AUGUST 5, 2020
Sunday, August 2, 2020 at 08:11PM 
(Florent Gooden/DPPI)
Lewis Hamilton (No. 44 Mercedes-AMG Petronas) started from the pole (his 91st) and dominated the British Grand Prix at Silverstone until, with just two miles left, his left front tire failed on the final lap. As smoke poured from the disintegrating rubber on Hamilton's Mercedes, a charging Max Verstappen (No. 33 Red Bull Racing Honda) set the fastest lap of the race in pursuit, but Hamilton limped home to a narrow seventh British Grand Prix win. Verstappen finished a fine second, while Charles Leclerc (No. 16 Scuderia Ferrari) came in third. Valtteri Bottas (No. 77 Mercedes-AMG Petronas) had suffered the same fate as Hamilton, only a lap earlier. It was Hamilton's 87th Grand Prix win.
(Jake Galstad/LAT Images for IMSA)
Helio Castroneves (No. 7 Acura Team Penske Acura ARX-05 DPi) passed Renger van der Zande (No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R) in the pouring rain with 5 minutes, 15 seconds left Sunday to win the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class of the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America on Sunday. Castroneves trailed van der Zande when the race in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, restarted with under eight minutes left following a 21-minute red flag and 22-minute full-course caution, as leader Oliver Jarvis went to the pits for rain tires. Covered by plumes of water from van der Zande’s car and slower traffic in front, Castroneves chased down the leader and eventually passed him when his car bobbled on the exit of Turn 14. “I couldn’t see a thing,” Castroneves said. “I noticed a little gap, and every time you have a little gap when there’s a few laps to go, you go for it.” The victory - with teammate Ricky Taylor - was Team Penske's first this season in its first race after Acura announced that it would part ways with Penske’s WeatherTech Championship effort at the end of the 2020 season. Acura Team Penske first competed in the DPi class in 2018 and won the driver, team and manufacturer championships in 2019. Castroneves said the team isn’t focused on the decision, but instead intent on turning the season around. “Everybody knows the program is going to be forced to an end,” Castroneves said. “We don’t think about that. We want to finish on a high note. That’s our goal.” Van der Zande, who teamed with Ryan Briscoe, held on to finish second. The No. 31 Action Express Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R shared by Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani finished third. The WeatherTech Championship resumes Aug. 21-23 with the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes. The DPi and LMP2 classes return to competition in a six-hour race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Sept. 6. (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA Wire Service.)
Ben Hanley and Henrik Hedman (No. 81 DragonSpeed USA ORECA LMP2 07) who were at one point more than 45 seconds behind the leaders in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class during Sunday’s main event of the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America, caught a break when Simon Trummer (No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA) went off course under yellow with 46 minutes remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute race. Hanley made a timely change from slick tires to wets and pulled off a surprising victory with help from Hedman’s opening effort. The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA led almost the entire first two hours of the race after Patrick Kelly’s sizzling opening effort and Trummer’s strong second half. But with 46 minutes remaining and the field struggling to get around the wet track under caution, Trummer found himself in a tangle, went off course and picked up an advertising sign on the car’s nose. The No. 52 eventually finished fourth in class, while Hanley brought the No. 81 car home with the LMP2 lead. Cameron Cassels and James French finished second in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA, while Dwight Merriman and Kyle Tilley finished third in the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA. (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA Wire Service.)
