AUGUST 9, 2023

(Photo of Kyle Kirkwood, winner of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, by Travis Hinkle)

Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 Andretti Autosport AutoNation Honda) used a combination of smart strategy and raw speed to win the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on Sunday on the streets of Nashville. Kirkwood, from Jupiter, Florida, earned the second NTT INDYCAR SERIES win of his career and this season – both on street circuits. Kirkwood, who started eighth, beat the charging Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 Team Penske DEX Imaging Chevrolet) to the finish by .7633 of a second after a late restart. “I’ve got to give up to the 27 crew, AutoNation, Andretti, Honda,” Kirkwood said. “They played everything in my favor, to be honest. They gave me all the tools I needed. They cycled me to the front on strategy, and we just made really smart decisions and hit all of our marks. Just a solid day.” Championship leader Alex Palou finished third in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing The American Legion Honda. He expanded his lead to 84 points over closest pursuer and Nashville native Josef Newgarden, who placed fourth in the No. 2 Team Penske PPG Chevrolet. Six-time series champion and 2022 Nashville winner Scott Dixon rounded out the top five in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing PNC Bank Honda. Watch the Extended Race Highlights from Motorsports on NBC here. (Thank you to INDYCAR Media) 

(Photo of Scott McLaughlin by Travis Hinkle) 
NTT P1 Award winner Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 Team Penske DEX Imaging Chevrolet) finished second to Kyle Kirkwood by .7633 of a second after a late restart.

(Photo of Alex Palou by Joe Skibinski for Penske Entertainment)
Championship leader Alex Palou finished third in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing The American Legion Honda. He expanded his lead to 84 points over closest pursuer and Nashville native Josef Newgarden, who placed fourth in the No. 2 Team Penske PPG Chevrolet. Six-time series champion and 2022 Nashville winner Scott Dixon rounded out the top five in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

(Multimatic)

Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr (No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963) won the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Weekend at Road America on Sunday. The two incoming points leaders in the GTP standings, the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R and No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, encountered trouble before the green flag even flew for Sunday’s 2-hour, 40-minute race. That was of little concern to Nasr and Campbell, who delivered a commanding victory in front of the largest IMSA crowd at Road America since the sanctioning body’s debut race at the venue in 1979. Campbell built a 10-second lead during his opening stint in the winning car, and Nasr managed the gap during his double-stint to cross the line 4.635 seconds ahead of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 shared by Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist. “Obviously, we got a little bit lucky with the No. 31 having an incident in the warm-up,” said Campbell, who claimed his third career victory at Road America – the first in a prototype. “I had such an incredible lack of traffic at the beginning and that’s why the gap got as big as it was at times. “We’ve been fast on quite a few occasions, but luck has never been on our side. Today we just executed perfectly and it’s nice to get a win on the board after a tough year.” Blomqvist threw all he had into catching the No. 7 Porsche in the closing stages, getting within 1.7 seconds of the leader with eight minutes remaining. But Nasr had a smoother run through traffic in the final laps. Acura claimed two positions on the podium, as Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor drove the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 to third place and took over the GTP championship lead by 14 points over Derani and Sims. There have been six different winners in the seven GTP races so far in 2023. The No. 60 Acura is the only two-time winner. (Thank you to John Oreovicz/IMSA Wire Service) Watch the Extended race Highlights from Motorsports on NBC here. 

(IMSA)

Ben Keating is usually a Motul Pole Award contender anytime he qualifies a Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) car. But a rare off session Saturday left the 13-time polesitter fourth on the grid in the No. 52 ORECA LMP2 07 he shares with Paul-Loup Chatin, needing to charge forward in Sunday’s IMSA SportsCar Weekend race at Road America. Mission accomplished. Keating produced a storming first stint where he gained two spots by the second lap, took the lead by Lap 4 and placed the car in a strong position. With a lead of nearly half a minute before turning over the car to Chatin, Keating put the No. 52 machine in excellent position to bring home a win. Once Chatin took over past the halfway point of the two-hour, 40-minute race, he was able to cruise with a 20-plus second lead the majority of the race. He took the checkered flag by 9.517 seconds to deliver his second and Keating’s 20th WeatherTech Championship victory. The win was also hugely important in the LMP2 class championship battle. Entering the weekend, George Kurtz and Ben Hanley (No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA) led Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen (No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA) by three points and Keating and Chatin by six. Unofficially, the No. 52 pair of Keating and Chatin now lead the points. TDS Racing managed to bank a double podium with its ORECA cars, with the No. 35 ORECA (Giedo van der Garde, John Falb) and No. 11 ORECA (Thomas and Jensen) in second and third. It marked a great recovery from a pair of incidents on Friday. (Thank you to Tony DiZinno/IMSA Wire Service)

(IMSA)

