GTE entry increases for 2016 ELMS

Despite the dissolution of the GTC class bringing the overall number of GT entrants down, the European Le Mans Series GTE field will increase from eight full-season entrants to nine in 2016.

Proton return with two cars in the 2016 ELMS (John Rourke/Adrenal).

At the ACO's official launch held in Paris yesterday, it was announced that five Ferraris, two Porsches and two Aston Martins will contest the opening round at Silverstone on April 16th, after Marc VDS opted to close their highly successful GT team and Gulf 

Racing graduated to the World Endurance Championship.

The Danish Formula Racing team will return to defend their crown, with Christina Nielsen joining Mikkel Mac and Johnny Laursen after an impressive campaign in TRG's Aston Martin in the United SportsCar Championship last year. Blancpain Pro-Am champions Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin will return again as part of a two-car entry from AF Corse, with Piergiuseppe Perazzini returning to GTE after a year away in a second car, while further Ferrari entries come from the AT Racing team and British outfit JMW Motorsport, who will once again field a 458 Italia for Robert Smith.

After a toe in the water outing in Estoril, British GT champions Beechdean are back for a full season as Andrew Howard steps up his preparations for Le Mans, while the number of Porsches will remain undiminished as Proton Competition expand to run an additional car for Daytona 24 Hour winner Marco Seefried. Gianluca Roda moves across from the Labre Competition Corvette in WEC to drive the no. 88 911 RSR.

The other new entry is TDS Racing, the French team switching from the disbanded GTC class to run another Aston Martin Vantage GTE. Eric Dermont, who raced for the team last year alongside regular partner Franck Perera, is the only confirmed driver so far.

This article also appeared on the relaunched Racing.GT

Krohn pleased with job well done

Jesse Krohn says Turner Motorsport executed a flawless race on the debut of the new BMW M6 GT3 in last week’s Daytona 24 Hours.

Speaking to Racing.GT, Krohn – who set the car’s fastest lap – said that a 6^th place finish in the GTD class was the best that could reasonably be expected with an unfavourable Balance of Performance and was pleased to get through the car’s first big test unscathed.

The 97 M6 GT3 had a clean run to sixth on its debut (Halston Pitman).

“It was maximum performance level from the team, from the car, from the drivers, we stayed out of trouble for 24 hours and were pushing to the max the car could do,” said the Finn, who shared the no. 97 car with Markus Palttala Michael Marsal and Maxime Martin. “It was a flawless race from the team and the drivers, but unfortunately we couldn’t do anything about the BOP.

“Our pace wasn’t too bad at the Roar, we just didn’t expect people to have so much in their back pockets. Obviously it’s difficult for IMSA to judge when people are playing around, this time it didn’t go our way and the Lamborghini was just on another level. We knew from the beginning it would make the race difficult, so it was just a matter of staying out of trouble and trying to do the best with what we had.

“We were the only ones who couldn’t go under 1:48, which was a little bit frustrating, but finishing the race was goal number one for me and it was great that our new car was able to get us through the whole 24 hours.”

Making the finish with no reliability issues was particularly rewarding for the 25 year-old, who has been involved from the start in the M6’s development programme.

“It’s been great to have my input in the car since the beginning and that obviously made it easier for me to get up to speed at Daytona,” Krohn said. “The Continental tyre we use in IMSA is very different to what we’ve been using in our tests – the Continental is a super-hard compound and that takes a completely different driving style and setup to get it working, but other than that it was fine.

Krohn signs autographs for fans before the Rolex 24 (Halston Pitman).

“It was a nice surprise to be fastest of all as I was trying to do the 24 hour driving style, keeping it smooth and easy with no stress on the machinery, and we had the DTM stars in our cars as well.”

But perhaps the highlight of the weekend for Krohn was getting the opportunity to share a car with countryman Markus Palttala, the man Krohn credits with launching his professional career.

“Getting in the same car as Markus was the greatest thing because he’s my racing hero and the reason I’m still racing today,” he added. “I probably wouldn’t have a drive without his help opening doors for me in the past, so to share a car with him for the first time since 2011 was mega!”

