The #71 Rebel Rock Racing Chevrolet Camaro. (IMSA Photo)
ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin — Robin Liddell’s late lead to second place across the finish line secured victory in Sunday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Road America.
Liddell and co-driver Frank DePew edged out the #71 Rebel Rock Racing Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R from 17th on the grid in the Grand Sport (GS) class and crossed the finish line 3.229 seconds behind Winward’s #57 Mercedes-AMG Racing GT GT4 at the checkered flag of the Road America 120. However, after the post-race technical inspection, it was found that the Mercedes had exceeded its fuel capacity and moved to the bottom of the class in the preliminary results.
The resulting win is the first of the season for Liddell and DePew and follows a second place finish last month at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The revised results put two Ford Mustang GT4s on the GS podium, with the #59 KohR Motorsports Mustang shared by Bob Michaelian and Luca Mars in second place and the #13 McCumbee McAleer Racing with AEROSPORT Mustang driven by Jenson Altzman was driven, took second place and Chad McCumbee was third.
The race became one of mixed fuel strategies and mileage, with a possible BMW podium stifled when No. 95 and 96 Turner Motorsport and No. 92 Random Vandals Racing all had to pit with eight minutes to go to avoid a splash Get fuel in the two-hour race.
That put Daniel Morad in the No. 57 Winward-Mercedes in the lead, which he held to the checkered flag – only to have the result nullified by the post-race penalty. The win is Liddell’s 15th career at the Michelin Pilot Challenge and sixth for DePew.
The Murillo-Mercedes No. 72, which is the leader in the GS points classification, also had to pit and ended up in 11th place.
No. 5 Alfa Romeo triples at Road America in TCR
The story of the Touring Car Weekend (TCR) struggle at Road America can be told in two halves. Hyundai dominated qualifying with four of the top five places. Nonetheless, the race saw a level playing field between manufacturers, with the lone Alfa Romeo and lone new Audi finishing ahead of the seven-car Hyundai Elantra Ns armada.
The closing stages of the race saw an epic battle between Tim Lewis Jr in the #5 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR and Mikey Taylor in the #17 Unitronic/JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi RS3 LMS TCR.
Taylor’s co-driver Chris Miller shot up early but dropped to fourth at the pit stop, behind three Hyundais: the #91 Van der Steur Racing car and the #98 Bryan Herta Autosport cars and 33 with Curb-Agajanian carriage.
But with 34 minutes to go, Taylor pulled off a succession of maneuvers on par for his team at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – where he and Miller secured their first win of the season. Taylor shot past Tyler Maxson on the outside in the #91 van der Steur Hyundai to take the lead into Turn 1.
But Lewis, who had replaced Roy Block, was keen to extend KMW Alfa Romeo’s winning streak to three at Road America. With a systematic push and eventually a lead to victory, the No. 5 car was back at the front of the field.
Lewis and Taylor praised each other for a clean fight.
“The pass took a couple of laps to figure out where we were good and where he was good,” Lewis said. “I felt like the fuel gauge on the dashboard was getting closer and closer to zero.”
Taylor added, “It was a super good fight. They’re good friends and it’s great that they’re up there too. We would have been there, but had to save fuel. The pace they ran was super good and hard to keep up.”
Fuel economy became an issue in the TCR as several cars ran out of fuel. The pole-position No. 33 Hyundai of Harry Gottsacker and Robert Wickens was the best of the field in third, while their championship-contenders Mark Wilkins and Mason Filippi in the No. 98 Hyundai, with an apparent pit stop on the backstretch, were not so were very lucky.
The Michelin Pilot Challenge season continues on Saturday, August 26th with the Virginia Is for Racing Lovers Grand Prix at VIRginia International Raceway.
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