CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Jeff Westphal was able to jump over Rennsport One’s Jan Heylen in the pits with 45 minutes to go Friday afternoon (March 14). When pit strategy played out, he ended up with the overall lead. From there, he held on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 at Sebring International Raceway with teammate Sean McAlister.
“[The pit stop] was super-critical and the team is so solid,” Westphal told NBC Sports’ Chris Wilner in victory lane. “Everyone dotted all the i’s, crossed all the t’s and hit all our marks. Jan [Heylen] was going to be hard to pass. He always blocks really well and the Porsches are super fast at the end of the straightaway, so I started saving fuel since I knew I had to get him in the pit lane.”
McAlister and Westphal’s margin of victory was 15.951 seconds over Heylen and Luca Mars, Turner Motorsport’s Dillon Machavern and Francis Selldorff were third, then AutoTechnic Racing’s Austin Krainz and Stevan McAleer. McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Jenson Altzman and Sam Paley were fifth.
TeamTGM’s Paul Holton started on pole in his Aston Martin and led early. Luca Mars was able to get past McAlister in turn 1 to take second.
Meanwhile, JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Chris Miller was forced to pit at the end of the first lap with a flat tire. It was the beginning of a series of issues that would result in Miller and Mikey Taylor finishing 36th overall, 17th in Grand Sport and four laps down.
Early on, the race was a five-man duel between Holton, Mars, McAlister, newcomer Werner Neugebauer and Paley. Further back, KohR Motorsports’ Bob Michaelian was spun out of seventh in turn 7 by Hattori Motorsports’ Harrison Goodman. Goodman was given a drive-through penalty for the contact.
Eventually, Holton was able to able to open a small gap over the other four contenders. 25 minutes into the race, McAlister spun in turn 10 after contact from Paley. The spin dropped McAlister from third to sixth.
Once minimum drive-time was met, pit stops began. Holton continued to lead until Mars pitted for tires, fuel, and to hand over to Heylen. Shortly afterwards, Paley was able to sweep past Holton to take the overall lead.
The Panam Motorsport No. 54 was all the way up to second by the stops, but the team had two infractions during their stop. They went over the wall too soon, then left their tires unattended in the pit lane after their stop. That resulted in two drive-through penalties that left Neugebauer and Caio Chaves 15th, two minutes behind at the finish.
After the first round of stops, Turner Motorsport’s Dillon Machavern ended up with the overall lead. That came as a result of an alternate pit strategy that saw him pit early.
Heylen and Westphal in the CarBahn No. 39 were the top drivers on the regular pit strategy, Westphal having fully recovered from McAlister’s earlier spin. The two drivers got into a battle and Westphal eventually came out on top.
When Machavern pitted his BMW in order to hand over to Francis Selldorff, Westphal assumed the overall lead. Heylen was right on his tail at the time, but Westphal slowly began to pull away.
Behind the two leaders, Winward Racing had a very quiet day early on. Bryce Ward kept himself out of trouble and progressed up the order into the top 10. Once Daniel Morad got in the No. 57 Mercedes, he was able to drive the car up to third overall.
Morad had the fastest car of the top-three drivers. However, he was more than nine seconds behind Westphal with 35 minutes to go.
From there, Morad went to work and started putting down excellent lap times. That, combined with Heylen dropping back from Westphal, meant that Morad caught Heylen with 18 minutes to go.
What followed was a fierce battle for position. Heylen was able to hold off Morad until Morad cut his right front tire with seven minutes to go. He was forced to limp nearly a full lap to get back to the pits. Morad and Ward would ultimately finish a lap down in 30th overall, 21st in class.
In TCR, Bryan Herta Autosport’s Bryson Morris started from pole in his Hyundai, but the man on the move was Precision Racing LA’s Celso Neto. Starting in fourth, Neto quickly made his way forward, dispatching of Mason Filippi and Louis-Phillippe Montour.
On the third lap of the race, Neto was able to get past Morris in order to take the class lead. Montour was able to follow past into second.
Further down the order, Preston Brown had a tough couple of laps. First, there was contact between himself and LAP Motorsports’ Scott Thomson that resulted in Thomson spinning out. That did not result in a penalty.
A couple of laps later, Brown had contact with teammate Maddie Aust in turn 1, resulting in Aust spinning out and nearly hitting the tire wall. That contact did result in a penalty that dropped him out of the top 10.
Montour was able to get the overall lead away from Neto right before the mid-race pit stops for TCR began. Unfortunately for Precision Racing LA, there were issues getting fuel into the car during their stop.
Once the stops were complete, Mark Wilkins in BHA’s No. 33 Hyundai ended up with a six-second lead over teammate Harry Gottsacker. Neto’s teammate Ryan Eversley ended up more than 15 seconds back in fifth. The fueling issues resulted in an extra stop in the final 10 minutes for a splash of fuel.
Wilkins was not as quick as Gottsacker. The final 30 minutes of the race saw Gottsacker cut into Wilkins’ lead, but he could not prevent Wilkins and Morris from taking the win on the road.
However, things changed not too long afterwards. The No. 33 Hyundai was ultimately stripped of their class victory due to a refueling infraction.
TCR teams are mandated to fill the tank of their race cars no faster than 52 seconds. A post-race test determined that BHA’s fuel rig was refueling the car too quickly. As a result, the No. 33 Hyundai was moved to the rear of the class.
The DQ elevated Filippi and Gottsacker to their first win of the year. Their margin of victory was 12.946 seconds over Montour and Karl Wittmer. HART’s Tyler Chambers and Chad Gilsinger were third, then. KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering’s Tim Lewis Jr. and Dr. William Tally. Baker Racing’s Sam Baker and James Vance finished fifth.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 Unofficial Results
Michelin Pilot Challenge teams will take the next month and change off. The next race on the schedule will be the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 in California. The race is scheduled to go green at 3:45 p.m. ET on May 10. The race will stream live on both the IMSA Official YouTube channel and 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.