Benny Simonsen's Bathurst blog

Ahead of this weekend's Bathurst 12 Hour race, Vicious Rumour Racing's Benny Simonsen checks in with a Racing.GT driver blog.

For me, Bathurst is miles ahead of any other circuit. You can really feel the history and the track itself is awesome; I’d say it’s a lot more challenging than somewhere like Spa, which a lot of the drivers rate very highly. The whole place is pretty special and when you get there, it’s quite a unique atmosphere – it’s one of those tracks on everybody’s bucket list.

For me as a personal thing, growing up and watching my brother race at Bathurst, it was something I naturally wanted to do as well. Bathurst was like a second home for Allan; he had a lot of success down here and a lot of people were friends with him, so it feels really familiar when you come here, a bit more of a home circuit than some European circuits in fact.

Simonsen regards Bathurst as a 'second home' (Benny Simonsen/Facebook).

From last year we know Bathurst is a race with lots of Safety Cars, so it’s a case of seeing if you can keep on the lead lap and put your fast driver in at the end. Anything can happen really, but we’ve got to be a little bit realistic about the overall win as we’ve got the team owner Tony Defelice who is having his first experience racing there. But from the test days I’ve done with Tony, he’s a really confident driver and the rest of us – Andrea Montermini, Renato Loberto and me – all have experience of the track, so I think we have quite a strong team. We’re definitely gunning for an Am class win and then see where that gets us overall.

The Ferrari is a really good car on most circuits; I haven’t driven any other car around Bathurst so I can’t really compare, but they always do a top quality product and whenever I’ve driven it it’s always been very quick. Last year apart from qualifying when we had a brake failure and had to start last, everything went well from there; we were able to stay out of trouble, had good speed and suddenly we were in 6^th overall and second in class with a couple of hours to go. Unfortunately the Nissan was quite strong, so we couldn’t do much about that!

Probably Andrea and I will do the hard work. I think last year we did the same lap to a thousandth, so it’s up to the team who will do what. I started the race last year, we’ll obviously have to see what happens in qualifying, but I think it will probably be something similar – I’ve got the fresher eyes! It doesn’t bother me to start in the dark, I started last year and did quite a lot of night driving at the Spa 24 as well, but it is a bit more difficult because when you get to the top of the mountain at Bathurst it’s not just dark, it’s properly dark!

It’s roughly like a street circuit up the top there with no room for error, but I found that one of the worst things about doing the start is when you go down the hill in the morning, you’re driving straight into the sunrise – it’s surprising how little vision you have. At least the sun comes up here in about ten to fifteen minutes, which is only around four or five laps. I remember a couple of years ago when Allan did it, he couldn’t see anything in the dark – I think they had quite bad lights on the car, he had to sit in second for about forty minutes before the light came up and then as soon as he could see, he went into the lead and disappeared off!

Watson: “I’m not going to Bathurst to be a hero”

Bathurst rookie Andrew Watson has promised that he won’t try “to be a hero” ahead of his first visit to Mount Panorama for the 12 Hour this weekend.

The Northern Irishman, who has been retained by McLaren’s GT Driver Academy after an impressive debut season in GT3 machinery last year, is itching to get his first taste of the famed mountain, but is well aware of its unforgiving reputation.

Watson will make his Bathurst debut for Tekno Autosport (Jakob Ebrey).

“I’m under no illusions about it, I have to go there and do the job, no-one’s doing this out of favours for me,” says Watson, who will race for the factory supported Tekno Autosport team alongside Rob Bell and Will Davison. “I’m picked because they think I’m good enough and I’ll have to go and show that. I’m not going to Bathurst to be a hero, it’s too dangerous for that! I just want to go and do a solid job.

“I’ve been doing some laps on the simulator at home and I’m really looking forward to driving the track. Rob Bell has never been to Bathurst either, so he’s going to have some learning to do as well, then obviously Will Davison should be on it, but he doesn’t know the car so well, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all comes together.”

