Bryan Herta Autosport’s Mason Filippi was able to slip to the inside of LA Honda World Racing’s Ryan Eversley entering Big Bend with a little over 12 minutes to go.
From there, he was able to hold on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Lime Rock Park 100 for himself and teammate Mark Wilkins.
Filippi and Wilkins’ margin of victory was 20.587 seconds over Harry Gottsacker and Robert Wickens. Eversley and Mat Pombo faded to third, followed by Van der Steur Racing’s Tyler Maxson and Bryan Ortiz. These were the only teams that finished on the lead lap.
Luca Mars and Rory van der Steur in the sole Hyundai Veloster N TCR finished fifth.
Pombo set a Lime Rock TCR track record Friday afternoon en route to the pole position. Once the green came out, Pombo was able to open up a small lead on the pack. Wilkins and Ortiz were able to give chase.
After the first 25 minutes, Wilkins was just barely able to keep pace with Pombo. Meanwhile, Ortiz fell down the order as his tires went away.
Deily Motorsports’ Jacob Deily nearly brought out a yellow 20 minutes into the race when the left front wheel came off of his Hyundai Elantra N TCR on the back side of the course. Deily pulled off at West Bend rather than drive back to the pits. IMSA did not put out the caution for it.
With the shortened race length of 100 minutes instead of two hours, the minimum drive-time was cut from 40 minutes to 30 minutes. That resulted in substantially different pit strategies.
JDC-Miller MotorSports chose to pit Chris Miller just 32 minutes into the race for tires, fuel and a change to Mikey Taylor. Their intention was to go to the finish from there. It didn’t work out as Taylor ran out of fuel with 10 minutes to go while running fourth
As the run continued on, Wilkins was able to run Pombo back down as Pombo began to struggle with the handling of his Honda. 45 minutes into the race, Wilkins made the move to take the lead away. Wickens entered the picture as well.
Pombo ultimately pitted just before halfway to hand over to Eversley. Wilkins brought his Hyundai in six laps later to put Filippi in the car.
The result of the sequence is that the No. 37 Honda with Eversley at the wheel was not only able to get the lead back, but ended up with an advantage of over 10 seconds. Unfortunately for Eversley, tire wear has been the main subject of conversation at Lime Rock all weekend.
As a result, Filippi was slowly able to reel in Eversley due to the tire advantage. Eversley getting held up by the slower cars of Taylor Hagler and Alex Rockwell.
With a little more than 20 minutes to go, Filippi was able to chase down Eversley. What followed was a cat-and-mouse battle as Eversley fought as hard as he possibly could to keep the lead.
However, Filippi was able to make the move in Big Bend that Eversley could not defend against. Once out front, Filippi ran away and hid to take the win.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Lime Rock Park 100 Unofficial Results
A highlighted broadcast of the Lime Rock Park 100 will air on CNBC on Aug. 6 at 11 a.m. ET.
Both classes of IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge will return to action Aug. 6 at Road America. The Road America 120 is scheduled to go green at 3:55 p.m. ET. Coverage will air live on Peacock starting at 3:50 p.m. ET.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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