Northeast Grand Prix Entry List Notebook

By IMSA Wire Service

The Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park on Saturday, July 20 is the first of two standalone races for the pair of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT classes.

It is the third consecutive year that the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class is the headliner alongside the GT Daytona (GTD) class at Lime Rock for a two-hour and 40-minute battle that will be televised on NBCSN at 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 20.

Live streaming of the race will be available on the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com beginning at 3 p.m. ET, with live IMSA Radio coverage throughout the weekend on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com. SiriusXM Radio also will carry live IMSA Radio race coverage.

Let’s take a look at the entry list and who’s been strong at Lime Rock over the years and other notable items heading into the race:

· Andy Lally and Oliver Gavin are tied for the most IMSA wins at Lime Rock among active Northeast Grand Prix drivers with four wins each.

· Lally won in 2001, 2006, 2010 and 2016 and will go for his fifth Lime Rock IMSA win alongside co-driver John Potter, with whom he also co-drove to victory in 2016, in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3.

· Gavin’s four wins came in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2016. That 2016 victory was the 100th win in Corvette Racing’s illustrious sports car racing history. He will be rejoined in the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R by Marcel Fassler, who is pinch-hitting for the injured Tommy Milner for the second consecutive race.

· Patrick Long has the most IMSA poles at Lime Rock with three, the last of which came in qualifying for last year’s race in the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R. This year, Long is co-driving the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with Patrick Lindsey.

· Speaking of Wright Motorsports, the team is returning to WeatherTech Championship competition for the first time in 2019 with Anthony Imperato – a graduate of the IMSA-sanctioned Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama – sharing the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R with Porsche Young Professional Matt Campbell from Australia.

· Corvette Racing is the winningest team on the Northeast Grand Prix entry list with five previous victories at Lime Rock. The team’s first victory came in 2004, followed by wins in 2005, 2007 and 2008 prior to its most-recent Lime Rock win in 2016.

· Porsche is the winningest manufacturer in IMSA races at Lime Rock since 2000 with 19 victories. Chevrolet is second with 12, followed by BMW and Ford with five each.

Previous Northeast Grand Prix Winning Drivers Since 2000 in 2019 Field (14)
Andy Lally (4) – SRPII – 2001; GRAND-AM GT/Overall – 2006; ALMS GTC – 2010; GTD – 2016
Oliver Gavin (4) – ALMS GTS – 2004, ALMS GT1 – 2005, 2007; GTLM – 2016
Patrick Long (3) – ALMS GT2 – 2006, 2009; ALMS GT – 2010
Dirk Mueller (3) – ALMS GT – 2011, 2013; GTLM/Overall – 2018
Ryan Briscoe (2) – ALMS P2/Overall – 2007; ALMS P2 – 2013
Jan Magnussen (2) – ALMS GT1 – 2008, GRAND-AM GT – 2011
Joey Hand (2) – ALMS GT – 2011; GTLM/Overall – 2018
John Edwards (2) – GRAND-AM GT – 2012; ALMS GT – 2013
Bill Auberlen (1) – GRAND-AM GTU – 2000
Cooper MacNeil (1) – ALMS GTC – 2012
John Potter (1) – GTD – 2016
Patrick Pilet (1) – GTLM/Overall – 2017
Patrick Lindsey (1) – GTD – 2017
Bryan Sellers (1) – GTD – 2018

Previous Northeast Grand Prix Pole-Winning Drivers Since 2000 in 2019 Field (10)
Patrick Long (3) – ALMS GT3 – 2005; ALMS GT – 2010; GTD – 2018
Richard Westbrook (2) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2012; GTLM – 2016
John Edwards (2) – GRAND-AM GT – 2012; ALMS GT – 2013
Toni Vilander (1) – ALMS GT2 – 2006
Oliver Gavin (1) – ALMS GT1 – 2008
Jeroen Bleekemolen (1) – ALMS GTC – 2010
Joey Hand (1) – ALMS GT – 2011
Bill Auberlen (1) – ALMS GT – 2012
Ryan Briscoe (1) – ALMS P2 – 2013
Antonio Garcia (1) – GTLM/Overall – 2018

Previous Northeast Grand Prix Winning Teams Since 2000 in 2019 Field (8)
Corvette Racing (5) – ALMS GTS – 2004; ALMS GT1 – 2005, 2007, 2008; GTLM – 2016
BMW Team RLL (2) – ALMS GT – 2011, 2013
CORE autosport/Porsche GT Team (2) – ALMS PC – 2012; GTLM/Overall – 2017
Turner Motorsport (1) – GTD – 2015
Magnus Racing (1) – GTD – 2016
Park Place (1) – GTD – 2017
Chip Ganassi Racing (1) – GTLM/Overall – 2018
Paul Miller Racing (1) – GTD – 2018

Previous Northeast Grand Prix Winning Manufacturers Since 2000 in 2019 Field (6)
Porsche – 19
Chevrolet – 12
BMW – 5
Ford – 5
Acura – 2
Ferrari – 1