Weekend Recap: IMSA at Long Beach; GTWC Europe Sprint Cup Wraps Up
Catch up on last weekend's sports car racing action from California, Spain...
Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr have closed the DPi points gap with a commanding victory in Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The Action Express Racing duo claimed their third IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory in the last four races, with Derani pedaling the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R to a 10.952-second win over the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Renger van der Zande and Kevin Magnussen in second.
With the championship-leading Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque finishing fourth, Derani and Nasr have closed the gap from 89 to 19 points heading into November’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans.
Magnussen challenged Nasr for the lead early until clipping the Turn 1 barriers and sustaining bodywork damage to his Cadillac, which brought out the race’s only full-course caution for debris.
The CGR crew elected not to repair the car during its stop and driver change to van der Zande with 52 minutes remaining.
Cadillac swept the podium with the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports entry of Loic Duval and Tristan Vautier coming home third, with the No. 55 Mazda RT24-P pairing of Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis completing the top-five.
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Sellers, Snow Able to “Control the Race” in GTD
Bryan Sellers said that he and Madison Snow were able to “control the race” in Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, in what came as a long-awaited return to victory lane for Paul Miller Racing and Lamborghini.
Sellers and Snow notched their first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win in 18 months, dominating the GT Daytona class in their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo that led all but five laps of the 100-minute contest.
While having started on pole courtesy of Snow’s fast lap in qualifying, Sellers managed to take a 11-second victory over the competition in the deep 17-car class field.
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Toksport Sweeps Valencia Weekend; GTWC Europe Sprint Cup Titles Decided
Maro Engel and Luca Stolz won Race 2 at Valencia to sweep the final round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup season, as the Silver Cup and Pro-Am drivers’ titles were decided.
Engel and Stolz steered their pole-sitting Toksport WRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to a lights-to-flag victory in Sunday’s second 60-minute contest, a few hours after using an undercut strategy to win the morning race from second on the 27-car grid.
Further back in the field, Lamborghini drivers clinched the Silver Cup and Pro-Am championships. Those two accolades were up for grabs at Valencia after Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts wrapped up the overall Sprint title after round four at Brands Hatch.
Alex Fontana won the Silver Cup championship with a fourth-place class finish alongside Ricardo Feller in the No. 14 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Emil Frey Racing.
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WTR Considered Going on Alt Strategy
AXR Duo on “Perfect Weekend”
Alegra Mercedes Set for VIR Return
Craft Bamboo Commits to Indy 8H
Vasser Sullivan to Enter Lexus in GTD Pro