Bathurst will be Watson’s second outing in a 12 hour enduro after finishing fourth in the rain-hit Sepang 12 Hours in December with Alvaro Parente, Andrea Caldarelli and Hiroshi Hamaguchi. Emerging unscathed from the torrential downpours, which caused the race to be red-flagged twice, not to mention the heat and humidity – which comes as standard in Malaysia – was a significant confidence boost, with conditions at Bathurst unlikely to be quite as extreme.  

“I learned so much at Sepang because it was my first real endurance race, so that was a good experience just to see how your body holds up – I’m not going to say it was all smooth sailing because it was so, so hot there, but I don’t think it’s going to be as hot in Bathurst," he said.

“Sepang is actually a brilliant place to go endurance racing because it’s a bit like Spa, it has that weather element to it and it’s brilliant to drive as well. I think we finished just behind the three factory Audis, and we had a Pro-Am line-up, so everybody was really chuffed.

The FFF McLaren finished fourth at Sepang, the first of the
Pro-Am entries in the 12-hour enduro (Olivier Beroud).

“At the start of this year, the plan was just to do British GT, but we went and did some GT Open through McLaren GT and won in Barcelona, then at Sepang I impressed some people there and I think that’s what got me the ticket to Bathurst.

With Kevin Estre moving on to climes new at Porsche, McLaren have been left with a rather large void to fill, but Watson says he has plenty of growing in him before he can fill Estre’s shoes.  

“I’ve still got a lot of learning to do and I’m not in the position yet to step into a factory role in place of Kevin, he is in my opinion probably in the top five GT racers in the world,” Watson said. “Obviously it frees it up a little for me but there’s been no promises or guarantees that way, I’ve just got to go and perform again next year and see what happens from there.

“We haven’t formalised our programme yet, I’d like to broaden my horizons with tracks and maybe try and do more racing in Europe, but if it’s British GT again then I’d be a happy boy.”

Bathurst 12 Hour Preview: Where a good Silver could be worth their weight in Gold

The FIA’s decision to give all full-time V8 Supercar drivers a Gold ranking will have enormous ramifications for the Bathurst 12 Hour race this weekend, with far greater emphasis placed on Silver-ranked drivers to pull their weight.

Under event regulations, teams are permitted to run no more than two seeded drivers (rated Platinum or Gold), with the rest unseeded (either Silver or Bronze). 2014 winners Maranello Motorsport had circumvented this by fielding Team Penske V8 Supercar driver Scott Pye as one of their two allotted Silvers, alongside V8 co-driver Tony d’Alberto and the Platinum-rated Toni Vilander and Mika Salo. 

Pye (right) will no longer be a part of Maranello Motorsport's Bathurst 12 Hour
lineup after his FIA Driver Ranking was changed to Gold (Scott Pye/ Facebook).

However, the decision to upgrade Pye to Gold, along with the rest of the full-time V8 Supercar grid, has effectively forced him onto the sidelines, and given other teams pause for thought when deciding their final line-ups.

With little separating the Platinum and Gold drivers in outright pace and temperament, it is often the unseeded driver's stints that dictate whether or not a team will still be in the running by hour 12 - less than perfect decision-making in traffic can result in damage necessitating a stay in the pits, and too many inconsistent times will invariably come at the price of falling off the lead lap.

Had the rankings remained as they were, a quick and reliable V8 Supercar driver like Pye, with good circuit knowledge, would have proven a useful commodity to have in reserve as an unseeded pick, but the choice is no longer quite so straight forward. Generally speaking, there are two schools of thought; stick with the locals – established V8 co-drivers such as Jack Perkins, Karl Reindler or Dean Canto remain eligible – or gamble on an international driver with proven pedigree in GT3 racing, but lacking experience on the mountain.  

