ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – While the team heads into Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase still looking for its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race victory, Stephen Simpson and the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports team might be carrying the most momentum of anybody in the Prototype class.
Simpson provided the latest example of that on Friday afternoon at Road America, when he posted the quickest time of the day on his second-to-last lap. He toured the scenic, 4.048-mile circuit at 1 minute, 55.057 seconds (126.657 mph) in the bright yellow ORECA LM P2 prototype.
“It’s always nice to end a practice P1, especially because I think we were on the opposite end of the charts before then,” Simpson said. “I got in right at the end of the session, did a few laps, realized the car wasn’t quite where we needed it to be. I came in and the guys made a good change and I was able to go out and get one lap before the checkered flag came out. Really, credit to JDC-Miller Motorsports. These guys are great.”
The team has come on strong particularly since finishing second in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen early last month. Simpson and co-driver Misha Goikhberg also finished second in the most recent race for the Prototype class, the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on July 9. In addition, the team announced a week ago plans to add a second Prototype to its stable for 2018.
“We definitely have some positive momentum going at the moment, not just on track, but also off track with the announcement of our second car, so that’s very positive,” Simpson said. “Honestly, the last couple of races, we’ve arrived at the track with a good car. We’re understanding our car very well now, and it’s nice to get to the track. Even if the car isn’t just where I want it to be, I know what we need to do to get it there.”
Joao Barbosa was second quickest on the day at 1:55.161 (126.542 mph) in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R, with teammate Dane Cameron third in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac at 1:55.224 (126.473 mph). Cameron and co-driver Eric Curran have won here each of the last two years, and Cameron also won in the GT Daytona class at Watkins Glen in 2014.
For the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT team, Friday’s practice sessions at Road America were focused on making their car as strong as possible for a late-race GT Le Mans class battle in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase.
They achieved that goal on Friday, as Dirk Mueller posted the quickest lap of the day in GTLM with a lap of 2:03.967 (117.553 mph) in the car he shares with Joey Hand.
“Today, we tried some stuff,” Hand said. “We weren’t the quickest in the whole session, but we were able to put a lap down. Dirk put a lap down and we were P1. We love to be P1, but we’ve still got some work to do to make a good race car. That’s always what we’re looking for is to have a good race car at the end. Somehow, some way, in all of the races I’ve done here, most of the races have come down to the last 10 minutes and been a dogfight, so you want a car at the end.
And in Hand’s opinion, there’s no better place to dogfight than Road America, especially with a strong car.
“The cool thing is, to me, this is the greatest racetrack in the world,” Hand said. “I love the lap here. Just driving a lap here – even my son loves the lap in sim racing. This is just a fun racetrack to drive. When you have a car that’s dialed in, that’s even more fun to drive.”
Source : speedsport.com
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