ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — In a rough battle Saturday (Aug. 1), YRB Racing’s Trenton Estep was able to get past TeamTGM’s Matt Plumb with 18 minutes to go. From there, he was able to hold on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Road America 120 with Allen Patten. It is the first-ever victory in Pilot Challenge for Estep, Patten and YRB Racing.
“It was a lot of fun today; really, really hard in mixed conditions,” Estep told Frontstretch after the race. “We made the call to go to slicks, which was a great call by the team. It’s been a long time coming. A lot of hard work by everybody behind the scenes, along with Allen and I.”
Plumb and Paul Holton were second in their Mustang, followed by Panam Motorsport’s Caio Chaves and Guilherme Salas. Ford-Copeland Motorsports’ Jaxon Bell and Ford Koch were fourth, followed by KohR Motorsports’ Mike Skeen and Evan Slater.
The Heart of Racing’s Hannah Grisham started from the pole, her second straight and the team’s third straight. With rain intermittently falling, having clear vision was key and Grisham was able to take advantage early on to open a small gap.
However, McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Robert Noaker was able to run her down after a couple of laps. Grisham nearly wiped out on the wet curbs entering turn 5 and that was all Noaker needed to take the lead.
Once in the lead, Noaker quickly pulled out a two-second lead before Grisham was able to stabilize it. The pace was quick enough that they had an advantage of more than 10 seconds over third-place Dillon Machavern.
The slippery conditions did take their toll. Murillo Racing’s Aurora Straus went off exiting the Carousel from 14th. Later on, Koch went off into the gravel and dropped from fifth to ninth. Chris Miller followed a few laps later.
Grisham was able to run Noaker back down and began to pressure him for the overall lead. She was able to get alongside at one point, but her Aston Martin became squirmy under braking, which forced her to back off.
Ultimately, Circle H Racing’s David Hampton spun into the gravel to bring out the race’s first caution 38 minutes in. Once the field was bunched up behind the pace car, minimum drive-time had been met, so it was a land rush to the pits for tires, fuel and driver changes.
Nate Cicero was able to beat the pack out of the pits, while Mars moved up to second. Hannah Greenemeier dropped to fourth. With the track beginning to dry, most of the teams switched to slicks.
On the restart, Stephen Cameron Racing’s Greg Liefooghe was on the move. He came out of the pits in third, then immediately passed Mars for second. At turn 8, he was able to get past Cicero to take the overall lead.
Things were looking good for Liefooghe until the car developed an issue with the alternator with a little more than 50 minutes to go. The car eventually died, forcing Liefooghe to pull over exiting Canada Corner, ending his day.
That triggered a rush to the pit lane to try to get the final stops out of the way before the yellow came out. Winward Racing’s Daan Arrow failed to do so and ended up having to stop during the eventual yellow. Once everything shook out, Arrow ended up outside of the top 10.
When the race resulted, TeamTGM’s Matt Plumb ended up in the overall lead with KohR Motorsports’ Mike Skeen in second. Trenton Estep was right there as well.
Shortly afterwards, a terrible weekend for CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s No. 39 team came to an end. Jeff Westphal was hit by LAP Motorsports’ Clayton Williams exiting turn 8 and slid into the tires to bring out the third caution.
The team was already running a backup car (the car normally driven by Courtney Crone in IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge) after Sean McAlister crashed in qualifying Friday. Crashing this car means that the team will have a lot of work to do before VIR.
Estep managed to get past Skeen before the caution, then immediately put the pressure on Plumb for the overall lead. It took a couple of laps, but Estep was able to make the move to take the lead entering turn 3 with 18 minutes to go. The battle was not the smoothest as there was quite a bit of contact that damaged the driver’s side mirror.
Once in the lead, Estep was able to open up a small advantage over Plumb and Salas. Not enough to be comfortable.
However, the festivities came to an end with just under 10 minutes to go when Medusa Motorsports’ Athan Sterling had contact with JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Mikey Taylor entering the Kink. The contact shot Sterling hard into the SAFER Barrier drivers-side first to bring out the caution to end the race.
Sterling was awake and alert after the crash. At last word, he had been transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
In TCR, Montreal Motorsport Group’s Louis-Phillippe Montour started from the pole, his third straight. However, he wasn’t able to hold onto it for long. KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering’s Rocco Pasquarella was able to get alongside Montour on the first lap and take the lead away in turn 6.
That was just the beginning of Montour’s woes as he quickly dropped down the order. He was down to seventh in class 10 minutes into the race.
Pasquarella immediately came under pressure from Bryan Herta Autosport’s Mason Filippi. Filippi was able to make a move to the outside at turn 8 to get alongside briefly. Pasquarella was able to hold him off at first, but then went wide at Canada Corner. That allowed Filippi to take the lead.
Once in the lead, Filippi ran off and hid. He was able to pull out a 13-second lead. Teammate Lance Bergstein was able to move up to second, but had nothing for Filippi’s pace.
That big lead went away when Hampton spun into the gravel. When the teams pitted for tires and fuel, Tim Lewis Jr. was able to win the race off the pit lane.
Lewis was able to lead until the second yellow came out. During the round of stops, Lewis took tires while most of the other TCR teams took fuel-only. As a result, Bryson Morris won the race off pit road.
Meanwhile, Gou Racing’s Celso Neto ended up with the class lead by staying out. His goal was to stretch his fuel from the pit stop during the first caution.
Neto ended up getting pressure from BHA teammates Morris and Denis Dupont. He was doing well in holding the Hyundais back, but he ended up catching the GS Porsche of Owen Trinkler. That held Neto up enough for Dupont to take the lead with 14 minutes to go.
Despite the pass, the race was far from over. Neto tried his hardest to get the lead back. Morris and Karl Wittmer were right there as well. However, the big crash for Sterling ended the race and gave the win to Dupont and Preston Brown.
Neto and Eddie Gou ended up second, followed by Filippi and Morris. Montour and Wittmer were fourth, while Bergstein and Harry Gottsacker were fifth.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Road America 120 Unofficial Results
Next up for Pilot Challenge teams will be a visit to VIRginia International Raceway for the Virginia is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix. Coverage from VIR will stream live on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and Peacock Aug. 22 at 2:05 p.m. ET.
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.