ELKHART LAKE, Wis. - The No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 has won the latest Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race from Road America, but with an odd ending as the two-hour race was called with just over 15 minutes remaining.
Following the second full-course caution of the race, caused when a pair of Aston Martin Vantages stopped at separate points of the 4.048-mile track, the race was then red flagged for lightning in the area, which was then followed by substantial rain. This all occurred in the second hour of the race with under 50 minutes remaining.
The question mark from there was whether there would be enough time for the race to get restarted with enough time for leading cars to pit, and then go back to race conditions. Once inside of 20 minutes, that decision was made by IMSA Race Control that determined there would not be enough time to do restart safely and complete the balance of the race.
It left Dean Martin and Jack Roush Jr., in the Ford, head of the field in GS, with the No. 28 RS1 Porsche Cayman GT4 MR of Dillon Machavern and Dylan Murcott in second and the No. 69 Motorsports In Action McLaren 570S GT4 of Jesse Lazare and Chris Green.
Within the ST class, the field was a bit jumbled. Four cars - the Nos. 25 and 27 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5s, and the No. 56 Murillo Racing and No. 17 RS1 Porsche Caymans - did not pit for what would have been their first scheduled stops before the rain hit and the red flag came out. That meant each car’s second drivers, Stevan McAleer, Britt Casey Jr., Eric Foss and Spencer Pumpelly, respectively, did not actually take over the cars that were started by Chad McCumbee, Tom Long, Jeff Mosing and Nick Galante.
There is a 45-minute minimum drive time rule in this series, and it remains to be seen how IMSA will award points and decide the results following these abnormal circumstances.
All results are provisional pending further review. More will follow.