Riley Motorsports called on its Michelin Endurance Cup third driver, Josh Burdon, to substitute for Felipe Fraga this weekend at Road America as he had a scheduling conflict. But just as Fraga did in the previous three points-scoring Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) races this season with Gar Robinson, Burdon put the team’s No. 74 Ligier JS P320 on top of the box. The victory was Burdon's third in WeatherTech Championship competition, and Robinson’s 12th. The WeatherTech Championship resumes August 25-27 at VIRginia International Raceway with the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR featuring the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and GTD classes. Prototypes rejoin the fray for the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sept 15-17. (Thank you to Tony DiZinno/IMSA Wire Service)

(IMSA)

After a season marked by struggles, the Heart of Racing Team has found its stride in the GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class. Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas combined for their second consecutive class victory with an impressive victory from the pole position Sunday in the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America. It came just two weeks after the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 won at Lime Rock Park, ending a run of six races without finishing better than fourth. Victory happened in part because of another team’s mistake. Gunn took the lead with 24 minutes remaining in the two-hour, 40-minute race when Antonio Garcia’s No. 3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8.R GTD had to serve a drive-through penalty for exceeding the minimum refueling time on its final pit stop. “We obviously benefited from the Corvette getting that penalty,” Riberas said. “Today it was definitely very hard to beat them on track. You’ve got to be there to capitalize on these opportunities.” A runner-up finish by Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat helped the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 maintain its lead in the class championship standings. Garcia and Taylor are second in points, while Juncadella and Jules Gounon are third in the No. 79 WeatherTech Mercedes. The GT classes resume the season in three weeks with the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway. USA’s live coverage of the race begins at 2 p.m. ET on Aug. 27. (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA Wire Service)

(IMSA)

The new pavement at Road America created challenges for some teams Sunday. Paul Miller Racing wasn’t among them. Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers improved their lead in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) standings with their fourth victory of the season in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3. “We came out of the gate strong,” said Snow, who won the Motul Pole Award on Saturday and started Sunday’s race just as strong. “This repave was difficult for a lot of people. Fortunately, it seemed like it really suited the BMW well. It was strong out of the gate.” Snow and Sellers weathered a stout challenge from the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO co-driven by Frederik Schandorff and Brendan Iribe, but Sellers was able to cross the line 2.261 seconds ahead of Schandorff for the 18th victory of Sellers’ career and 13th of Snow’s. “The biggest challenge was certainly the racetrack,” Sellers said. “The evolution from practice to qualifying and the race was that everybody gained quite a bit of respect for the track and what needed to be done.” Mikael Grenier co-drove the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 to a third-place finish with Mike Skeen. (Thank you to Jeff Olson/IMSA Wire Service)

(MotoGP.com)

MotoGP™ came back with a bang as the Monster Energy British Grand Prix delivered thrilling and unpredictable racing action. With spots of rain falling towards the end of the race, Aleix Espagaro (No. 41 Aprilia Racing) mastered the changing conditions to put himself in the perfect position for a last-lap attack on Francesco Bagnaia (No. 1 Ducati Lenovo Team). The Italian led the majority of the race, with Espargaro able to get a good look at the factory Ducati ahead. The reigning Champion will be happy to take 20 points as his title rival Marco Bezzecchi (No. 72 Mooney VR46 Racing Team) crashed out while following Bagnaia in 2nd place. Brad Binder (No. 33 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) had his hands full with Maverick Viñales (No. 12 Aprilia Racing) and Miguel Oliveira (No. 88 CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP™ Team ) as the South African fought hard to bring home 3rd place. Watch the Race Highlights from Motorsports on NBC here. (Thank you to MotoGP.com)

(Photo of Aleix Espargaro by AE Special Contributor Whit Bazemore)

Aleix.

By Whit Bazemore 

Bend. At the fast and flowing WWII British airfield circuit, Silverstone, Aleix Espargaro won his second ever MotoGP race in arguably this season’s most exciting race. It was the first time this year that there was a last lap pass for the lead, and Espargaro made his pass stick on Championship leader “Pecco” Bagnaia in a battle of European factories Aprilia (Espargaro) and Ducati (Bagnaia). With the contentious aerodynamic advances in MotoGP over the past few years led by the Euro factories (including fourth place finishers KTM) it was somewhat ironic that an Aprilia would win at Silverstone with its huge bi-plane style front wings. Turn the Aprilia's wings upside down and perhaps it could morph into the type of personal flying machine all of mankind has longed for since before the industrial age. Seriously! The next race is in Austria at KTM’s home track, the RedBull Ring.

Our dearly departed billboard at Road America. As most of you know, Peter coined the phrase "America's National Park of Speed" and gifted it to the track. -WG

The overall vision of Road America grew out of the dreams of Clif Tufte, a highway engineer, who chose 525 acres of Wisconsin farmland outside the Village of Elkhart Lake for the track. The natural topography of the glacial Kettle Moraine area was utilized for the track and for fan viewing areas, sweeping around rolling hills and plunging through ravines. Since opening in 1955, countless facility improvements have been made over the years, but the 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course itself is virtually the same today as it was when it was first laid out. Now in 2023, an entirely new track surface stands ready for racers and enthusiasts alike. - Road America

Editor's Note: You can access previous issues of AE by clicking on "Next 1 Entries" below. - WG