IMSA points, results IMSA Sportscar Weekend at Road America: A little more than a month after scoring their first win of the season, the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Action Express DPi Cadillac scored back-to-back victories. In a seesaw battle that saw four of the six cars in the DPi class lead, Felipe Nasr led the field to green and Pipo Derani crossed under the checkers 1.59 seconds ahead of the No. 55 Mazda Motorsports team and Harry Tincknell.
After winning the pole despite a spin in wet conditions on Saturday, Nasr took the green with a threat of more rain in forecast and led for the first hour and 19 minutes (35 laps).
“We had a fantastic weekend. Perfect to be honest,” Derani said after the race. “When I was in the car, the 60 car was completely out of my hands, whatever was going to happen to them. So I was just hitting my marks, focusing on making sure that we could make it to the end with a fuel-save.”
It was the fourth Road America win and 27th overall for Whelen Engineering Racing, the 10th for Derani and sixth for Nasr.
Through the exchange of pit stops, Dane Cameron and the No. 60 Acura team after pitting off sequence and benefitting from a clean track.
The No. 60 was forced to give up the lead with less than four minutes remaining in the two hour, 40 minute race for a splash of fuel, handing the lead back over to Derani. Cameron and the No. 60 dropped to fifth with the extra stop.
“We knew the 60 was gambling on a late yellow,” said Nasr. “If the late yellow came, they were looking pretty good to fight for victory. That never happened, so we just knew we had to do our own thing. The other pressure point was once the Mazda cleared the 10 car, he came pretty fast and backed us up. I knew this guy could take the job and that’s exactly what he did. Another victory for the 31, my first victory here.”
The Chip Ganassi Racing pair of Renger can der Zande and Kevin Magnussen rounded out the podium.
Just off the podium, Wayne Taylor Racing’s Felipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor saw their points’ lead cut in half to 41 over Derani and Nasr with four rounds remaining.
VICTORY for No. 31 @AX_Racing, from pole winners to race winners at @roadamerica 🏆 #IMSA / #RoadAmerica pic.twitter.com/5crJMnjE7e
— #IMSA / #RoadAmerica (@IMSA) August 8, 2021
OTHER CLASS WINNERS
LMP2: Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman finished seventh overall and first in class, which was their first win since the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
LMP3: The No. 54 Core Autosports and Colin Braun snapped a three-race win streak of Riley Motorsports. Braun claimed the victory by more than 22 seconds over the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports of Rasmus Lindh and Dan Goldburg.
GTLM: Matt Campbell in the No. 79 Porsche gave the WeatherTech Racing team their second win of the season after winning the Twelve Hours of Sebring.
GTD: Laurens Vanthoor and Zach Robichon gave the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche their first win in two years with the latest coming in 2019 at Road America.
RESULTS: Click here for the final overall finishing order and here for the class breakdown.
POINTS: Click here for the unofficial standings after Road America l Sprint Cup standings
STATS PACKAGE FOR THE WEATHERTECH 240 AT WATKINS GLEN:
Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)
Fastest laps by driver and class after race
Race distance and speed average
ROUND 1: Points and results from the Rolex 24 at Daytona
ROUND 2: Points and results from the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring
ROUND 3: Points and results from Mid-Ohio
ROUND 4: Points and results from Detroit
ROUND 5: Points and results from the Sahlen’s Six Hours at The Glen
ROUND 6: Points and results from the WeatherTech 240 at The Glen
NEXT: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will head to WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca for the Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship, a two-hour, 40-minute September 12 (4 p.m. ET).
