Second IMSA Win for Porsche

IMSA

Aug 7

Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr celebrate victory.

Because the pole-sitting Cadillac failed to turn up on the grid in time after an accident during warm-up, Matt Campbell with #7 Porsche 963 inherited the front spot. During his stint, the Australian proved unbeatable. After just three laps, he had increased his advantage at the front to more than four seconds. Campbell then continued to pull clear of his pursuers, stretching the gap to well over ten seconds before handing the car off to his teammate Felipe Nasr. The Brazilian then defended the top spot uncontested to take the flag in first place. In the end, the 515 kW+ (700 PS) hybrid prototype from Weissach crossed the finish line with a 4.635-second lead. Source: Porsche.

📷 © Courtesy of Porsche. #7 Porsche 963.

Matt Campbell (Porsche 963 #7): “For us, it was of course a big advantage that we were allowed to start from pole position after the Cadillac had an accident in the warm-up. On this track, it makes a huge difference which side of the grid you start on. There’s a lot of dirt off the racing line, but fortunately, we managed to avoid this and turned considerably faster opening laps than our pursuers. Our Porsche 963 was really great to drive in the race – that was somewhat of a surprise after our difficulties on Friday, which makes our performance all the better. I’m thrilled about our first victory with the number 7 car in the IMSA series.”

Felipe Nasr (Porsche 963 #7): “Thank you to the whole team! It was an outstanding effort from everyone. Matt put in a strong first stint and positioned our car solidly at the front of the field. I gave everything at the end to defend that position. It was anything but easy because the Acura in second place had fresher tyres. On top of that, the situations with passing slower cars were often extremely tricky. But it all worked out – finally!” Source: Porsche.

Double podium for Acura at Road America.

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. Both ARX-06 notched top-three finishes.

Both ARX-06 prototypes of Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport notched top-three finishes.

The #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 qualified sixth on the grid, but would end up starting fourth following separate incidents for two cars ahead prior to the race start. Drivers Colin Braun and Tom Bolmqvist would move forward during their stints and their combined efforts were rewarded with a second-place finish. Source: Acura

📷 © Courtesy of Acura. #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06.

Colin Braun (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06) Finished second: "All-in-all I'm really proud of Acura, HPD and MSR. I think this is a great result! Considering where we started, we had a couple of challenging practice sessions with some brake issues, so hats off to the guys, we turned it around and got into the window in qualifying. And then the race today was close. I wouldn't have expected us to have so few yellows during this event, and that made the strategy a bit more straightforward and gave us less opportunity to capitalize. Tom did a great job the last few stints and it was really close at the end, but the traffic just didn't go our way. But, you can't be too upset about a podium." Source: Acura

Albuquerque and Taylor retake the lead of championship

Following a third-place finish at Road America, the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 team now retake the lead of the championship with two races remaining in the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. After qualifying in fourth for the IMSA SportsCar Weekend, Filipe Albuquerque had control of the blue and black machine as the field came to the green flag for the two-hour, 40-minute race; however, the clock officially began under caution after fellowGTP competitor went off track. Albuquerque drove a solid stint inside the cockpit to stay within the top five of the field before coming into pit lane to swap driver positions with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport (WTRAndretti) co-driver Ricky Taylor.

Taylor took the reins of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 into the second half of the sprint event and began chipping away at the gap to the GTP competitors ahead. Just under the one-hour to go mark, Taylor made a pass around the No. 01 Cadillac, placing the WTRAndretti team into podium position. The remainder of the race ran caution-free, with WTRAndretti officially securing their podium spot and the lead of the points standings by 14 points. Source: Wayne Taylor Racing.

📷 © Courtesy of Acura. #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06

“I think we should be really happy with today,” said Ricky Taylor. “We’re continuing our momentum. We’ve got Acura back in the lead of the championship and it’s really nice to be in the championship lead. We had an issue with the car today about halfway through the race, so happy that we could survive with such good points and still maintain such good pace, I kind of let the 60 go up and fight for the lead. It’s really good to have this momentum back after the first half of the year was so difficult. I feel like we are back in our rhythm. Now, we can go to Indy with the lead and half that first pit stall on pit lane and start to control things for the last two races of the year.”

“A solid result for us,” said Filipe Albuquerque. “I struggled a little bit in the beginning with cold tires, but then the car was really alive and that was demonstrated as I had the fastest lap of the race and Ricky was very quick as well. Unfortunately, those initial laps were a bit tricky for us. Again, it was about managing the championship as well and all the contenders were behind us, so it was a solid day for us. We are now the championship leaders, so it’s exactly where we want to be and it’s hard to not think about it going into the closing races of the championship.” Source: Wayne Taylor Racing.

#01 Cadillac V-Series.R drove to fourth place.

The #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, which qualified third on the 10-car Grand Touring Prototype grid, experienced tire issues in the middle section of the 2-hour, 40-minute race on the recently repaved 4-mile, 14-turn road course that cost Renger van der Zande two positions and effectively the opportunity to compete for a podium spot. He and Sebastien Bourdais drove to fourth place. Source: Cadillac Racing

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #01 Cadillac Racing.

Sebastien Bourdais: "I thought we were looking pretty good through my stint. The 7 car was really quick and got a couple of breaks in traffic. The car wasn’t easy to drive but I thought we were en route to a podium finish. Unfortunately, it got clearly more difficult rapidly for Renger with the flat spot on the left-front that he dragged the whole middle stint. It hurt him a lot when he fought it out with the 60 on the way out of the pits, and I think that kind of dictated our race because that middle stint really hurt us when we lost second and third (place). I feel like the team did a really nice job this weekend. We found a few things that we liked on the car at the Indy road course test that seemed to translate well here. We just need to keep working and learning about the car.”

Renger van der Zande: "The middle stint was hurt by the flat spot on the front tire and later in that stint I flat-spotted the right-front as well. I don’t know why the second one happened but the first was just cold tire and off-line. It’s just a slippery track. I didn’t expect that to happen but it compromised our race day. I would have been able to fight the Acuras for position on normal tires, but I’m happy with the finish given how tough it is to pass off-line and move on from there.” Source: Cadillac Racing