IMSA: Acura take first win of the season at Mid-Ohio
The IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship thundered to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, for an old school throwdown with the in the newest sports cars that racing has to offer.
Prototype: The #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi came into the weekend leading in points, but it was boxed out by the clinically quick Team Penske Acuras of Helio Castroneves/Ricky Taylor and Juan Pablo Montoya/Dane Cameron, who locked out the front row after an impressive qualifying duel that went down to the final lap when Castroneves beat out Cameron.
The action started quickly when the Prototype and GT fields bunched up and the #24 BMW of John Edwards, the #22 Nissan ESM of Scott Sharp, and the #85 JDC Miller-Motorsports Oreca of Robert Alon made light contact. No penalties were issued.
Mazda Team Joest had another strong showing with the #55 DPi of Oliver Jarvis qualifying third and moving up to second briefly after smart pit strategy roughly one hour into the race.
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GTLM: An always competitive GTLM field proved once again why North America leads the way in Grand Touring racing with competition through the field. The end of the race saw three different manufacturers occupy the top three spots, with the 912 Porsche of Bamber/Vantoor claiming victory.
The #25 BMW of Alexander Sims/Connor De Phillippi finished a strong second, with the #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia rounding out the top three.
GTD: 3GT Acura NSX’s locked out the front row for the start of the race with the #15 of Jack Hawksworth/David Heinemeier Hansson on pole and sister car #14 of Kyle Marcelli/Dominik Baumann close behind.
The #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX of Alvaro Parente/Katherine Legge was able to fight up to 2nd in class for an impressive finish.
Here is the finishing order.
| Position | Class | Drivers | Car,Team,Make |
| 1 | P | Ricky Taylor/Helio Castroneves | #7, Acura Team Penske, Acura DPi |
| 2 | P | Juan Pablo Montoya/Dane Cameron | #6, Acura Team Penske, Acura DPi |
| 3 | P | Tristan Nunez/Oliver Jarvis | #77, Mazda Team Joest, Mazda DPi |
| 4 | P | Filipe Albuquerque/Joao Barbosa | #5, Mustang Sampling Racing, Cadillac DPi |
| 5 | P | Jordan Taylor/Renger Van Der Zande | #10, Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R, Cadillac DPi |
| 6 | P | Sebastian Saavedra/Gustavo Yacaman | #52, AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, Ligier LMP2 |
| 7 | P | Stephen Simpson/Misha Goikhberg | #99, JDC-Miller Motorsports, ORECA LMP2 |
| 8 | P | Felipe Nasr/Eric Curran | #31, Whelen Engineering Racing, Cadillac DPi |
| 9 | P | Pipo Derani/Johannes van Overbeek | #22, Tequila Patron ESM, Nissan DPi |
| 10 | P | Ryan Dalziel/Scott Sharp | #2, Tequila Patron ESM, Nissan DPi |
| 11 | P | Kyle Masson/James French | #38, Performance Tech Motorsports, ORECA LMP2 |
| 12 | P | Simon Trummer/Robert Alon | #85, JDC-Miller Motorsports, ORECA LMP2 |
| 13 | P | Colin Braun/Jonathan Bennett | #54, CORE autosport, ORECA LMP2 |
| 14 | GTLM | Earl Bamber/Laurens Vanthoor | #912, Porsche GT Team, Porsche 911 RSR |
| 15 | GTLM | Alexander Sims/Connor De Phillippi | #25, BMW Team RLL, BMW M8 GTE |
| 16 | GTLM | Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia | #4, Corvette Racing, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R |
| 17 | GTLM | Dirk Mueller/Joey Hand | #66, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, Ford GT |
| 18 | GTLM | Richard Westbrook/Ryan Briscoe | #67, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, Ford GT |
| 19 | GTLM | Nick Tandy/Patrick Pilet | #911, Porsche GT Team, Porsche 911 RSR |
| 20 | GTLM | Jesse Krohn/John Edwards | #24, BMW Team RLL, BMW M8 GTE |
| 21 | GTLM | Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner | #3, Corvette Racing, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R |
| 22 | GTD | Kyle Marcelli/Dominik Baumann | 14, 3GT Racing, Lexus RC F GT3 |
| 23 | GTD | Alvaro Parente/Katherine Legge | 86, Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian, Acura NSX GT3 |
| 24 | GTD | Bryan Sellers/Madison Snow | 48, Paul Miller Racing, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 |
| 25 | GTD | Jack Hawksworth/David Heinemeier Hansson | 15, 3GT Racing, Lexus RC F GT3 |
| 26 | GTD | Lawson Aschenbach/Justin Marks | 93, Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian, Acura NSX GT3 |
| 27 | GTD | Bill Auberlen/Dillon Machavern | 96, Turner Motorsport, BMW M6 GT3 |
| 28 | GTD | Patrick Long/Christina Nielsen | 58, Wright Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3 R |
| 29 | GTD | Alessandro Balzan/Cooper MacNeil | 63, Scuderia Corsa, Ferrari 488 GT3 |
| 30 | GTD | Jeroen Bleekemolen/Ben Keating | 33, Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports, Mercedes-AMG GT3 |
| 31 | GTD | Andy Lally/John Potter | 44, Magnus Racing, Audi R8 LMS GT3 |
| 32 | GTD | Wolf Henzler/Michael Schein | 16, Wright Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3 R |
| 33 | GTD | Maro Engel/Kenny Habul | 75, SunEnergy1 Racing, Mercedes-AMG GT3 |
| 34 | P | Jonathan Bomarito/Spencer Pigot | 55, Mazda Team Joest, Mazda DPi |
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Being back at a classic track like Mid-Ohio was a throwback race to remember. Position battles raged in every class. Mix that with multi-class traffic at all times, and that meant that the undulating course was busy at every moment. It was a race to remember.