Nigeria classified

During the sixth caution for Timothe Buret’s huge shunt, the DPis all pitted, and the restart saw the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 of Filipe Albuquerque ahead of the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R driven by Scott Dixon, Olivier Pla in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ahead of the erstwhile leading Mazda, now driven by Oliver Jarvis. At the drop of the green, Dixon immediately surged past Albuquerque to grab the lead, and soon Pla had also demoted the WTR Caddy. Dixon stretched away from the turbo cars, by almost 1sec per lap, while Pla pulled a six second lead over Albuquerque who had Jarvis in his mirrors. But the Mazda also had company behind – the #48 AXR Cadillac now driven by Simon Pagenaud. That car was already destined to be classified last in class, however, as Pagenaud had exceeded maximum drive time. When Mike Conway driving the #31 AXR Caddy ground to a halt on track with 1hr55m to go, it triggered all the Prototypes to pit in anticipation of a full course … [Read more...] about Sebring 12H: Bourdais, Duval, Vautier win in JDC-Miller Cadillac

While Ngatoa made a clean start to lead the field through the opening corners, there was drama further down the pack as Golding pitched points leader Randle into a spin heading into Turn 4. Golding, winner of a confusing Heat 1 in mixed weather conditions , came off worse from the incident and was immediately forced to park his GRM car with what appeared to be a damaged suspension. Randle, meanwhile, was able to resume the race after being left facing the wrong direction, while Macrow too returned on track soon after following his own contact with Nathan Herne. When the race returned to green flag conditions on lap 5 after an extended safety car period, Ngatoa managed to save a big slide coming off the final corner to retain the lead, as Joey Mawson got the jump on Herne for second. From there on Mawson kept the pressure up on race leader Ngatoa, the gap between the two staying well below one second. But the Kiwi just managed to hold onto the top spot, taking the … [Read more...] about Sandown S5000: Ngatoa prevails in wild Heat 2

Having finished fifth and second in the two heats on Sunday morning, former European F3 and GP3 driver Mawson lined up on pole position for what was the first all-dry race of the weekend. With fellow front-row starter Kaleb Ngatoa suffering a DNS after crashing on his way to the grid, Mawson was unchallenged at the start as he led the field into Turn 1. Nathan Herne slotted into second while Luis Leeds made up two places to move up to third, carefully navigating his car between a slow-starting Tim Macrow and the BRM of Thomas Randle. At the front, Mawson slowly started carving a gap for himself, his advantage over the rest of the field well over two seconds by the mid point of the race. That gap only grew in the final laps of the race, the Australian driver securing his third victory of the season with a winning margin of 6.773s. Herne was unable to keep up with Mawson’s pace but remained well clear of the chasing pack, bagging his second podium finish of the … [Read more...] about Sandown S5000: Points leader Mawson dominant in main race

Following a restart, De Phillippi’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run BMW M8 homed in on the tail of the #3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia. Down toward Turn 7 with fewer than 10mins on the clock, De Phillippi spied a gap down the inside, but appeared to arrive in it slightly too late. Garcia turned in and the pair made heavy contact which spun the Corvette which sustained suspension damage and a flat tire. It limped to the pits and retired, classified fourth. The BMW had been able to continue after the incident, albeit with heavy front-end damage, but not before Mathieu Jaminet in the WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 had driven around the outside. De Phillippi was also given a drive-through penalty, but salvaged second, as the other M8 had already gone a lap down after a pitlane fire during its final stop. Said Rahal: “The guys did a great job. It was unfortunate for the #24 and we still don’t know what exactly happened at the pit stop with the fire but thankfully nobody got … [Read more...] about Rahal “can’t blame anybody” for BMW clash with Corvette

During the session that determines first choice of pit boxes and garages, Keating, who is also racing the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 in this year's Rolex 24, lapped Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile course in 1min38.056sec. That was enough to beat Henrik Hedman’s DragonSpeed entry by 0.639sec. Kyle Masson’s Performance Tech Motorsports’ was next up, relegated to the second row by just 0.017sec, while John Farano was fourth in the Tower Motorsport by Starworks entry. Dwight Merriman’s Era Motorsport Oreca claimed fifth. Montecalvo set a 1min46.754sec on his fourth lap to put the Lexus on top of GTD, as Matt McMurry’s fifth and best lap in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 fell just 0.119sec short. The ever reliable and frequently impressive Robby Foley, driving Turner Motorsport's BMW M6 GT3, was just 0.046sec further in arrears. Brandon Gdovic’s Precision Performance Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan was only 0.008sec slower, Trent Hindman in the … [Read more...] about Lexus tops Roar GTD qualifying, Keating stuns in LMP2