Silver drivers who fit both categories are in short supply, so Bentley’s signing of David Russell could prove to be an inspired decision. The versatile 34-year-old put his local knowledge to good use by qualifying on the front row in Roger Lago's Lamborghini at last year’s 12 Hour and proved he’s no one trick pony by winning a round of the ADAC GT Masters championship in a guest appearance for Reiter at the Red Bull Ring.

Russell can be expected to contribute his fair share alongside factory drivers Maxime Soulet and Andy Soucek in the no. 31 car, and will be determined to seize his big chance to impress a manufacturer. The Continental GT3 was a very competitive package on its first appearance at the mountain last year – particularly in the hands of the returning Steven Kane, Guy Smith and Matt Bell, who was shunted down to fourth after contact with Stefan Mucke at the final corner – and could be in a position to spring a surprise.

Russell will be eager to impress on his first appearance
for the British manufacturer (Matt Bell Racing/Facebook).

Likewise, returning to Bathurst after a year away, Nico Bastian could be another Silver to feature strongly in Erebus Motorsport’s no. 36 SLS AMG. Whilst Bastian, V8 Supercar racer David Reynolds and Thomas Jaeger – a Bathurst winner with Erebus in 2013 – may not have the one lap pace of their sister car, which features inaugural Allan Simonsen Trophy winner Maro Engel and DTM legend Bernd Schneider, they certainly shouldn’t be discounted over 12 Hours.

Indeed, 25-year-old Bastian was a key part of ROWE Racing’s strong Blancpain Endurance Series campaign last season and has plenty of mileage in the SLS under his belt, which is more than can be said for stablemate Austin Cindric, a very talented but raw 17-year-old, who quietly impressed on his first visit to the mountain last year. If the Mercedes can steer clear of trouble, it should be there or there abouts come the finish.

Nissan will hope to defend their crown with 2006 V8 Supercar champion Rick Kelly returning after a year away alongside reigning Blancpain Endurance Series champion Katsumasa Chiyo and Silver-rated Florian Strauss. The 2013 GT Academy Germany winner was about as surprised as anyone to find himself on the top step of the podium last year, having only held a racing license for 18 months and been parachuted in as a last-minute stand-in for father-to-be Alex Buncombe, but the German didn’t disgrace himself and won many plaudits for his performance.

At 31, Strauss has a few years on most of his GT Academy contemporaries, and after an indifferent ADAC GT Masters campaign will be eager to demonstrate that he can kick on in 2016, with the likes of Gaetan Paletou and Ricardo Sanchez snapping at his heels.

McLaren will provide factory support for Jonathon Webb's Tekno Autosport squad, which will give the latest-specification 650S its debut on the mountain. Still only 32, Webb will resume his successful partnership with Shane van Gisbergen for one last time before the Kiwi departs for Red Bull Racing Australia, with Alvaro Parente completing the lineup in no. 59 , while the sister car will be shared between Rob Bell, Will Davison and McLaren GT Driver Academy prospect Andrew Watson, who is determined to repay Andrew Kirkaldy’s faith with a good result on his first visit to the mountain.

Mapelli crosses the rise at Skyline on his way to second at last year's
Bathurst 12 Hour (Marco Mapelli Official Fan Club/ Facebook).

As for Audi, with Bathurst lap record holder Laurens Vanthoor and Markus Winkelhock at the helm of a 2015-spec R8 LMS, 2012 winners Phoenix will again be expected to shine. Alex Davison, who finished fourth in the Bathurst 1000 alongside brother Will in 2014, will do a tidy job as the team’s Silver driver, although with much of his experience coming in Porsches, some adaption time can be expected before he can extract the most from the car.

Phoenix won’t be the only Audi on show however, with Steve McLaughlan’s Jamec Pem Racing team entering two new models of their own. Headline acts Rene Rast and Garth Tander in the no. 75 will undoubtedly have race-winning pace, but it remains to be seen whether McLaughlan – who had originally signed Craig Lowndes before a motorcycle accident forced the six-time Bathurst 1000 winner to miss the race – can keep the car in contention during his stints.

