cameron and Nasr maintained their lead in the GTP standings, while Jaminet and Tandy leapfrogged the No. 01 Cadillac Racing duo of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande into second place, an even 100 points behind the leaders. Bourdais and van der Zande finished ninth on Sunday and fell 185 points from the lead with two GTP races remaining.
‘Ben’ There, Won That: Keating, Hanley Deliver Unite Autosports First IMSA Win
Ben Hanley finished teammate Ben Keating’s recovery mission. The “Bens” combined to win the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class Sunday, successfully capping a reclamation project that began when their No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 crashed Saturday morning during practice with Keating behind the wheel.
The crew repaired the car in time for Keating to clinch the No. 2 starting spot in Saturday’s afternoon qualifying. He started Sunday’s race by taking the lead in turn 1 on the first lap, and Hanley finished the race by turning the fastest lap in class during the final minutes of the race.
He was greeted immediately by Keating, who celebrated their first victory as co-drivers and the first win for United Autosports USA in WeatherTech Championship competition.
“We each had a great car,” said Keating, who marveled at the crew’s ability to rebuild the badly damaged left side of the car in time for qualifying. “The car felt so good throughout the race. It was a crazy race. There were lots of safety cars and incidents and stuff happening all over the place. For once, we got lucky.”
Hanley pulled away from Scott Andrews in the No. 79 JDC-Miller MotorSports ORECA after a restart with 16 minutes remaining in the race. Hanley reached the finish line 6.685 seconds ahead after recording the best LMP2 lap around the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit – 1 minute, 53.544 seconds – with four minutes remaining.
“Around here, a gap of four or five seconds can go away in a lap,” Hanley said. “It depends on when you were catching the GT traffic. That can make or break your race around here. I was still pushing hard, right to the end.”
Andrews and co-driver Gerry Kraut held on for second place in a one-off appearance for the Minnesota-based LMP2 machine, while pole winner PJ Hyett and Paul-Loup Chatin rallied to finish third in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA.
While Hanley and Keating were running away with the race, the points lead in the LMP2 championship changed hands after five of seven races. The No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA co-driven by Tom Dillmann and Nick Boulle moved 27 points ahead of the No. 74 Riley ORECA co-driven by Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson. After winning last month’s race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the No. 52 finished seventh Sunday while the No. 74 wound up 10th.
Keating opened the race by passing Hyett for the lead on the opening lap. With 90 minutes remaining, Keating gave way to Hanley, who avoided the mayhem of three caution flags during the final 87 minutes.
“Even with all the track sweeping, it was still very dusty off line,” Hanley said. “It looked clean, but if you tried to venture out there, you could get bit pretty hard. Even though we were building a gap, I was never happy with the gap that I had. I always wanted more.”