WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Category

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — After dealing with the headaches at Lime Rock Park, Patrick Long and Christina Nielsen rebounded to win the GT Daytona class in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. The No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R qualified on pole position and led early before pitting during the second full course yellow of the race. After staying in the top five for the vast majority of the rest of the race, Nielsen took advantage ofRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — Dirk Mueller was running in second place midway through the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase and looked to be on his way to a podium finish but a rear suspension failure wasn’t part of the plan for the championship leaders in the GT Le Mans class. The No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT went to the pits after taking the Turn 5 alternate exit to get to the paddock and had to deal with a drive-thru for working under a carRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — After a fiery start to Friday practice, the No. 22 Nissan DPi of Extreme Speed Motorsports was top of the time sheet in Sunday morning warmup ahead of the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America for the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Pipo Derani went around the 4.048 mile road course with a fast lap of 1 minute, 53.030 seconds for an average speed of 128.928 mph. Second fastest was the No. 7 Acura Team Penske entry of Ricky Taylor,Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — Christian Fittipaldi announced at Road America that the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona will be his final competitive professional race as the 47-year-old will turn his attention outside the race car as the teams’ full time Sporting Director as they compete in the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Fittipaldi has had a racing career full of variety. Winning the 1991 International F3000 championship opened his world to Formula One where he raced for three years before going to the U.S. in 1995. FittipaldiRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — After finishing last of all cars still running at the recent Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park, Patrick Long made a statement by claiming the GT Daytona pole ahead of Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America for the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Long set his fast lap early in the session going around the 4.048 mile natural terrain road course with a fastest lap of 2 minutes, 6.593 seconds to average 115.115 mph in the No. 58 WrightRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — On Friday, IMSA had their annual State of the Series event at Road America ahead of the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. I found that it was a home run of an event and shows the strength that the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship now has in American motorsports. IMSA announced the WTSCC schedule and although a date or two was shifted a week, the calendar remained virtually identical to the 2018 calendar. Some championships have changed venues and others are shifting others aroundRead More

ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. – Robichon Takes Pole for Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama Race #1 at Road America Canadian driver Zacharie Robichon, who just was added as the driver of the No. 19 Moorespeed Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in place of the sidelined Will Hardeman, proved a quick study in his first visit to Road America, putting the car on pole position for Saturday’s first race of the weekend at Road America. Robichon – who currently leads the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by YokohamaRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — Magnus Racing has been on a roll lately in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship and rolled into Road America by setting the fastest class time in the first practice session ahead of Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. Andy Lally managed to bring the Audi R8 LMS GT3 around the 4.048 mile natural terrain road course with a GT Daytona (GTD) class-leading lap of 2 minutes, 7.048 seconds for an average speed of 114.702 mph. For Magnus Racing, this part ofRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – They’re definitely not alone in these sentiments, but No. 66 Ford GT co-drivers Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller love racing at Road America, which hosts the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for this Sunday’s two-hour, 40-minute Continental Tire Road Race Showcase. They love everything about the four-mile permanent road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. “It’s my favorite track in the whole world,” says Hand, who has raced on tracks all over the world through his sports car racing career, as well as severalRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A year ago at this time, the sports car racing world was buzzing with the recently announced news that Mazda would be teaming up with Joest Racing for the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to be run under the Mazda Team Joest banner. It was a big deal. Joest Racing is one of the most storied teams in sports car racing history, and it had most recently fielded the extremely successful Audi LMP1 program in the FIA World Endurance Championship. As partRead More