WeatherTech SportsCar Championship

By IMSA Wire Service Texas car dealer Ben Keating and his team have shown prowess in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship endurance races over the past several years. Keating and his longtime full-season co-driver Jeroen Bleekemolen won both the 2017 and 2018 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup in the GT Daytona (GTD) class. In fact, Keating’s overall performance in the 2018 WeatherTech Championship earned him the Bob Akin Award as the top sportsman driver in the GTD class, which comes with an automatic invitation from IMSA to the following year’s 24 HoursRead More

By IMSA Wire Service If you’re a regular follower of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans might seem a little bit like a high-speed version of musical chairs. We’re accustomed to seeing Renger van der Zande driving car No. 10 in the top class, but this one’s quite a bit different. Instead of sharing the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R with Jordan Taylor, van der Zande will be driving the No. 10 DragonSpeed BR Engineering BR01-Gibson LMP1 car with Ben Hanley and HenrikRead More

By IMSA Wire Service What do Hurley Haywood, Oliver Gavin, Paul Newman and Patrick Long all have in common? Well, for starters, they all were named among the list of “50 Great IMSA Drivers” in the “IMSA: Celebrating 50 Years” book produced last year by RACER Studio to help commemorate IMSA’s 50th Anniversary of celebration. They’re also among 30 drivers on the list with at least one victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The list also includes 12 drivers with at least one overall victory in the twice-around-the-clockRead More

By IMSA Wire Service Between them, they have nine class victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is one more than their team’s impressive win total heading into this weekend’s twice-around-the-clock battle on the Circuit de la Sarthe. Corvette Racing drivers Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen have celebrated victories atop the Le Mans podium in front of a sea of fans three times together – in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Gavin also won once prior, in 2002, and one time since, in 2015 with co-drivers Tommy Milner andRead More

By IMSA Wire Service Cooper MacNeil already has a respectable record in the 24 Hours of Le Mans as he returns this week to the Circuit de la Sarthe. “I’ve done Le Mans five times, this is my sixth time, and I’ve finished top five three of those times, so it’s all about consistency,” said the driver of the WeatherTech Ferrari. “It takes really good, hard, precise driving from the drivers as well. Luckily, this year, my two co-drivers have won the race at least one time. One of themRead More

By IMSA Wire Service His father won his class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998. His brother won his class at Le Mans in 2015. Making his sixth appearance in the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend, Ricky Taylor is looking to add to his family’s legacy of success in the prestigious French endurance race. He should have a good shot at it, too. He will be competing in the LMP2 class. With a 20-car entry list, it’s the largest of the four competing classes, butRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DETROIT — It all started with a first-turn wreck avoidance. It ended with a fourth place finish for John Potter and Andy Lally as Magnus Racing managed to finish fourth in Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. As Cooper MacNeil went underneath Ryan Hardwick in the first turn, the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari slid wide into the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini and Potter slowed enough to avoid the opening corner incident. “We just stayed clean, John had aRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DETROIT – Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron, co-drivers of the No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi, accomplished something in Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic that never has been done since IMSA began racing on Detroit’s Belle Isle Park. Before Saturday, General Motors race cars won their class in all nine IMSA races held on Belle Isle from 2007 through 2018, including overall victories from 2012 through last year. But on this day, Montoya and Cameron came away with their second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCarRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DETROIT — AIM Vasser Sullivan is currently ticking off all the right boxes, especially for their No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 entry as Richard Heistand and Jack Hawksworth were victorious in the GT Daytona class for the second race in a row in the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. While the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic did not count for the overall GTD points battle, it did for the newly-created WeatherTech Sprint Cup for all non-endurance races on the calendar. Since Heistand and Hawksworth were victoriousRead More