Even though Sunday’s headlining event at Road America finished in a drenching downpour, Corvette Racing collected a 1-2 finish in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia drove to victory in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, with Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner bringing the No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R home in second place. It marked the third straight Corvette win in 2020 competition and second straight 1-2 finish. Taylor and Garcia earned the 102nd Corvette win in IMSA history. Taylor got the jump at the green flag on GTLM polesitter Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR-19 to grab the lead and hold it for the first 30 minutes on the high-speed road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Vanthoor passed Taylor for the lead on Lap 15 and it looked like the Porsche’s day. That changed as quickly as the Wisconsin weather, however. Rain began falling around the 4.048-mile circuit with 55 minutes remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute race. Soon after, GTLM competitors Earl Bamber in the No. 912 Porsche and Connor De Phillippi in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE were among cars spinning off course to bring out a full-course caution. Heavy rain, hail and lightning then arrived, forcing all cars to pit lane under red-flag conditions. Following a 21-minute hold, the race resumed under a full-course caution to allow a cycle of pit stops. When the green flag waved with 7:35 on the clock, John Edwards led GTLM in the No. 24 BMW, with Garcia in the No. 3 and Nick Tandy in the No. 911 Porsche on his heels. Amid the skirmish in the wet with limited visibility on the white-flag lap, both Edwards and Tandy went off course and Garcia snuck through to take the checkered flag. It marked IMSA win No. 18 for the Spaniard. “It was a very, very intense (last) three laps,” admitted Garcia, who notched his first Road America triumph. “I knew from Sebring practice that the C8.R was really, really good in the wet, even if today was more than wet. I had Tandy all over me; we had many, many times where we were alongside and kind of sailing together instead of racing together. I knew the Carousel and the Kink was really bad, like going into a swimming pool. I took the line I took on the previous lap and it seemed to work while defending from Tandy. … At some point while I was full off to the left, I saw the 24 (Edwards) spinning by himself very, very slowly. I was probably one of the few cars that made it through and luckily enough Tommy did the same, so another 1-2 for Corvette Racing, which is amazing. My first victory at Road America, finally!” GTLM is in action again Saturday, August 22 in the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR. The race streams live at 1:35 p.m. ET on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold and IMSA.tv. (Thanks to Mark Robinson/IMSA Wire Service.)
(Michelin Motorsport)You know it’s a strange day when the winning car in a race limps home with damage sustained after the checkered flag. That’s the kind of race it was for the GT Daytona class (GTD) in the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America on Sunday. Frankie Montecalvo and Townsend Bell (No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3) delivered AIM Vasser Sullivan its third win in as many IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races, coming after teammates Aaron Telitz and Jack Hawksworth captured the previous two events. Telitz started on the GTD pole in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3, with Montecalvo alongside in the No. 12 Lexus. Bell was able to overtake Hawksworth following the first round of pit stops and the No. 12 remained out front until the skies opened up with less than an hour remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute race on the popular 14-turn, 4.048-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Heavy rain, hail and lightning forced a 21-minute red flag. When green-flag racing resumed with the rain still coming down, Bell and Hawksworth were still running 1-2. That’s when the real fun began. Mario Farnbacher made his way from fifth to second on the final restart in the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura NSX GT3. A lap later, Farnbacher completed a brilliant outside pass on Bell in Turn 12 to take the lead. It was short-lived, however, with the No. 86 going off track on the white-flag lap, opening the path for Bell to retake the lead and hold on for the win. It was the fourth IMSA win for Bell and maiden victory for Montecalvo. Farnbacher and Matt McMurry finished second in the No. 86, with Telitz and Hawksworth rounding out the podium in the No. 14 Lexus. GTD races again on Saturday, August 22 in the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR. The race streams live at 1:35 p.m. ET on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold and IMSA.tv. (Thanks to Mark Robinson/IMSA Wire Service.)
Heavy rain turned the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar race upside down and became the dominant story at Road America on Sunday.
(Maddie Meyer/Getty Images))
Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Team Penske Ford) won Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his third win of the 2020 season. Keselowski, 36, led a race-best 184 of the 301 laps around the “Magic Mile” and held off runner-up Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) by 1.647-seconds to capture his 33rd career NASCAR Cup Series trophy and mark the fifth consecutive season he’s had at least three wins. “We’ve had a lot of great races this year with the 2-car, but we just hadn’t really gone out and dominated a race, you know,” Keselowski said. “I was talking with (crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and we were like maybe that’s what we need to get to the next level. We’re right there. We need to just go and dominate a race and that’s what today was for us. I’m really proud of my team and the effort they gave today and great race car. Thank you.” Martin Truex Jr. (No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) finished third. (Thank you to Holly Cain/NASCAR Wire Service.)