Joey Hand Tag

By IMSA Wire Service The Northeast Grand Prix on a sweltering Saturday at Lime Rock Park delivered excitement to the checkered flag, with a pair of first-time winners in the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe collected their first win in nearly a year, capitalizing on a three-stop strategy in the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing No. 67 Ford GT to earn the victory in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. Westbrook didn’t take the race lead until less than seven minutes remained and pulled awayRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ohio– Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course could have easily been renamed Mud-Ohio after rain kept hitting the track and the surrounding grass parking lots all throughout Friday morning and into the early Friday afternoon but the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship maintained their schedule on the first day of the Acura Sports Car Challenge, the first normal round of the 2019 season. With Friday’s morning practice conducted entirely in the wet, only 22 cars turned complete laps out of 36 on the entry list. Juan Pablo MontoyaRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, California– The BUBBA Burger Grand Prix at Long Beach had a two hour practice session early on Friday morning for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship where the 19-car field basically acted as street sweepers for the first official on track action of the weekend on the 11-turn, 1.968 mile street circuit. Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani led the first practice session in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi. That was a good showing for the car that won this year’s Mobil 1Read More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s finally here. Ten days from now, on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 2:30 p.m. ET, the green flag will fly over a 47-car field in the 57th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. It marks both the start of the IMSA 50th Anniversary Celebration and the beginning of an exciting new era for the sanctioning body and its flagship IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The field will include 47 cars spread across four classes of competition: Daytona Prototype international (DPi) – forRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer Motorsports Tribune reviews the season of the top 12 drivers from the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series championship. Our list continues with the seventh-place finisher, Sebastien Bourdais. Sebastien Bourdais, No. 18 Sealmaster Honda 2018: 7th in the championship  Wins: 1, Top 5: 5, Top 10: 8, Poles: 1, Laps Led: 108 Best Finish: 1st (St. Petersburg) After a strong start to the season with a victory at St. Petersburg and pole at Phoenix, it’s hard to picture a better start to the 2018 IndyCar season for SebastienRead More

By IMSA Wire Service BRASELTON, Ga. – On a picture-perfect fall day in front of a huge crowd at Road Atlanta, five IMSA championships already have been clinched in the first four hours of the Motul Petit Le Mans, the 2018 season finale for both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi and co-drivers Eric Curran and Felipe Nasr secured Action Express Racing’s fifth consecutive Patrón Endurance Cup when Nasr was scored as the race leader atRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Heading into the Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta – the season finale for the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – this is the first in a series in which the primary championship contenders in each of the three classes are compared. Today, we’ll take a look at the Chevrolet vs. Ford battle for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) championship: No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen Engine: 5.5-liter normally aspirated V8 (front engine) Points: 299 – 1stRead More

MONTEREY, Calif. – Derani Joins No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Team Alongside Nasr for Full 2019 WeatherTech Championship Action Express Racing today confirmed its full-season driver lineups for the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The lineup for its No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R came as no surprise, as the team confirmed current drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Joao Barbosa will continue in the car, along with Christian Fittipaldi in the Rolex 24 At Daytona in what will be his final race as a driver. The big surprise was the addition ofRead More

By IMSA Wire Service ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook gave Ford its fourth consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win Sunday in the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America, putting the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT back atop the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class standings in the process. The winning pass came with two minutes remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute race when the race-leading No. 25 BMW M8 GTE of Connor De Phillippi ran out of fuel just short of the finish.Read 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