The 2020 IMSA SportsCar Weekend was a sports car race sanctioned by the

International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive dir ...

(IMSA). The race was held at

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Ch ...

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Elkhart Lake is a village in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States, located within the northwestern part of the county within the Town of Rhine. The population was 967 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropolit ...

, on August 2, 2020. This race was the fourth round of the

2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship The 2020 IMSA SportsCar Championship was the 50th racing season sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) (which traces its lineage back to the 1971 IMSA GT Championship). This was also the seventh United SportsCar Champion ...

, and the third round of the 2020 WeatherTech Sprint Cup. After a 21-minute weather-induced red flag sandwiched between 22 minutes of full-course caution, the race was won by the #7 team of

Hélio Castroneves Hélio Castroneves (; born Hélio Alves de Castro Neves; 10 May 1975) is a Brazilian auto racing driver. He has won the Indianapolis 500 a record-equalling four times: in 2001, 2002, 2009, and 2021. He won the 2021 24 Hours of Daytona with W ...

and

Ricky Taylor Ricky Taylor (born August 3, 1989) is an American racing driver, most notably in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. His career highlights include an IMSA Series Championship in 2017, as well as marquee wins at the Daytona 24, 12 Hours o ...

, while the LMP2 class victory was taken by the

DragonSpeed DragonSpeed Racing is an American racing team that competes in the European Le Mans Series, FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2019, the team entered the NTT IndyCar Series with a five race schedule, including t ...

entry of Henrik Hedman and

Ben Hanley Benjamin Michael Hanley is a British racing driver who was a part of Renault F1 Team's Renault Driver Development Program from 2006 to 2008. He raced two seasons part time in the NTT IndyCar Series. Currently he is racing in the FIA World End ...

. The GTLM class was won by Antonio García and Jordan Taylor of

Corvette Racing Corvette Racing is an American auto racing team established in 1999 by General Motors and Pratt & Miller for the purposes of competing in sports car racing internationally. Corvette Racing is an official racing program for General Motors and ...

, the team's third consecutive victory. AIM Vasser Sullivan also claimed their third consecutive victory, as

Frankie Montecalvo Frank "Frankie" Montecalvo (born December 28, 1990) is an American racing driver who currently competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Early life A native of Highlands, New Jersey, Montecalvo attended high school at St. John Vianney ...

and

Townsend Bell Townsend Bell (born April 19, 1975) is an American professional motor racing driver competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and also as a motorsports commentator for NBC Sports’ IndyCar Series coverage. Early career He spent ...

scored their first class victory of the season.

Background

Then

's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the

2020 IMSA SportsCar Championship The 2020 IMSA SportsCar Championship was the 50th racing season sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) (which traces its lineage back to the 1971 IMSA GT Championship). This was also the seventh United SportsCar Champio ...

(IMSA SCC) in August 2019. It was the seventh consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC. The race was held at the ten-turn

on August 2, 2020. The race was the third for the series after returning from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, and the first besides the

Rolex 24 The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

which was included on the series' initial pre-pandemic schedule. It was the third of seven races on the WeatherTech Sprint Cup calendar. Fans were allowed to be present at the event, but the garage area was restricted to essential team personnel, when it's typically open to fans. The

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima (town), Fuchū, Hiroshima Prefecture, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, M ...

duo of

Jonathan Bomarito Jonathan Bomarito (born January 23, 1982) is an American professional racing driver from Monterey, California. After much success in karting and two years driving in Grand-Am Cup, Jonathan Bomarito moved to Formula Ford 2000 USA in 2003 and won ...

and

Harry Tincknell Harry Tincknell (born 29 October 1991 in Exeter, Devon) is a British professional racing driver currently racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Mazda Team Joest. He won the LMP2 class on his Le Mans 24 Hour race debut in ...

entered the race as defending champions. On July 24, 2020, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin, highlighting the BoP for the race. In DPi, the

Acura ARX-05 The Acura ARX-05 is a sports prototype racing car built to Daytona Prototype International regulations. It was developed in partnership by Honda Performance Development and Oreca, and is based on the Oreca 07 chassis and powered by the Acura AR35 ...

and

Mazda RT24-P The Mazda RT24-P also known as the Mazda Road to 24 – Prototype is a Daytona Prototype International built to the 2017 IMSA DPi regulations. The car is designed and built by Mazda Motorsports, in collaboration with Multimatic Motorsports, and is ...

received weight reductions, while the

Cadillac DPi-V.R The Cadillac DPi-V.R is a sports prototype racing car which started competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in North America in 2017. It is the manufacturer variation of Dallara P217 base, and replaces the Corvette DP. It marked ...

and Mazda also received reductions in fuel capacity. The Acura also received a boost increase. In GTLM, the

BMW M8 GTE The BMW M8 GTE is an endurance grand tourer (GT) car constructed by the German automobile manufacturer BMW. It was developed in late 2016 and made its competitive début in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA WEC for the 2018 se ...

