LEXINGTON, Oh. — Turner Motorsport’s Francis Selldorff took over the lead during a round of green-flag pit stops Sunday (June 8). From there, he expanded his advantage, then had to hold on late to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio with teammate Dillon Machavern. It is the first victory for the duo as teammates and Selldorff’s first career Pilot Challenge win.
“I’m still processing [the victory], to be honest,” Selldorff told Frontstretch after the race. “It’s been a long [time] coming for me, starting in [IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge] two years ago, getting introduced to IMSA and everything. Winning is an awesome feeling and you never know when it’s going to happen. It’s a dream come true for sure.”
The margin of victory was .751 seconds over Winward Racing’s Daniel Morad and Bryce Ward. Rennsport One’s Jan Heylen and Luca Mars were third, while Ibiza Farm Motorsports’ Michael Cooper and Moisey Uretsky were fourth in their McLaren. AutoTechnic Racing’s Stevan McAleer, Austin and Roland Krainz were fifth.
AR Motorsports’ Thomas Merrill started from pole in his Porsche and proceeded to pull away from the pack. While Merrill is talented, the team is in only their second race in the series.
Merrill extended his lead to over six seconds while Team TGM’s Paul Holton and Turner Motorsport’s Dillon Machavern battled for second.
The first full course caution came out 38 minutes into the race when Winward Racing’s Bryce Ward slid off-course at the Keyhole and hit the tire barrier. He tried, but was unable to free himself.
This brought everyone into the pits as the 40-minute minimum drive-time was satisfied in time to stop the second lap that the pits were open. Here, AR Motorsports struggled in the pits. Machavern was able to take over the lead with an excellent stop.
That lead was short-lived. Machavern went a little too hot into the Keyhole and went wide. That allowed Mars to take the overall lead.
Shortly afterwards, HART’s Tyler Chambers spun out of third in TCR and beached himself in the gravel in turn 1. That brought out another caution.
Cautions for debris and a crash for van der Steur Racing’s Ben Sloss kept the field close. The crash eliminated Sloss from the race while Luke Rumburg (who had contact with Sloss before he got in the wall), broke a suspension part and had to pit for repairs.
Four cautions nearly back-to-back-to-back-to-back ran off nearly 45 minutes of the race. Luckily, things calmed down afterwards.
Mars continued to lead with Machavern and CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister giving chase. Meanwhile, Turner Motorsport’s second car pitted just as the race restarted to swap Patrick Gallagher into the car, creating an alternate strategy.
Mars opened his advantage up to a little more than a second before Machavern closed back in with McAlister in tow. A battle erupted.
Machavern was hoping to get the lead, but he ended up losing second to McAlister. Next up for McAlister was Mars. He ran him back down and tried to pass. Mars blocked it, forcing McAlister wide.
The first attempt was unsuccessful. The second was far worse as McAlister first lost second to Machavern, then he spun in turn 6. He would continue, but dropped all the way down to seventh.
Machavern drove himself back up to Mars’ rear bumper and made another series of moves for the lead. It was unsuccessful.
On the next round of stops, Turner Motorsport put Francis Selldorff into the No. 95 and managed to beat Jan Heylen in the Rennsport One Porsche out of the pits. Gallagher assumed the lead via his alternate strategy.
While Selldorff exited the pits just barely ahead of Heylen, he was able to put multiple seconds on the Porsche. By the time Gallagher pitted with 96 minutes to go, Selldorff had a seven-second lead. Heylen was also contending with Jeff Westphal in the CarBahn BMW for second.
It took a full half-hour for Westphal to make the pass on Heylen. Despite the battle he was able to keep pace with Selldorff.
The leaders came in for their final pit stops with an hour to go. Selldorff was able to maintain the lead with a good stop..
Right afterwards, Merrill’s Porsche stalled exiting turn 7. With Merrill unable to get his Cayman restarted, the full course yellow flew. That wiped out Selldorff’s seven-second lead and put Westphal right on his tail.
When the race restarted, Westphal went to work on Selldorff for the lead. The veteran racer tried hard to get past, but just couldn’t do so.
Gallagher, having not required as much fuel during the previous caution as the leaders who had pitted earlier, drove himself up to fifth. However, contact from McAleer resulted in a spin off the track and another yellow.
The final restart with 15 minutes to go saw Westphal keep up his assault on Selldorff. Meanwhile, Morad, recovered from Ward’s earlier trip to the tires, was up to fourth and going after Heylen for third.
Westphal’s chances at victory ended with 12 minutes to go as his BMW suddenly slowed with a mechanical failure. A good race ended eight laps short of the finish.
Westphal’s failure put Morad in third and threatening second. With five laps to go, he got the second step on the podium and had a pace advantage over Selldorff. However, Selldorff was able to hold off the charge and take the win.
In TCR, Montreal Motorsports Group’s Karl Wittmer started on pole in his Honda. As the teams drove past the slowest Grand Sport teams, Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez drove up into second.
A few laps later, Gonzalez was able to run down Wittmer and take the class lead. Wittmer later ran into trouble when he went off-course at turn 9 while battling with Mason Filippi.
During the first caution, everyone pitted for tires and fuel. Filippi won the race off of pit road to keep the lead.
Once the race truly got back going, Filippi was able to open up a sizable gap over the rest of the class. However, once pit stops came along, it became a two-horse race.
Filippi’s teammate Harry Gottsacker spent much of his time in the car leading, but with Denis Dupont in the No. 76 right on his rear wing. No one else in TCR was within seven seconds. That lead eventually expanded to 15 seconds.
The late cautions eradicated the big lead for the Hyundais over the rest of the class, but didn’t change the outcome out front. Gottsacker was able to hold off Dupont for the victory.
Filippi and Gottsacker’s margin of victory was .668 seconds over Dupont and Preston Brown. Wittmer, Louis-Phillippe Montour and Daijiro Yoshihara were third in their Honda, followed by Bryson Morris and Mark Wilkins in the third BHA Hyundai. VGRT’s Lance Bergstein and Jon Miller were fifth.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio Unofficial Results
Teams will be back in action in two weeks at Watkins Glen International for the LP Building Systems 120. Coverage will air live on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and on Peacock June 21st at 11:40 a.m. ET. Frontstretch will be on-site to bring you all the action.
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.