Castroneves and Taylor take third IMSA straight win at Mid-Ohio

Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor have won their third consecutive victory in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship by taking victory in a chaotic Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio.

Castroneves started the #7 Acura ARX-05 third, behind polesitting #6 Acura of team-mate Dane Cameron and the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-VR of Pipo Derani. The Brazilian then briefly dropped out of the podium positions when he was overtaken by the #55 Mazda RT24-P of Jonathan Bomarito at the start of the race.

Castroneves then regained third when Bomarito served a drivethrough penalty for a pitlane infringement just in time to move into victory contention when team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya fell away after a pair of incident at turn six. Montoya first went off onto the grass on his own when lapping slower cars, before later making contact with the Team Hardpoint Audi, which dropped him down the order.

After Castroneves handed over to Ricky Taylor, Team Penske effectively captured the lead of the race when Taylor managed to stay ahead of the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-VR, now in the hands of Felipe Nasr. Once an off-sequence Montoya relinquished the lead back to Taylor, the American driver held off Nasr to take his third consecutive win of the season.

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Renger van der Zande and Ryan Briscoe ultimately took third in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-VR in a hotly contestede fight for the final podium position. Montoya had moved past Van der Zande after his final pitstop to take third but lost it again when he made a mistake and spun at turn one in the closing minutes of the race.

After this, Van der Zande held off the #55 Mazda RT24-P of Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell to take third, with the Mazda in fourth. Tristan Nunez and Oliver Jarvis finished fifth in the #77 Mazda, ahead of Joao Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac in sixth. Montoya and Dane Cameron finished seventh in the #6 Acura.

Corvette win streak rolls on

Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia continued Corvette’s winning streak in GTLM with a straightforward lights-to-flag victory. The #3 Corvette C8.R briefly lost the lead to the #4 sister car of Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin but regained it much later, after which they were set to take victory.

Milner and Gavin finished second, ahead of the #25 BMW M8 GTE of Bruno Spengler and Connor de Phillippi. The #24 BMW M8 GTE of Jesse Krohn and John Edwards brought up the rear in class after Krohn found the gravel following a mistake on lap one, although he was able to continue.

Telitz and Hawksworth win again after bizarre GTD incident

Aaron Telitz and Jack Hawksworth have further added to AIM Vasser Sullivan’s strong 2020 campaign with a victory for the #14 Lexus RC F GT3.

The pair started the race from pole position but lost the lead to the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Matt McMurry and Mario Farnbacher after a slow stop in the opening hour of the race.

The two cars remained close together on track until the Lexus, now in the hands of Hawksworth, jumped Farnbacher during a round of stops under caution caused by a crash from the Team Hardpoint Audi.

The victory for Hawksworth and Telitz was then settled when Farnbacher’s Acura became involved in a bizarre incident with the #76 McLaren 720S GT3 from Compass Racing, driven by Paul Holton. Holton and Farnbacher went side by side on the main straight shortly after the restart and repeatedly made side-by-side contact, with onboard footage appearing to show the McLaren swerving towards the Acura.

Farnbacher’s Acura suffered damage and had an off at turn one as a result of the incident, while Holton served a penalty.

This promoted the #74 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Lawson Aschenbach and Gar Robinson to second, while Patrick Long and Ryan Hardwick finished third in the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. The Heart of Racing’s #23 Aston Martin Vantage AMR finished fourth, woith the top five completed by Farnbacher and McMurry in the #86 Acura.