received a slight weight decrease and a horsepower increase, while all cars received a fuel capacity increase. The BMW also received a slight boost increase. In GTD, all cars received a fuel capacity increase, and the Ferrari saw a boost decrease. The Audi and Lamborghini saw minor horsepower increases, while the Ferrari and Lexus received almost equivalent decreases. The restrictor diameter on the Lexus was also reduced, while it was increased on the Audi and Lamborghini. Before the race,

Ryan Briscoe Ryan Briscoe (born 24 September 1981) is an Australian-American professional racing driver from Sydney who has predominantly raced open-wheel and sports cars in Europe and America. In IndyCar he collected 8 wins and 28 podiums, finishing thi ...

and

Renger van der Zande Renger van der Zande (born 16 February 1986) is a Dutch racing driver who currently competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Chip Ganassi Racing. He is the son of the 1978 National Dutch Rallycross Champion Ronald van der Zand ...

led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 92 points, ahead of

Oliver Jarvis Oliver Jarvis (born 9 January 1984) is a British professional racing driver currently racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Mazda Team Joest. Jarvis won the 2022 24 Hours of Daytona with Meyer Shank Racing. Early life ...

and

Tristan Nunez Tristan Nunez (born October 31, 1995 in Boynton Beach, Florida) is an American racing driver from in Boca Raton, Florida. He is the son of Juan Nunez, a former professional tennis player and coach. Nunez has a fraternal twin brother, Dylan, who ...

with 92 points, and

Sébastien Bourdais Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (born 28 February 1979) is a French professional racing driver. He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of American open-wheel car racing, having won 37 races. He won four successive championships un ...

and

João Barbosa João Barbosa (born 11 March 1975 in Porto, Portugal) is a Portuguese auto racing driver. He currently competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Sean Creech Motorsport in the LMP3 class. Before the 2021 Six Hours of the Glen, ...

with 90 points. With 35 points, Patrick Kelly and

Spencer Pigot Spencer James Pigot (born September 29, 1993) is an American racing driver who currently drives in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Personal life Pigot was born in Los Angeles and raised Pasadena, California, and Orlando where he graduated from ...

led the LMP2 Drivers' Championship with 35 points, ahead of Cameron Cassels and Kyle Masson with 32 points. Antonio García and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 95 points, ahead of

Earl Bamber Earl Anderson Bamber (born 9 July 1990) is a professional racing driver from New Zealand, currently competing as a factory driver for Porsche Motorsport in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class. He is the 2014 Porsche Supercup a ...

and

Laurens Vanthoor Laurens Vanthoor (; born 8 May 1991) is a Belgian professional racing driver currently racing for Porsche Motorsport as a factory driver in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. He currently resides in Waiblingen outside of Stuttgart. ...

with 94 points. In GTD,

Jack Hawksworth Jack W. Hawksworth (born 28 February 1991) is a British professional racing driver from Bradford, West Yorkshire. , he competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for AIM Vasser Sullivan. He has also raced in the Star Mazda Champions ...

led the GTD Drivers' Championship with 57 points, ahead of

Aaron Telitz Aaron Telitz (born December 13, 1991) is an American race car driver. He currently competes full-time in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, driving for AIM Vasser Sullivan. Career Born in Birchwood, Wisconsin, Telitz began his racing care ...

with 54 points.

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed ...

, Chevrolet, and

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. () is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi. Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–199 ...

were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R,

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports is an American sports car racing team that currently competes in the LMP2 class of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. History American Le Mans Series PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports began entering the series with the ad ...

, and AIM Vasser Sullivan each led their own Teams' Championships.

Entries

A total of 31 cars took part in the event, split across four classes. 8 were entered in DPi, 4 in LMP2, 6 in GTLM, and 13 in GTD. In DPi, the only change from the previous event was the return of Chris Miller to the JDC-Miller Motorsports #85 after being replaced by

Stephen Simpson Stephen Simpson (born 8 January 1984) is a South African- American professional racing driver currently competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and previously in the A1 Grand Prix, Champ Car Atlantic Championship and the Indy ...

at Sebring.

Simon Trummer Simon Trummer (born 8 June 1989 in Frutigen, Canton of Bern) is a racing driver from Switzerland. Career Karting Trummer began his motorsport career in karting back in 2003, finishing second in the Swiss Junior Championship. He also finished ...

returned in the LMP2 class after being forced to miss the previous round due to travel restrictions. The #8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks car withdrew late in the buildup to the event. GTD saw the largest difference from the previous round, as Meyer Shank Racing returned with their two entries after skipping the Sebring round. Heart of Racing Team also returned for the first time since the season-opening race. GEAR Racing, who had previously announced their intentions to enter the event, were not on the final entry list.

Practice

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted one hour on Friday while the second session on Saturday lasted 75 minutes.

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 4:35 pm CT on Friday and ended with

topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:50.654.

was fastest in LMP2 with a time of 1:53.381. The GTLM class was topped by the #911 Porsche GT Team

Porsche 911 RSR-19 The Porsche 911 RSR-19 is a racing car developed by Porsche to compete in the LM GTE category of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest sanctioned FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and the GTLM class, of the International Motor Sp ...