For that reason, the no.74 car which Italian GT runner-up Marco Mapelli will share with factory drivers Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies could well be the one to keep an eye on, with Mies searching for a record third victory on the mountain. Mapelli has flown largely under the radar in the last few years, but then it’s not every Silver-ranked driver who has lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in under seven minutes in a Lamborghini Aventador SV. The Italian was part of the Phoenix lineup last year and will have picked up a trick or two from Vanthoor, so watch this space… 

Five things we learned at Daytona

The 2015 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona will go down in history as a classic, as Oliver Gavin beat team-mate Antonio Garcia by just 0.034 seconds at the flag, and Magnus Racing prevailed in a nail-biting GTD battle. Here's what we learned.

1. Jonny Adam can hold his own with the best of them

Adam grasped his Sunoco prize drive with both hands
and looks set for a breakout 2016 (Jose Mario Dias).

For several years now, followers of the British GT championship have watched as Jonny Adam quietly but effectively plied his trade alongside Andrew Howard in the Beechdean Aston Martin, evolving into a well-rounded driver capable of winning races and championships. Aston Martin have recognised his progress too, and gave Adam an increased role in its World Endurance Championship setup once it became clear Stefan Mucke was leaving for Ford, but it was at Daytona where the Scotsman announced himself to the wider sportscar fraternity with an impressive showing for Action Express in the P class.

Having won the Sunoco Challenge in 2015, Adam would be going for outright honours alongside IndyCar racer Simon Pagenaud, Dane Cameron and Eric Curran in the no. 31 Daytona Prototype, but if he felt the pressure, it didn’t show. Adam held second for much of his first three-hour stint, comfortably holding off WEC champion Brendon Hartley in the Ganassi DP and the sister car of Christian Fittipaldi. After pit fire dropped them off the lead lap, Adam had got the car back to fourth and within striking distance of the leaders when a driveshaft failure undid all his hard work. His point proven, surely 2016 will be the year that Aston Martin will give Adam the chance to race at Le Mans…

2. Ford clearly has promise, but must be patient

Ryan Briscoe talks with a Michelin engineer. The 67 Ford
would finish 7th on it's debut in GTLM (Ford Performance).

The new Ford GT was the centre of attention throughout much of the pre-event build-up, and showed flashes of its potential in the race before both cars fell victim to transmission problems. An outright winner at Daytona in 2011, Joey Hand in the no. 66 exchanged the lead with polesitter Nick Tandy in the opening hours, while Ryan Briscoe’s 1:44.391 on Lap 46 remained the fastest lap set by a GT car until the dying minutes of the race, as Antonio Garcia stepped up his pursuit of Oliver Gavin.

There’s only so much that can be learned from testing, and while Daytona didn’t produce the dream debut many had been hoping for, the experience will have proven invaluable as Ford ramp up their preparations for Le Mans, 50 years on from their famous victory in 1966.

3.  Lamborghini need to be pegged back

Antinucci shone for O'Gara, but it wasn't all down to the driver (IMSA).

As ever, Balance of Performance was never far away from people’s lips, but in the GTD class they did at least have a point. Although Norbert Siedler topped a wet qualifying in the Park Place Motorsports Porsche, it proved to be a false dawn as the race threatened to become a Lamborghini Huracan benefit. So fast were the Italian cars around the banking that the GTLM cars were unable to keep up, with the GTD Audis and BMWs in particular little more than sitting ducks.

After a lengthy pitstop to fix electrical issues that dropped out of the running, the O’Gara Motorsport Lambo driven by Richard Antinucci set fastest lap after fastest lap, peaking with a 1:45.873 on Lap 520 – a full two seconds faster than the best time managed by the Turner Motorsport BMW M6, a 1:48.140 by Jesse Krohn. 

O’Gara weren’t the only ones to make the most of the Lambo's advantage – Spencer Pumpelly set a 1:46.226 in the Change Motorsport car, fractionally quicker than Fabio Babini’s 1:46.424 for Konrad Motorsport, while Mirko Bortolotti in the Paul Miller Racing entry managed a 1:46.520. In fact, the 11 fastest times in the GTD class were all set by Huracan drivers. 

