The first race of the IMSA weekend at Daytona International Speedway was held on Friday by IMSA’s Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, and saw a dominating performance from Spencer Pumpelly and Dillon Machavern for RS1 in their No.28 Porsche Cayman GT4 MR.
However, while they spent much of the race out front after Pumpelly rocketed into the lead from the pole position, the victory was not without its challenges. A late-race caution for Austin Cindric, whose No. 22 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 stopped on-course, saw the team, with Machavern now at the wheel, run third within the final 30 minutes.
However, when racing resumed, Machavern was quickly able to work his way back to the lead, passing Tyler Cook in the No. 82 BimmerWorld Racing BMW M4 GT4 and Scott Maxwell in the No. 15 Multimatic Motorsport Ford Mustang, to seize control of the lead for good, eventually winning by over seven seconds.
Celebration in victory lane for @SpencerPumpelly and @rennsport_one winning the #CTSC #BMWEndurance @DISupdates! pic.twitter.com/QkqAGJruTd
— #IMSA (@IMSA) January 26, 2018
Second place went to Cooke and co-driver James Clay, while third went to Maxwell and co-drivers Cole Custer and Ty Majeski.
The TCR (Touring Car) class, which made its debut in IMSA competition this weekend, saw victory go to Britt Casey Jr. and Tom Long in the No. 77 Compass Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR.
In the ST (Street Tuner) class, Nick Galante and Devin Jones took the victory in their No. 81 BimmerWorld Racing BMW 328i.