Inter Europol Competition’s Tom Dillmann took advantage of lapped traffic to slip past CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s Alex Quinn to take the lead. From there, Dillmann was able to hold on to win the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Grand Prix with Jeremy Clarke Sunday (July 12). It is the team’s first IMSA victory since Sebring last year.
“It’s great to win again,” Dillmann told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “I enjoy running with [Inter Europol Competition] a lot. I know every weekend that I can win the race. I have a good car, good teammate. Jeremy [Clarke] was spot-on today, winning the pole and leading the race. I just had to finish the job.”
Clarke and Dillmann’s margin of victory was 9.796 seconds over Quinn and George Kurtz. AO Racing’s Dane Cameron and PJ Hyett were third, then Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ Misha Goikhberg and Ricky Taylor. United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg and Ben Hanley were fifth.
Clarke started from his second straight pole in his ORECA 07-Gibson. The early stages of the race saw Clarke lead the race with Goikhberg giving chase.
The first yellow came out a little more than 10 minutes into the race. Tower Motorsports’ John Farano went wide at turn 3 and got into the dirt. Once he got back onto the track, he spun and nosed into the concrete wall.
Farano was ok and drove the car back to the pits. However, the sudden stop resulted in unseen damage under the bodywork. As a result, Farano went behind the wall. The car would eventually return, 10 laps down.
The second caution came out 41 minutes into the race when TDS Racing’s Tobias Lutke slid off-course at turn 8 and hit the tires. Lutke was ok and tried to resume, but he was stuck.
At the time, Lutke had just pitted and was on cold tires. With no tire warmers and not a lot of room to function, he just ran out of space. While Lutke seemed to want to resume after the incident, the car was towed back to the paddock. The team would eventually return to the race, but ended up 49 laps down.
The caution brought on a round of stops. Here, Clarke lost the lead to Kurtz. Goikhberg, who had nearly gotten the lead right before the caution, ended up spinning out under yellow on cold tires and dropped back.
Kurtz had Hyett right on his tail for the restart, but handling woes caused a massive moment for “Spike” exiting turn 2. A big twitch put him into the runoff. He was able to get back underway, but Clarke was able to take second away in the progress.
Clarke eventually ran Kurtz down and attempted to get the lead. This battle was ultimately interrupted by the second round of pit stops. No one needed to pit here, but IMSA mandated an hour of minimum drive-time for bronze-rated LMP2 drivers. As a result, everyone stopped to top off their tanks and put their pro drivers in.
Quinn maintained the lead in the No. 04 after the stops, but Dillmann was right on his tail. The lapped Lamborghini of Pfaff Motorsports’ Andrea Caldarelli held Quinn up just enough for Dillmann to sweep past on the exit of turn 1.
From that point forwards, Quinn was able to keep pace with Dillmann, but could not move back in on him. The final full service stop occurred with a little less than an hour to go, which did not change much.
Pitting with 55 minutes to go meant that no one could go the distance. As a result, Quinn pitted with 10 minutes to go to take seven seconds of fuel. Dillmann made his own dash for fuel a lap later. The result of that was that Dillmann actually added to his lead since Quinn came out of the pits in the middle of a pack of GT cars.
From there, Dillmann held on to take the victory. It is an extra-sweet victory since he lost the victory last year when he crashed hard in turn 3 with 14 minutes remaining and suffered a back injury.
In GTD Pro, Paul Miller Racing’s Neil Verhagen started from pole in his BMW. Once the race got underway, he was able to open up a small advantage.
Verhagen’s primary competition was RLL Team McLaren’s Max Esterson, who had been a pleasant surprise in Ontario. The papaya orange 720S GT3 Evo stayed right in Verhagen’s tire tracks.
The caution for Lutke’s crash mixed things up. A number of drivers managed to make their first stop of the day prior to the yellow. As a result, some either stayed out or went fuel-only.
That put Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth up into the lead. Once in the lead, Hawksworth was a steady presence, slowly increasing the advantage as he went on.
The only time the No. 14 relinquished the lead was when Hawksworth pitted for full service and to put Ben Barnicoat in the car. Barnicoat continued to hold onto the advantage and kept the Lexus RC F GT3 steady to take home their second straight win.
The margin of victory was 1.993 seconds over AO Racing’s Harry King and Nick Tandy. Verhagen and Connor de Phillippi were third, then Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner. Ford Racing’s Christopher Mies and Frederic Vervisch were fifth.
In GTD, The Heart of Racing’s Eduardo Barrichello started from pole in his Aston Martin. He was able to maintain the advantage early on over Vasser Sullivan’s Benjamin Pedersen. Pedersen nearly spun early on due to contact from Conquest Racing’s Lorenzo Patrese in turn 10, but kept his Lexus going straight.
The Heart of Racing’s day was derailed when Barrichello made his first pit stop. During that stop, an air gun failed. In addition, the team ended up with too many men over the wall, leading to a drive-through penalty. That took the team right out of the hunt. A big charge late in the race from Roman De Angelis moved them all the way up to a sixth-place finish.
Barrichello’s early stop gave the lead to Pedersen, who stayed up front until the yellow for Lutke’s crash brought the class to pit road.
In a scrum of pit stops, Wayne Taylor Racing’s Trent Hindman was able to take the lead by getting out first. Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis came out second and pressured Hindman over much of the run.
Just before the halfway point, Ellis was able to take the class lead away. Once out front, he slowly began to pull away.
During the final round of stops, a slower stop put Hindman down the order while Aaron Telitz moved up to second. However, Ellis was able to hold onto the advantage for the remainder of the race to take the win with Russell Ward. It is the duo’s second win of the year.
Ellis and Ward’s margin of victory was 1.886 seconds over Pedersen and Telitz. Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher were third in their BMW, then Patrese and Albert Costa. Hindman and Danny Formal ended up fifth.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Grand Prix Unofficial Results
Next up for all four Weather classes is the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix, a six-hour race at Road America. Coverage of the fourth round of the Michelin Endurance Cup will commence at 11:30 a.m. ET on Peacock. Frontstretch will be on-site in Wisconsin to bring you all the action.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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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