Friday’s IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Circuit of The Americas 120 wreaked havoc for several drivers and teams near the top of the Grand Sport (GS) class point standings.
Both CJ Wilson Racing entries, which entered the weekend 1-2 in points, encountered problems in the race. The team’s No. 35 Porsche Cayman GT4 shared by Damien Faulkner and Russell Ward retired due to a crash, while the No. 33 Porsche co-driven by Marc Miller and Till Bechtolsheimer battled to an eighth-place result.
It was a good day, however, for No. 12 Bodymotion Racing Porsche co-drivers Trent Hindman and Cameron Cassels. The teammates who opened the year with a victory in the four-hour BMW Endurance Challenge at Daytona in January, returned to the podium with a third-place run in the race won by Matt Plumb and Paul Holton in the No. 76 C360R McLaren GT4. That result put them back atop the GS point standings with three of 10 races in the books.
“Today was a full team victory from car preparation, to the set-up, to the strategy, to the guys behind the wall,” said Bodymotion Inc. Competition Director, Geoff Abel. “We had flawless execution all day. What we needed today was points. Today was all about bringing home some points, which we were able to do and have now retaken the points lead.”
The No. 12 teammates now have a total of 86 points, six more than their next closest competitors, Miller and Bechtolsheimer. The next race for the Continental Tire Challenge is the Continental Tire 120 at Watkins Glen International on Saturday, July 1.
SINGLE MAKES COTA WEEKEND UPDATE: In addition to the WeatherTech Championship and the Continental Tire Challenge, two additional IMSA-sanctioned series were in action at Circuit of The Americas. The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama was in action for its fifth and sixth rounds of the season on Friday and Saturday, while the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America kicked off its 2017 campaign with a pair of races.
Trenton Estep, a 17-year-old from San Antonio, Texas picked up a “home race” victory on Friday night in his No. 3 JDX Racing Porsche 911 in the lead Platinum Cup class, while Victor Gomez IV won the Gold Cup class. Saturday’s second half of the doubleheader saw Ohio’s Corey Fergus take the victory in the No. 00 entry, with Estep hot on his heels. David Ducote took the Gold Cup win in Race #2 in the No. 25 NGT Motorsport Porsche.
In the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series, Richard Antinucci won both races in the No. 16 Lamborghini Huracán fielded by Change Racing. Antinucci was series’ North America Pro driver champion in 2015.
Source : imsa.com
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