The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing DPi-V.R finished the Mid-Ohio Grand Prix eighth on Sunday as Eric Curran and Felipe Nasr teamed for the fourth round of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The race marked the return of IMSA to the technical track set in rural Ohio with a long history of sports car racing through the decades.
With 34 cars sharing the 2.238-mile circuit for the two-hour, forty minute race, there were high expectations for drama between the three classes in competition. Instead, the race ran at a relentless pace for the entirety of the the event from green to checkered flag. Pit stops are always critical, and the 125 lap event saw the team produce three well-executed stops as track position was as vital as ever with the extended green flag run.
Curran started the race from twelfth on the grid, but was able to make a pair of moves to slot in to tenth on the opening lap. The American racer continued to move forward, taking seventh position before turning for pit lane as Nasr took the controls. Returning to the action in 11th on lap 35, the former Formula 1 pilot made the most of the green flag run to advance to eighth before taking the checkered flag.
“It’s fun to come back to Mid-Ohio and run our Whelen Cadillac around here,” said Curran. “We got a little off on the initial set up of the car with the car being really loose. We made some adjustments to make up for it later in our run. But the leaders had a ton of speed today so we’ll just move on to the next one. We got a few points and came away with an 8th place finish but we just have to keep charging forward and get back up to the front. I look forward to racing in Detroit.”
“I worked very hard today,” said Nasr. “It was a difficult weekend for us in general. I felt like I did everything I could today. This track is a lot more difficult to overtake even compared to Long Beach because of the loss of downforce. Looking at the positive, we still scored a few points and I am ready for the next race already to make up some ground.”
The next race on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be the Chevrolet Grand Prix in Detroit on June 2.
Source. Sunday Group
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