Lamborghini would have won at a canter had it not been for contact between the first and second placed cars of Bryce Miller and Justin Marks in the 11^th hour, and came within a few laps of victory until Babini ran out of fuel.

A circuit unlike any on the calendar, Daytona has its own unique BOP, so IMSA should be wary of making a knee-jerk reaction, but must step in to ensure Lamborghini don’t run away with it again at Sebring.

4. Rast has the magic touch

Rast stole the show in GTD for Magnus (Rene Rast Racing).

Magnus Racing had no right to compete for GTD honours given the Audi R8 LMS’s top speed deficit to the Lamborghini Huracan and Porsche 911 GT3 R, but Rene Rast was making no excuses.

Ably assisted by Andy Lally and Marco Seefried, Rast extracted every last ounce of performance from the Audi on the infield to resist the challenge of several faster cars and hold the lead into the closing stages, but the German still had a mammoth task on his hands to make it to the finish without making another stop for fuel.

With the charging Nicky Catsburg looming large in his mirrors, Rast judged it to perfection, finishing the race on fumes to give Magnus a first victory at Daytona since 2012 and continue Audi’s remarkable record in long-distance enduros.

Can Rast make it double with Garth Tander and Steve McLaughlan at Bathurst this week? On current form, you certainly wouldn’t bet against it. 

5. The 'Queen of the Ring' is human after all

Schmitz struggled to get into a rythmn with limited dry running (Frikadelli Racing).

All weekend there was a buzz surrounding Nordschleife expert Sabine Schmitz on her first appearance at Daytona with Frikadelli Racing, but the ever-popular Queen of the Ring wasn’t able to perform to her best.

Perhaps that was understandable; having missed the Roar with Top Gear filming commitments and limited dry running in practice due to rain, Schmitz admitted to a lack of confidence and it showed, lapping roughly four to five seconds off the car’s best time set by Porsche ace Sven Muller (incidentally the fastest non-Lamborghini driver) in her three stints.

At the very least she kept her nose clean and brought the car back in one piece, but watching on from home, Connor de Philippi - who was originally slated to drive after appearing for the team at the Roar - could be justifiably disappointed.

ESM prevail in thrilling Daytona 24 Hours

24 hour races being what they are, it’s a rare thing when the car which leads the first lap is still there at the end, but it seems nobody told the Extreme Speed Motorsport team of Luis Felipe Derani, Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown, who became the first LMP2 team ever to win the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in their Honda-powered Ligier JS P2.  

Derani passed the polesitting BR Engineering BR01 of Mikhail Aleshin around the outside of Turn One to take the lead and bolted, setting the race’s fastest lap – a 1:39.192 – on Lap Six. But the ESM team didn’t have it all their own way, and had to recover from a lap down after an assault from John Pew’s Michael Shank Racing Ligier at the Bus Stop necessitated a stop to replace the rear bodywork.

ESM were the quickest car on track, but crucially kept
their time in the pits to a minimum (IMSA).

Comfortably the fastest car on track once the Shank car retired during the night with an engine failure, Derani resumed the lead with a pass on Ricky Taylor’s Wayne Taylor Racing DP with an hour and a half remaining. Even with a full night’s sleep to fall back on – Rubens Barrichello was a last minute addition to the team to help spread the load – an unwell Jordan Taylor had no answers for the Ligier in the final stint, and would be forced to make way early with exhaust fumes filling the cockpit.

Veteran Max Angelelli bravely brought the car to the finish in second, but was taken to hospital for examination after the chequered flag.

After Nick Tandy once again took advantage of atrocious conditions in qualifying to embarrass the prototypes in his GTLM Porsche, the 2015 Daytona 24 Hours was a race which never looked like running to type.

Both Action Express and Ganassi DPs suffered rare unreliability, with the defending event winner driven by Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson crashing out on Sunday morning, while the updated Deltawing starred in the hands of Katherine Legge, charging from 13^th to the lead by the end of the first hour before an unfortunate Andy Meyrick hit a PC car that was stranded in the middle of the road at Turn One.

