Rennsport One’s Stevan McAleer took the lead when Winward Racing’s Daniel Morad pitted for fuel with 20 minutes to go. He then held on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Road America 120 Saturday (Aug. 3) with teammate Trent Hindman for the team’s second straight victory.
“When you’re leading, [you] don’t want a last-minute restart,” McAleer told NBC Sports’ Georgia Henneberry after the race. “I maybe had a little bit [of pace] in the bag earlier on, but when [my crew] told me the times that [the other cars] were running, I knew it was going to be quite exciting at the end.”
Hindman and McAleer’s margin of victory was .394 seconds over Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman and Aaron Telitz. Van der Steur Racing’s Valentin Hasse-Clot and Rory van der Steur were third, then KohR Motorsports’ Luca Mars and Bob Michaelian. McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Jenson Altzman and Gavin Sanders were fifth.
CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal were sixth in their BMW, then Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Francis Selldorff. Morad and Bryce Ward were eighth, while Dillon Machavern and Robert Megennis were ninth. Motorsports In Action’s Michael de Quesada and Jesse Lazare rounded out the top-10.
Lazare started from the pole in his McLaren after having topped both practice sessions Friday and winning the pole Saturday morning. Jaden Conwright, carrying ENEOS sponsorship on his Supra, gave chase.
Eventually, Hindman was able to get past Conwright for second. Once there, Hindman immediately started putting the pressure on Lazare for the lead.
Further down the order, McAlister spun at Canada Corner after contact from Baby Bull Racing’s Moisey Uretsky. At the same time, Ward spun exiting the Kink and made slight contact with the wall. Both drivers were able to continue without issue, but lost track position.
Very quickly, the race became a three-man duel between Lazare, Hindman and Conwright. Selldorff had driven up to fourth, but was seven seconds behind.
34 minutes into the race, Skip Barber Racing’s Ken Fukuda spun out in turn 5 after contact from Rebel Rock Racing’s Frank DePew. DePew was given a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.
Right as DePew was serving his penalty, the race’s first full course caution flew due to debris on the track off of Paul Sparta‘s Random Vandals Racing BMW. Even though the yellow came out before minimum drive-time was achieved, the time necessary to bunch up the field and open pit lane meant that the minimum drive-time was clear.
Lazare chose not to pit here in something of a surprise. Meanwhile, the rest of the pack came in for tires, fuel and a driver change. McAleer won the race off pit road.
The result was that Lazare kept the lead, but ended up with McAleer right behind him with fresh tires and a full tank of fuel. Once the race restarted, McAleer got a run on Lazare exiting turn 1 and swept into the overall lead.
Motorsports In Action’s grandmaster plan was to do the race on one pit stop, but the restart was costly. By the time Lazare got to the Carousel, he was already down to seventh after the restart. When Lazare made his sole pit stop with 55 minutes remaining, he was down to 11th.
The strategy ended up being a complete dud for de Quesada as he exited the pits in 22nd overall, more than 70 seconds behind. He would eventually race back up to 10th, but it was a waste of one of the best cars in the field.
The final stops of the race started not too long afterwards. McAleer pitted from the overall lead with 50 minutes to go for fuel only, giving the lead to Hawksworth.
Daniel Morad went long in the Winward Racing Mercedes, along with Ross Chastain and Czabok-Simpson Racing’s Sebastian Carazo. Carazo ended up cutting his left rear tire and ended up losing a lap.
When Morad pitted with 20 minutes to go, McAleer regained the overall lead. Hawksworth was second, about seven seconds back. Then, he lost control of his Supra and backed hard into the wall exiting turn 13 to bring out the final yellow of the race. Hawksworth was ok, but the Supra was heavily damaged.
The green came back out with 10 minutes to go. McAleer got an excellent jump on the restart, but Telitz was able to run him down. The two drivers battled over the last couple of laps, but McAleer was able to hold on for the win.
For Chastain, he was negatively affected by the damage to the rear of his car that came out of DePew spinning out his teammate. He ran up front via strategy, then dropped back after stopping. A penalty during the final caution dropped Chastain and Fukuda to a 24th-place finish overall, 16th in Grand Sport.
In TCR, Montreal Motorsport Group’s Daijiro Yoshihara started on pole in his Honda and led early on. Meanwhile, Riley Pegram‘s Pilot Challenge debut started with trouble as she went off course in turn 5.
Bryan Herta Autosport’s Harry Gottsacker was able to get past teammate Mason Filippi for second in the opening laps and stuck himself to Yoshihara’s rear bumper. He was unable to do much with the rookie driver at first.
The TCR leaders caught up to DePew right after he had the aforementioned contact with Fukuda. Fukuda then proceeded to hold off Yoshihara. That allowed Gottsacker to get past to take the class lead. Yoshihara attempted to get back by, but the full course caution came out before Yoshihara could clear Gottsacker.
In the pits, the No. 98 with Mark Wilkins aboard won the race off of pit road. However, Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Morgan Burkhard stayed out to take the lead.
Once the green came back out, Wilkins started putting immediate pressure on Burkhard for the lead. It took a couple of laps, but Wilkins pressured Burkhard into a mistake in turn 1.
That was all Wilkins needed to take the lead. Teammate Bryson Morris followed into second, along with KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering’s Tim Lewis Jr.
When the final round of stops began, Morris was able to jump over Wilkins with a stop that was 3.5 seconds faster. However, Lewis was able to jump both drivers when he stopped.
Denis Dupont chose not to pit like everyone else in the class and tried to make the fuel he took on during the first caution hold out to the finish. By the time that the caution for Hawksworth’s crash happened, he was second overall. Since they were in the final 15 minutes of the race, there was no time for a class split.
As a result, Dupont ended up with a substantial lead over Andy Lally in the StarCom Racing No. 12. He just needed his fuel to hold out.
Sure enough, the fuel did come into play. Lally ran out of fuel coming to the white flag. Dupont, driving a similar Hyundai, ran out of fuel exiting turn 8.
Dupont’s issues allowed Lewis to take over the class lead. From there, he held on to take the win with teammate Dr. William Tally.
Lewis and Tally’s margin of victory was 1.033 seconds over Filippi and Wilkins. Yoshihara and Karl Wittmer were third, then JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor. Road Shagger Racing’s Gavin Ernstone and Jon Morley were fifth.
Neither Dupont or Lally made it back to the finish. Dupont and Preston Brown were credited with 10th, while Lally and Nick Tucker were 11th.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Road America 120 Unofficial Results
Michelin Pilot Challenge teams will be off for the next couple of weeks. The next race on the schedule is the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix at VIRginia International Raceway. The race is scheduled for Aug. 24 at 2:15 p.m. ET. The race will air live on Peacock
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.