Posts

Tunjo Wins Mixed Condition Saturday Mid-Ohio Race

Image
Photo: Geoff Miller/IMSA Oscar Tunjo in LMP3 and Westin Workman in GSX maintained their season long form en route to a pair of victories in Saturday’s mixed-condition IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge 45-minute race at Mid-Ohio. Tunjo had track experience in his back pocket from winning his first VP Racing Challenge event at the Mid-Ohio circuit in 2025 in similar treacherous conditions. But what was new to him this weekend, at least in North America, was his No. 1 Gebhardt Motorsport Duqueine D09 Toyota, a loaned chassis from Duqueine run by Forbush Performance at the most recent IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge race at Circuit of The Americas. The Colombian has raced Duqueine’s third generation LMP3 chassis in Europe but made his first start in the new car in the U.S. this race as his primary Duqueine D08 chassis has been sent to France for updates. This weekend has seen Tunjo spend time adapting to the new chassis at this track and learning in real-time through evolving ra...

Loftsgard Wins Again After Allaer Incident in Race 1

Image
Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford Cole Loftsgard claimed his fourth Mustang Challenge North America victory of the season in the first race of the weekend at Mid-Ohio. The Round 3 Racing driver took his No. 42 Ford Mustang Dark Horse R to the win over the second-placed No. 22 TechSport entry of Devin Anderson after ending under full-course caution due to an incident for a Dark Horse Legends contender. The race wasn’t easy going, however, for pole-sitter Loftsgard, who lost the lead at the start to the No. 3 Spark Performance Mustang of Nolan Allaer, who showed an early pace advantage. However, the former Indy NXT driver dropped to fourth on Lap 8 after a violent single-car off-course excursion in Turn 1 that tore off the car’s floor and damaged the Mustang’s right-front corner after briefly catching air. It gave clear sailing to Loftsgard to continue his winning ways and extend his points lead in the Dark Horse class. The No. 7 Wheelhouse Motorsports Mustang of Sandy Satu...

Proton Porsche Leads at Midpoint of 12H Paul Ricard

Image
Photo: Racingpixels/Creventic Proton Competition led the Michelin 12H Paul Ricard into the overnight intervention after deciding not to pit for fuel before the race restart on Sunday morning. The No. 73 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, driven by Joel Sturm, Jörg Dreisow, Manuel Lauck and Constantin Dressler, completed the opening six hours of the race as first on the road but it will restart the event with much less fuel than its rivals. A lack of pace early on saw the reigning teams’ champions drop from fourth place down to 12 th . However, an aggressive fight up the order from Porsche-contracted driver Sturm in the latter half of the race brought the car back into contention. The cars are now placed under parc fermé conditions overnight, meaning that they keep the same fuel loads at the restart. Additionally, cars which did not finish on the lead lap will retain the same gap to the leaders when the event recommences. GetSpeed Team PCX Racing’s No. 28 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo led the majority ...

Merrill Fastest in Opening Mid-Ohio Practice

Image
Photo: Geoff Miller/IMSA Thomas Merrill set the pace in the opening IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge practice session for this weekend’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio. The No. 14 Circle H Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo ended up quickest in Friday’s 60-minute session, thanks to Merrill’s benchmark 1:25.846 lap time. It was 0.089 seconds quicker than the No. 44 Ibiza Farm Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 of Michael Cooper, with the No. 37 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO of Cameron Shields third on the time sheets. Merrill is sharing the Mike Johnson-run GS class entry with David Hampton and Martin Sarukhanyan this weekend. Jeff Westphal and Robby Foley completed the top-five for CarBahn and Turner Motorsport, respectively. The No. 21 Victor Gonzalez Racing CUPRA Leon VZ TCR of Steven Clemons was quickest in TCR. The session saw a single red flag, for the No. 19 Stephen Cameron Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Sean Quinlan, who stopped on tra...

Mustang Challenge Rookie Allaer Quickest on Friday at Mid-Ohio

Image
Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford Mustang Challenge North America rookie Nolan Allaer topped the time charts for the first time in a session in the IMSA-sanctioned single-make series, ending the day quickest of the Ford Mustang Dark Horse Rs ahead of this weekend’s pair of races at Mid-Ohio. The Spark Performance driver recorded a best time of 1:28.808 to edge out the No. 7 Wheelhouse Motorsports Mustang of Sandy Satullo by 0.206 seconds. Both were quicker than Dark Horse points leader Cole Loftsgard, who posted the quickest time in opening practice, and improved to a 1:29.222 lap time in the second session but was only good enough for third Will Lucas and Devin Anderson completed the top-five for Wheelhouse and TechSport, respectively, ahead of Tate Pritt’s Automatic Racing entry. Dark Horse Legends points leader Chris Clarke returned to the top of the time charts in class, thanks to a 1:31.121 lap time in his No. 9 Paley Motorsport with AAG Racing entry. Practice 1 pace-sette...

Le Mans Friday Notebook

Image
Photo: Bruno Vandevelde/MPS Agency ***Thirty-nine of the 62 cars entered for next weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans passed through Place de la Republique in downtown Le Mans on Friday, kicking off the official activities for this year’s French endurance classic. Among the notable Hypercar teams to go through the technical checks, for both cars and drivers, included BMW M Team WRT, newcomers Genesis Magma Racing, Heart of Racing Team, Peugeot, both the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA and Wayne Taylor Racing squads, as well as Alpine. ***LMGT3 favorites TF Sport, AF Corse, Proton Competition and Manthey Racing were also present over the course of the packed day, along with LMP2 teams such as CLX Motorsport, TDS Racing and two-time and defending class winners Inter Europol Competition, which were the first two entries to go through the process at 10 a.m. local time. ***Among the notable absences included Nielsen Racing driver Jack Doohan, who is in Monaco this weekend in his reserve d...

GetSpeed Team PCX Clinch Pole for 12H Paul Ricard

Image
Photo: Racingpixels/Creventic GetSpeed Team PCX Racing clinched a hard-fought pole position for the Michelin 12H Paul Ricard. The No. 28 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo which is driven by Maro Engel, Patrick Charlaix, Jordan Boisson and Benjamin Paque set a fastest combined lap time of 2:01.657. Engel set the fastest overall time of the session, smashing the record for the Michelin 24H Series at the circuit. The veteran Mercedes-AMG factory driver produced a rapid 2:00.652 lap time. The PCX Racing machine finished the session 0.203 seconds ahead of the No. 93 Ajith RedAnt Racing Mercedes-AMG. The pole sitting No. 28 car is currently tied for the championship lead with the Ajith RedAnt squad and its sister GetSpeed Team JR286 entry. Sainteloc Junior Team’s No. 18 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II finished the session in third place after displaying strong pace early on in the three GT3 qualifying sessions. The French squad sits a mere two points behind the championship leaders thanks to a win at Mugel...