WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Rennsport One’s Jan Heylen took the lead with 45 minutes to go when Panam Motorsport’s Caio Chaves pitted. From there, he was able to hold off the pack to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge LP Building Solutions 120 Saturday (June 21) with teammate Luca Mars.
“We knew that it was going to be close on fuel and the caution was what we needed to know that we could make it to the end,” Mars said after the race. “I thought that Jan could hold [Chad McCumbee] off, but when the caution came out, it pretty much secured it for us.”
McCumbee McAleer Racing’s Jenson Altzman and Chad McCumbee were second, followed by Carbahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal. KohR Motorsports’ Billy Johnson and Bob Michaelian were fourth, while Team TGM’s Paul Holton and Matt Plumb were fifth.
McCumbee McAleer Racing’s Jenson Altzman started from pole and led early. Team TGM’s Paul Holton put the pressure on almost immediately.
Early on, Pegram Racing’s Riley Pegram spun in the Inner Loop after contact from Megan Tomlinson. While the car didn’t appear to be damaged, Pegram had trouble getting her Hyundai restarted. By the time she finally did, the first full course yellow had come out. Tomlinson was given a drive-through penalty for causing the incident.
On the restart, Holton was able to snatch the lead away from Altzman. Once in the lead, Holton opened up a small gap over Altzman. Mars and McAlister spent much of the opening run fighting each other for third.
50 minutes into the race, the leaders begin to make their first pit stops of the race. Mars was first of the frontrunners to stop. Turner Motorsport’s Dillon Machavern, dealing with a leg injury, pitted as early as he could.
Pegram’s struggles continued as the race went on. 54 minutes into the race, she spun in turn 6 and got her splitter hung up on the curb. That brought out the second caution in the middle of pit stops.
Holton had just gotten into the pits to hand over to Plumb as the yellow flew, so his team got a free stop. Others had not stopped yet.
At that point, Michaelian was leading overall due to not stopping. He led the field down the pit lane for full service. Some of the other drivers in GS stopped to add fuel.
As a result, Panam Motorsport’s Caio Chaves ended up with the overall lead on the restart by not stopping. Despite that, he had a swarm of drivers right on his tail.
Plumb was right there, as was Heylen, Westphal and McCumbee. Despite that, Chaves was able to hold onto the lead until he stopped to swap over to Werner Neugebauer.
Chaves’ stop put Heylen into the overall lead. Westphal was second, but McCumbee was right on his tail. A few laps later, McCumbee took second and began to pressure Heylen for the lead.
Effectively, the race came down to a five-car duel between Heylen, McCumbee, Westphal, Plumb and Ibiza Farm Motorsports’ Michael Cooper, the fastest driver in practice.
With 14 minutes to go, Larry Pegram‘s Hyundai suffered a mechanical failure and creeped to a halt at turn 5. That resulted in the trifecta. Three full course cautions caused by the same car.
That set a 10-minute dash for the finish. Heylen was able to maintain the advantage, but the scramble was on behind.
Johnson was able to get past Cooper for fifth in turn 2, which put the McLaren into a three-wide situation with Plumb and the lapped second CarBahn BMW of Aaron Povoledo.
Contact was made between Cooper and Povoledo in the Inner Loop, resulting in Cooper spinning out. Povoledo ended up hitting the SAFER Barrier.
Povoledo was slowly able to roll his BMW off the track to prevent a full course caution. However, the caution did come out two laps later when Stephen Cameron Racing’s Greg Liefooghe stalled.
That yellow came with just four minutes remaining. While the safety crew removed Liefooghe’s Mustang from the track, there wasn’t enough time remaining to restart the race, allowing Heylen and Mars to take the win.
In TCR, Montreal Motorsports Group’s Louis-Philippe Montour started from pole in his Honda Civic. All weekend, the team had set lap times up with the top 10 in GS. The race was more of the same early on.
While Montour ran off and hid early, Luke Rumburg was quickly able to drive up to second from sixth. That said, he still had to do battle with Celso Neto and Sam Baker.
While Rumburg battled to keep his position, Montour was able to expand his advantage to over 13 seconds and get past a number of the GS teams. 40 minutes into the race, he was up to 10th overall.
The second caution changed the complexion of the race significantly. IMSA stipulate that the GS and TCR classes pit on separate laps under yellow. As a result, the pack was able to close up to Montour before stopping.
A stop that wasn’t all that great to swap over to Karl Wittmer resulted in the team losing the lead to Precision Racing LA’s Ryan Eversley. Wittmer ended up rejoining in third.
There is a reason why Eversley was able to get the lead in the pits. His team failed to get enough fuel into the No. 7 Audi. That forced Eversley to make an extra pit stop, taking him out of contention.
When Eversley pitted, Wittmer took over the lead with Jaden Conwright and James Vance giving chase. However, both of those drivers ended up making pit stops.
As a result, Wittmer ended up with a 10-second lead over Eddie Gou in the Cupra. That lead held steady until the third yellow flew.
From there, Wittmer was able to hold on to take the victory, making Montreal Motorsports Group, the first non-Hyundai team to win in TCR this year.
Second went to Gou Racing’s Eddie and Eduardo Gou, their best career finish in Pilot Challenge. Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Tyler Gonzalez and Eric Powell were third, followed by Bryan Herta Autosport’s Parker Chase and Harry Gottsacker. HART’s Tyler Chambers and Chad Gilsinger and
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge LP Building Solutions 120 Unofficial Results
Next up for Pilot Challenge teams is the series’ only trip to Canada this year. The Canadian Tire Motorsport Park 120 is scheduled to go green at
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.