Up front, Action Express Racing dominated the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Brickyard Grand Prix for its second win of the season. Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi delivered in the No. 5 Corvette DP, leading a podium sweep by Daytona Prototype machinery in the Prototype class.
Fittipaldi’s start helped get the No. 5 in lead position and from there both he and Barbosa were able to control the race. Barbosa survived a late fuel scare and was able to cruise home by some 48-plus seconds over the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost Riley of Scott Pruett and Sage Karam. Karam turned in an impressive stint in a fill-in role for Memo Rojas. Spirit of Daytona’s Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook (No. 90 Corvette DP) were third.
In Prototype Challenge, Jack Hawksworth turned in an incredible debut effort as he reeled in, then passed, his RSR teammate Bruno Junqueira for the class victory. Hawksworth, who’d never driven a sports car race previously and was filling in for the suspended Alex Tagliani, caught and passed Junqueira in the final five minutes to deliver the win for the No. 08 entry, co-driven by Chris Cumming. Junqueira and teammate Duncan Ende were second in the No.09.
The GT classes were less eventful with SRT Motorsports’ No. 93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R of Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer (GT Le Mans) and Scuderia Corsa’s No. 63 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Alessandro Balzan and Jeff Westphal (GT Daytona) scored their wins.
The Viper seized the opportunity after the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy and Richard Lietz, which dominated, fell victim to an engine failure. A late-race pit stop took another GTD Ferrari, the No. 555 AIM Autosport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler, from the lead to fourth.
After a caution-free race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park two weeks ago, the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway featured a caution-heavy first hour before the final one hour and 45 minutes ran nearly without yellow flag interruptions.
The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship returns to action at Elkhart Lake’s Road America on August 10.
