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Circle H Wins, AutoTechnic Takes GS Title at Road Atlanta

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Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA Thomas Merrill and Martin Sarukhanyan claimed Circle H Racing’s first IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge victory in Friday’s Fox Factory 120, while AutoTechnic Racing’s Austin Krainz and Steven McAleer secured the GS class championship at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR of Bryson Morris and Mason Filippi secured the TCR class title by starting the race. Pole-sitter Jaxon Bell stretched his overall to over seven seconds before their first pit stop handed the No. 23 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 to Ford Koch. The race ran green to the end of the first stint.  The No. 66 YRB Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo received a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with the title-contending No. 27 AutoTechnic Racing BMW M4. YRB had another drive-through for contact with the No. 61 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Jenson Altzman in the Esses. Debris in Turn 7 brought out the first full course ye...

Caranta, Workman Double Up to Conclude VPRC Season

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Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA The final sprint race for the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge before the championship moves to an endurance format in 2027, featured a 45-minute barnburner at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Friday morning. Both Jules Caranta (LMP3) and Westin Workman (GSX) completed weekend sweeps, although both drivers had to work a little harder to get there. Season champions Oscar Tunjo (LMP3) and Workman (GSX) had clinched their respective titles in Thursday’s first race of the weekend, so they raced in a pressure-free environment. Afew key moments led up to the final restart with less than five minutes to go. For the overall lead, Caranta in his No. 18 Forbush Performance Duqueine D09 Toyota paced the field from pole but withstood multiple close passing attempts from Tunjo in his No. 1 Gebhardt Motorsport Duqueine D09. After the restart, Caranta was able to extend his gap over Tunjo to a final margin of victory of 2.031 seconds, with Tunjo’s teammate Danny Soufi...

Finalized Indy 8H Entry List Released; DragonSpeed Out

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Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO SRO Motorsports Group has released the finalized entry list for next weekend’s Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour, which has seen DragonSpeed’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R drop out. The Elton Julian-owned team, which originally signaled intentions of fielding its Corvette in the Pro class for factory ace Alexander Sims along with Ben Green and Casper Stevenson, has been withdrawn. A team spokesperson told Sportscar365 that that the “conditions were not perfect” for the program to move ahead as planned, while declining any further comment. It has resulted in a 28-car entry, which still marks a GT3 event record. A number of high-profile drivers have been added to the the season-long GT World Challenge America powered by AWS lineups, in addition to the previously announced NTT IndyCar Series stars Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson at Lone Star Racing and Random Vandals Racing, respectively. Ford Racing factory ace Chris Mies will complete...

Bourdais, DragonSpeed Looking to ‘Enjoy the Moment’ in GTD Pro

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Photo: Tower Motorpsorts Sebastien Bourdais said he and DragonSpeed are hoping to “enjoy the moment” in the GTD Pro class at this weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans amid an open future. DragonSpeed has returned to the top production-based ranks for the first time since contending for the GTD Pro title last year in a Ferrari 296 GT3, prior to its switch to GTD and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Bourdais, whose primary program has been with Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA in the FIA World Endurance Championship, received the call-up from the Elton Julian-led squad to join the team’s season-long lineup of Giacomo Altoe and Casper Stevenson. “For us, it’s to enjoy the moment and try and have as solid a result as possible,” Bourdais told Sportscar365. “Keep an eye on who’s around you and what’s happening because you just don’t want to be that guy. “There’s a bit of help from Pratt Miller, so we’ll see. We don...

Roos: WRT’s First IMSA GTP Win Was “Always on the Plate”

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Photo: Sam Cobb/BMW Team WRT’s first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory was a testament to the work put in by the Belgian squad in a short period of time according to BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos, who never second-questioned the team’s ability. Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor came out on top in last month’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, roughly one year after the Vincent Vosse-led WRT squad was given the green light to take over the German manufacturer’s factory GTP operation and build up a new dedicated team. While having started its U.S. campaign with a podium finish in the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, Team WRT’s foray into WeatherTech Championship competition had its ups and downs, but Roos stressed he never gave up faith. “I have to say from the beginning when we started the program with WRT, when we made the switch from RLL to WRT, the decision was taken quite late because because...

Yelloly Leads Acura MSR 1-2 in Opening Practice

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Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA Nick Yelloly led a Meyer Shank Racing 1-2 in opening practice for this weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans. Yelloly, in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06, recorded a best lap of 1:11.506 lap time to edge out teammate Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60 Acura by a mere 0.003 seconds. Laurens Vanthoor made a late-session improvement to end up third in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, ahead of GTP points leader Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R in fourth. The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Ricky Taylor completed the top-five. LMP2 was led by the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 Gibson of Tom Dillmann, who edged out Dane Cameron in the No. 99 AO Racing entry by six-tenths. Matias Beche was third in the No. 11 TDS Racing entry. Jack Hawksworth topped the time charts in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, in the car’s expected last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship outing. Hawksworth was one-tenths quicker than ...

Maxson Tops Wednesday Practice at Road Atlanta

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Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche Tyler Maxson led the way following a pair of Porsche Carrera Cup North America practice sessions on Wednesday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The Topp Racing driver, who enters the penultimate round of the season in the Pro class lead, reeled off a best lap of 1:20.824 in the second session to edge out Practice 1 pace-setter Jared Thomas by 0.051 seconds. Maxson’s teammate Cole Kleck was third on the the combined time sheets, thanks to a 1:21.171, followed by Maxson’s title rival, Aaron Jeansonne in the No. 24 Kellymoss Porsche 911 Cup car. JDX Racing driver Callum Hedge completed the top-five, in a time set in Practice 1. Series debutant Joel Johnson led the way in both sessions in Masters, with his 1:22.925 lap from the first session good enough for the tenth quickest time overall. The No. 53 JTR Motorsports Engineering Porsche of Rob Walker was second quickest, followed by Ruckus Racing driver Scott Blind. The only red flag came in t...