With the rest of the Prototype class dropping like flies, the Visit Florida Racing DP of Marc Goosens, Ryan Dalziel and Ryan Hunter-Reay completed the podium in third, the only other car on the lead lap, with Christian Fittipaldi, Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque and Scott Pruett the best of the rest in fourth for Action Express.

0.035s separated Gavin (4) and Garcia (3) after 24 hours of racing (IMSA).

In GTLM, Corvette Racing provided one of the greatest finishes in the race’s esteemed history as Oliver Gavin held off team-mate Antonio Garcia at the line by just 0.034s.

When Gavin muscled past Earl Bamber with half an hour to go, it looked for all the world as though the race was won for the no.4 car he shared with Tommy Milner and Daytona debutant Marcel Fassler, but Garcia had other ideas.

Allowed off the leash by Corvette program manager Doug Fehan, the Spaniard made short work of an irate Bamber, and set about catching Gavin, who was struggling on older tyres. After pulling alongside on the banking several times, Garcia made his move to the outside of Turn One with two laps to go, but couldn't get the C7.R to the apex, allowing a grateful Gavin to slip back though.

Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller would thus have to settle for second, with Bamber, Fred Makowiecki and Michael Christensen third in the no. 912 Porsche.

Ford showed glimpses of promise on their return, with Ryan Briscoe setting the second quickest time of the race for a GT car – his 1:44.391 on Lap 46 beaten only by Garcia in his frenzied chase of Gavin – but early problems for both cars effectively reduced the race to an extended test session. Joey Hand, Dirk Muller and Sebastien Bourdais in no. 66 would eventually take 7^th in class.

Best new car honours would thus go to the Scuderia Corse Ferrari 488 shared by Alessandro Pier Guidi, Daniel Serra, Memo Rojas and Alex Premat, which finished a lap off the leaders in fourth. Pier Guidi incidentally also set the fourth quickest time for a GT car.

The GTD class battle was a similarly close affair, as Rene Rast, Marco Seefried, Andy Lally and John Potter prevailed for Magnus Racing in a fuel strategy nail-biter. 

Rene Rast brought the Magnus Audi home on fumes to win GTD (IMSA).

With the Balance of Performance heavily favouring the Lamborghini Huracan, Magnus looked to have little chance, but after the first and second placed Lamborghinis of Bryce Miller and Justin Marks tangled in the eleventh hour, the Audi R8 LMS was the chief beneficiary and moved to the head of a queue which also featured the Porsches of Shane van Gisbergen and Nicky Catsburg, Richie Stanaway’s Aston Martin and the last remaining Lamborghini of Fabio Babini.

Van Gisbergen was the first to fall by the wayside when a bolt sheared on his rear wing and caused him to spin, but Rast still wasn’t in the clear. Lifting and coasting around the infield in a desperate attempt to make it to the finish without having to come in for a splash of fuel, he was losing time hand over fist to Catsburg and Damien Faulkner’s Viper, the first of the cars who were good to go until the end. Stanaway was the first to blink and pitted from third with five minutes remaining, but Magnus gambled on staying out and were rewarded as Rast brought the car home on fumes. 

Konrad Motorsport opted for a similar strategy and briefly snatched the lead away, only for Babini to run out of fuel moments later. That opened the door for the Black Swan Porsche of Catsburg, Pat Long, Andy Pilgrim and Tim Pappas to finish second, just three seconds shy of the winner and Faulkner, Eric Foss, Jeff Mosing, Gar Robinson and Ben Keating an unlikely third.  

In the attrition-hit Prototype Challenge class, the no. 85 JDC/ Miller entry of Stephen Simpson, Kenton Koch, Chris Miller and Misha Goikhberg won by four clear laps from a PR1/Mathiasen lineup which featured Tom Kimber-Smith. PC polesitter Johnny Mowlem finished third for BAR1 after both Starworks entries hit problems.