Mathieu Jaminet fronted a Porsche Penske 1-2 at the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s SportsCar Weekend at Road America.
The eighth round of the 2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was filled with action, excitement, and a thrilling climax for the only sprint race on the 2024 schedule with all four categories.
A field of 47 machines fought around the high-speed Road America circuit, with 10 GTPs and 12 LMP2 entrants.
BMW’s #24 M Hybrid V8 RLL entrant started last in the GTP class after they experienced a major crash in the second free practice session, preventing them from qualifying due to the ongoing repair job.
At the race start, the Acuras kept their front-row formation on the start-finish as they retained the front, as Ricky Taylor took the lead in the #40 Acura ARX-06 which was placed higher up in the standings (fourth) compared to the blue #10 Acura which was driven by pole-sitter Filipe Albuquerque.
Further back, Gianmaria Bruni of the #5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 snatched third from Renger van der Zande in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R run by Chip Ganassi.
There was drama behind when Nick Tandy in the #6 Porsche Penske 963 spun the #31 Whelen Cadillac of Pipo Derani at Turn 6. Neither the Cadillac or the Porsche suffered any notable damage.
A second caution period, declared due to a GTD car off-track at Turn 10, helped Tandy on his subsequent drive-through penalty with his pursuit to make up ground.
On the restart, van der Zande fought side-by-side with #7 Porsche Penske driver Dane Cameron in the battle for fifth, as the #01 made use of a quicker exit out of Turn 4.
Meanwhile Richard Westbrook’s #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 was spun by #40 WTRAndretti Acura driver Louis Deletraz as they headed into Turn 12, Canada Corner, which necessitated a drive-through penalty for the #40 Acura.
Van der Zande continued his form as he chased Connor De Phillippi for third position, as Albuquerque made his first pit stop and handed over the driving duties to co-driver Ricky Taylor.
Sebastien Bourdais got into the #01 Cadillac as the race entered its second hour.
Unfortunately for the Frenchman, on his outlap, he spun his #01 Cadillac sideways at Turn 3 after ambitiously going on the inside of Mike Skeer’s #120 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3.R.
Further drama ensued when the #25 BMW Team RLL machine driven by Nick Yelloly lost it on the exit of the Turn 11 carousel, gaining a couple of impacts into the barriers before he stopped on the concrete run-off road.
Bourdais, who was behind him, was presented with a challenging situation from having to navigate through the huge cloud of dirt and dust from Yelloly’s off-moment before an impact with the driver’s right-side wall.
The #25 BMW was out of the race as their incident triggered the third caution period, although Bourdais continued with not as much damage inflicted to his yellow GTP car.
With an hour of racing left, R. Taylor was tasked with taking the lead on Bent Viscaal (#5 Proton Competition Porsche 963) at the restart without any assistance from the red #40 Acura which was much further down the order, despite being higher in the championship standings.
With much more experience, R. Taylor prepared himself for a better start out of the final corner which began his strong momentum so as to claim the lead before the pair entered the first corner.
Quickly after losing the lead, Viscaal then lost his second place to Mathieu Jaminet who was continuing a remarkable form of redemption in the #6 Porsche Penske after their penalty towards the start.
Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche Penske 963 was also on a charge, fighting hard with the #31 Wehlen Cadillac driven by Jack Aitken.
On the fifth and final caution, R. Taylor pitted from the lead for tyres and fuel.
His substantial advantage on energy in comparison to his rivals put him in a promising light, although they (his rivals) would have saved their energy and tyres for a final sprint to the end at arguably the most crucial phase of the race.
Nevertheless, R. Taylor began his charge from the back of the GTP field and into fourth position, achieved when he passed Bourdais who appeared to be struggling on tyre grip.
All of the podium runners ahead of R. Taylor ran flat-out, all setting their personal best lap times.
Bourdais’ struggle emerged when he found himself facing the opposite direction at Turn 3, whilst chasing Viscaal ahead.
After 62 laps, the front-pair of eager Porsche Penske machines kept themselves ahead of the #10 to earn a 1-2 finish, in which Acura began the race in that formation.
Mathieu Jaminet and his teammate Nick Tandy earned their second race win in the #6, after being victorious at the Laguna Seca sprint.
The #7 Porsche Penske duo of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr finished second but kept themselves in the lead of the GTP standings.
As Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque took third, Jack Aitken claimed fourth in the #31 Whelen Cadillac having completed significantly more driving time than his co-driver Pipo Derani.
Bent Viscaal rounded out the top-five in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 with co-driver Gianmaria Bruni.
In LMP2, there was an equal amount of action as well as penalties awarded.
Ben Keating (#2 United Autosports USA Oreca 07) snatched the class-lead from PJ Hyett in the #99 AO Racing Oreca, before ‘Spike the Dragon’ fell to third position.
Championship-leaders #74 Riley Oreca encountered a challenging day having to replace the rear end of their LMP2 with Gar Robinson driving.
Amidst the first wave of penalties following the caution, the #22 United Autosports USA was forced to serve a stop-and-60-second penalty for passing the red light at the pit exit.
The first significant contact between LMP2 machinery took place between Dennis Andersen (#20 MDK by High Class) and the #33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P217 of Tonis Kasemets at Turn 4.
Sean Creech’s Ligier was unable to drive out of the gravel with the front-splitter grounding out on the run-off and so Kasemets cunningly decided to reverse onto the adjacent road before continuing.
Andersen was awarded a drive-through for incident responsibility, as Keating set the benchmark with the quickest pace.
There was a crucially damaging moment for the #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathisen Oreca of Tom Dillmann as his hopes of a win were thrown away from briefly leaving the pit box with the fuel hose still attached, thus they received a drive-through penalty.
A tense battle for the lead grew upon the restart as Paul Loup Chatin muscled his way into the lead behind the wheel of his #99 AO Racing Oreca, and ahead of Ben Hanley’s #2 United Autosports USA Oreca.
During this restart, the work of the #74 Riley Oreca with Felipe Fraga at the wheel was diminished after an off-track excursion at T10 amidst the fighting.
He continued on the grass before returning to the track with minor underfloor damage as a result.
Furthermore for the #52, Dillmann faced another drive-through for an unsafe release at his previous pit stop.
The final caution period was vital to the #2 of Ben Hanley, after he made his last pit stop just before the safety car was deployed – which then immediately closed the pit lane entry.
His timely moment was later rewarded when he was back into the lead, although the sibling #22 United Autosports USA Oreca went off at Turn 8 with Paul di Resta driving, followed by a drive-through for not fulfilling the minimum refuelling time.
The #2 United Autosports USA Oreca 07 of Ben Hanley and Ben Keating, having started second despite a heavy crash in FP2, earned their way to victory at Road America.
Scott Andrews finished the #79 JDC Miller MotorSports Oreca 07 in second with his co-driver Gerry Kraut, as the #99 AO Racing Oreca claimed third by Paul Loup Chatin and PJ Hyett.
Fourth was taken by Ryan Dalziel’s #18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 with teammate Steward Wiltshire, followed by the #88 Richard Mille AF Corse Oreca 07 of Nicklas Nielsen and teammate Luis Perez Companc.
See here for the full provisional classification of the 2024 IMSA Sportscar Weekend.
