Wittmann Leads Amid Hectic Opening Hour at Road America

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Marco Wittmann led the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America following a hectic opening hour involving a numerous LMP2 cars.

Wittmann, in the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, was the only of the GTP cars to stay out during the race’s second full-course caution after a heavy crash by the No. 37 Intersport Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Jon Field.

The German driver was ahead of the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr, which beat the field out of a frantic pit lane by an energy-only stop.

The No. 24 Spider-Man-liveried BMW of Sheldon van der Linde slotted into third at the one-hour mark, ahead of the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Louis Deletraz, in fourth.

Nick Yelloly led the field from pole in the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 ahead of teammate Tom Blomqvist and Deletraz, in what was a largely uneventful run in the top class.

There, however, were incidents before the drop of the green flag, with Orey Fidani having spun his 13 Autosport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R on the pace lap.

The No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports Oreca of Chris Cumming then had an off-course excursion in Turn 1 on the second lap.

It was followed by a heavy accident by Sheena Monk after contact between the No. 16 Myers Riley Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 EVO and Tobi Lutke’s TDS Racing Oreca at The Kink, which brought out the first full-course caution on Lap 6.

The No. 22 United Autosports Oreca of Daniel Goldburg spun on the restart and had a slip-up on his re-entry, nearly taking out a LMP2 competitor.

Goldburg was assessed with a drive-through penalty for an unsafe re-entry.

It was followed by Field’s crash at the Carousel, which put the field under a second yellow.

Both Field and Monk were evaluated and released from the trackside medical center per an IMSA spokesperson.

The race’s second restart saw a multi-car LMP2 pile-up at the bottom of the hill that didn’t result in another yellow but multiple FIA Bronze-rated drivers pitting for repairs.

Among those involved were the United Autosports entries of Goldburg, Phil Fayer, as well as Era Motorsport’s Naveen Rao and Gerry Kraut of JDC-Miller Motorsports.

LMP2 was led by the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Jeremey Clarke, while Thomas Preining passed class pole-sitter Harry King on the restart to lead for Manthey in GTD Pro.

Zach Robichon led GTD in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Source: Sports Car 365