Starworks Motorsport claim third IMSA WeatherTech win in four races

By foxsports
Published

Starworks Motorsport continued its hot streak in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition, with Renger van der Zande and Alex Popow claiming overall victory in Saturday's Northeast Grand Prix.

Corvette Racing, meanwhile, made history with Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin giving the team its 100th victory following a hard-fought battle in GT Le Mans.

Van der Zande pedaled the No. 8 Oreca FLM09 to its third Prototype Challenge class victory in the last four races, following a dominant effort in the second half of the PC, GT Le Mans and GT Daytona-only race at Lime Rock Park.

The Dutchman took over the lead in the final round of pit stops, while under the race's fourth full-course caution with 1 hour and 4 minutes remaining, and held off a challenge from the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry of Tom Kimber-Smith.

Kimber-Smith, who clawed back a nearly 10-second deficit in the final 30 minutes, lost ground late after getting held up by the No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports car of Johnny Mowlem, and came to within 0.815 seconds of van der Zande at the checkered flag.

Van der Zande and Popow extend their lead in the class championship over PR1/Mathiasen's Kimber-Smith and Robert Alon, who led the early stages of the race. 

Kyle Marcelli finished third, after getting around Mowlem for the final podium position in his No. 38 Performance Tech entry he shared with James French.

The win for the Peter Baron-led squad came after a collision on the opening lap between Popow and the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports car of Mikhail Goikhberg, who dropped out of contention after contact with a GTD car later in the opening hour. 

Mowlem, meanwhile, faded to fourth in the end, after co-driver Matt McMurry ran a solid second in his 90-minute stint.

Trouble struck CORE autosport yet again, with pole-sitter Colin Braun retiring in the second hour after multiple incidents and damage sustained to the No. 54 car, which started from the rear of the PC field after electing to again put Jon Bennett in for the opening stint.

Corvette's Gavin, meanwhile, led home a 1-2 result for the Pratt & Miller team in GT Le Mans.

Gavin assumed the class lead towards the closing stages of the race, passing Giancarlo Fisichella's No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, which went wide and picked up grass and dirt into its grill.

The Englishman held on for his third IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory of the season, teaming up with Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette C7.R.

Antonio Garcia put the sister No. 3 car into second position, after sharing the car with Jan Magnussen. Sixty of the team's 100 victories have been 1-2 finishes.

Ryan Briscoe was third in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, while Fisichella finished fourth after his incident that lost him the lead.

Both the Porsche 911 RSRs and BMW M6 GTLMs had disappointing races, picking up damage.

The two BMW Team RLL cars ended up in the tire wall, after contact with the Porsches, and the No. 912 Porsche North America car retired after damage from one of these collisions.

The No. 911 car, meanwhile, suffered issues after hitting a curb and slowing on track.

Andy Lally's strong final stint gave the GT Daytona honors to Magnus Racing and co-driver John Potter, their second of the season, leading a 1-2 for the Audi R8 LMS.

Lally passed the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT3-R of Jeroen Bleekemolen with 21 minutes to go, having moved from fourth to first in the matter of a few minutes.

Bleekemolen took over the class lead in the pit lane as his crew impressively got him out after co-driver Ben Keating pitted in eighth. 

The No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Audi of Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis finished second, demoting Bleekemolen to third by the checkered flag.

The highest-placed Lamborghini Huracan GT3 was the Paul Miller Racing car of Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers in fourth.

Change Racing looked strong at the start of the race, with the pole-sitting No. 16 Lamborghini of Spencer Pumpelly and Corey Lewis, but eventually finished 8th in class.

An early race incident for the class championship-leading No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 of Christina Nielsen, who was hit by Mikhail Goikhberg's  JDC-Miller Motorsports Oreca FLM09, resulted in a 11th place class finish.

Their championship lead, however, was salvaged by a late-race issue for the No. 23 The Heart of Racing/AJR Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alex Riberas, which finished 14th after running inside the top-three.