#TBT Mid-Ohio Post-Race Notebook

May 9, 2019

#TBT Mid-Ohio Post-Race Notebook

May 9, 2019

Rain, mud and tough track conditions greeted the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for most of the weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. However right before Sunday’s Acura Sports Car Challenge, the sun came out and the conditions finally allowed for extended dry running.

Here are additional post-race notebooks from Daytona, Sebring and Long Beach.

DPi/LMP2
No. 77 Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi, DPi: Oliver Jarvis, Tristan Nunez, No. 6 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, DPi: Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron, No. 55 Mazda Team Joest Mazda DPi, DPi: Jonathan Bomarito, podium, Michelin. Photo: Michelin North America
  • For a second straight year at Mid-Ohio, the Acura and Mazdas swept the podium. Last year it was an Acura 1-2 with Mazda third; this year Acura took the win over two Mazdas.
  • The two brands also combined to lead all 123 laps, with the winning No. 6 ARX-05 out front for 88 laps. The No. 77 Mazda that finished second led 33 laps with the No. 55 Mazda third with two laps led.
  • Cadillac was shut out of victory lane, the podium and lead for the first time all season. However they still hold the driver, team and manufacturer lead in DPi heading to Detroit later this month.
  • Through four races, Cadillac has led 752 of 1,137 laps in DPi. They had led 74.16 percent of all laps through the first three races and even despite not leading at all at Mid-Ohio, that percentage is still 66.14 percent.
  • PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports enjoyed an untroubled run to the LMP2 class win with Matt McMurry and Eric Lux. McMurry, now 22, scored his first WeatherTech Championship class win. The LMP2 class has had three winners in three races, with the one-off DragonSpeed team winning in Daytona and the two full-season cars splitting the last two races.
GTLM
No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR, GTLM: Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor. Photo: Michelin North America
  • Porsche continued its hot streak in GT Le Mans, with its third straight win. Once Earl Bamber got out front after a mid-race pit stop sequence, the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR of he and Laurens Vanthoor stayed there.
  • The team’s second car fought back from a drive-through penalty issued for a jumped start. Nonetheless, Patrick Pilet stormed back and Nick Tandy continued the charge, ultimately getting past BMW’s Tom Blomqvist for the final podium position.
  • Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia finished second in the No. 3 Corvette C7.R. This is a common story. This is the pairing’s 12th consecutive podium that hasn’t been a win, since their most recent win occurred at VIR in 2017. Alas, they’re now second in the GTLM points standings, seven behind “BamThor.”
  • Ford again endured a challenging race, with fifth and seventh for the pair of Chip Ganassi Racing-entered GTs.
GTD
The GTD field. Photo: Michelin North America
  • Much of the GTD recap can be found here, with focus on the podium finishers (Lexus, Acura, Lamborghini) and championship leaders (Acura).
  • The car that’s led the most laps in GTD this year has not won each of the first three races.
  • Beyond the podium, Park Place Motorsports took fresh Michelin tires at the lone caution flag to its No. 73 Porsche 911 GT3 R. Patrick Long advanced from seventh to fourth in the final stint, in the car he shared with Marco Seefried.
  • Long’s Luftgekühlt event, a showcase of air-cooled Porsche cars, has its sixth event this weekend in Los Angeles.
  • Alex Riberas and Will Hardeman posted a season-best result of sixth in the No. 19 Moorespeed Audi R8 LMS GT3.
  • The second full-season Audi of Ryan Dalziel and Parker Chase also scored their first top-10 result of the year in ninth for Starworks Motorsport.
  • Compass Racing’s new McLaren 720S GT3 showed promise during the weekend but fell back to an unlucky 13th at the finish. Paul Holton and Matt Plumb shared the car for its debut.
  • Another new GTD entrant, the Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Gar Robinson and Lawson Aschenbach, finished 11th. Mid-Ohio marked the first of five scheduled sprint races for this car.
  • The WeatherTech Sprint Cup standings mirror the finishing order in GTD for this race. Detroit, the next round of the schedule, counts only towards that championship and not the full-season GTD championship.
The two newest GTD cars from Compass Racing and Lone Star Racing. Photo: Michelin North America

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