Nick Tandy Nick Tandy (born 5 November 1984) is a professional British racing driver currently racing for Corvette Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the 64 Corvette C8.R. His major victories include the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 2015 ...

with a time of 2:01.492.

in the sister #912 Porsche GT Team entry was second and

Jesse Krohn Jesse Kurki-Suonio (born 3 September 1990), more commonly known as Jesse Krohn, is a Finnish professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He is notable for winning the Finnish, Northern European Zone (NEZ) and Estonian Formula Re ...

rounded out the top 3. The GTD class was topped by the #96

Turner Motorsport Turner Motorsport (Also known as TMS Racing or Turner racing ) is a professional sports car racing team located in Newton, NH, and is the second most prolific BMW privateer racing team in the world, second only to Schnitzer Motorsport, who sto ...

BMW M6 GT3 The BMW M6 is a high-performance version of the 6 Series marketed under the BMW M sub-brand from 1983 to 2018 (with a break from 1990 to 2004). Introduced in the coupe body style, the M6 was also built in convertible and fastback sedan ('Gran C ...

Bill Auberlen Bill Auberlen (born October 12, 1968) is an American factory race car driver known for his affiliation with BMW, driving cars made and run by the famous German marque for a number of years. Auberlen currently competes for Turner Motorsport in ...

with a time of 2:06.822.

Practice 2

The second and final practice session took place at 8:55 am CT on Saturday and ended with

Dane Cameron Dane Cameron (born October 18, 1988) is an Americans, American racing driver from Glen Ellen, California. He won the International Motor Sports Association, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship overall in 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship ...

topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:49.280.

was fastest in LMP2 with a time of 1:52.618. The GTLM class was topped by the #4

Chevrolet Corvette C8.R The Chevrolet Corvette C8.R is a grand tourer#grand tourers in racing, grand tourer racing car built by Pratt & Miller and Chevrolet for competition in endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing. It serves as the replacement for the Chevrolet ...

Oliver Gavin Oliver Benjamin Gavin (born 29 September 1972), is a British racing driver who joined Corvette Racing in 2002. He has won five American Le Mans Series class championships, five 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins, five 12 Hours of Sebring class win ...

with a time of 2:00.987.

Frédéric Makowiecki Frédéric Makowiecki (born 22 November 1980) is a French professional racing driver, currently competing as a factory driver for Porsche Motorsport in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class. Career After competing in karting, Arra ...

in the ##911 Porsche GT Team was second and Jordan Taylor rounded out the top 3. The GTD class was topped by the #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of

with a time of 2:05.691. The session was red flagged when Robby Foley suffered brake failure and crashed at turn 5.

Qualifying

Saturday's afternoon qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the DPi and LMP2, GTLM, and GTD classes, which lasted for 15 minutes each, and a ten minute interval between the sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am (LMP2/GTD) classes requiring a Bronze/Silver Rated Driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put DPis ahead of the LMP2, GTLM, and GTD cars. The first was for cars in GTD class.

qualified on pole for the class driving the #14 car for AIM Vasser Sullivan, besting Frankie Montecalvo in the sister #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan entry. The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class.

qualified on pole driving the #912 car for Porsche GT Team, beating Jordan Taylor in the #3

entry by more than two tenths of a second. The final session was for cars in the LMP2 and DPi classes.

qualified on pole driving the #7 car for Acura Team Penske, beating

in the sister #6 Acura Team Penske entry by over three tenths of a second. Patrick Kelly set the fastest time in LMP2 driving the #52

car.

Qualifying results

Pole positions In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

in each class are indicated in bold and by . * The No. 23 Heart of Racing Team entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).

Race

Post-race

The result kept Briscoe and van der Zande atop the DPi Drivers' Championship. Bourdais and Barbosa advanced from third to second while Jarvis and Nunez dropped from second to third. Derani moved to fourth after being fifth coming into Road America. In LMP2, Cassels took the lead of the Drivers' Championship while Hedman advanced from fifth to third. Pigot dropped from first to fifth. With a total of 130 points, Antonio García and Jordan Taylor's victory allowed them to extend their advantage over Bamber and Vanthoor in the GTLM Drivers' Championship to ten points. The result kept Hawksworth atop the GTD Drivers' Championship with 87 points. Bell and Montecalvo advanced from sixth to second while Farnbacher and McMurry jumped from eighth to fourth. Cadillac and Chevrolet continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Lexus took the lead of the GTD Manufactures' Championship. Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R, Corvette Racing, and AIM Vasser Sullivan kept their respective advantages in their respective of Teams' Championships while Performance Tech Motorsports took the lead of the LMP2 Teams' Championship with seven rounds remaining.

Results

Class winners are denoted in bold and .

Standings after the race

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings. * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings. * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

References

External links

{{Road Race Showcase at Road America IMSA SportsCar Weekend IMSA SportsCar Weekend IMSA SportsCar Weekend Road America 500