The Montoya Factor undoes Joest Mazdas
IMSA SPORTSCAR MID-OHIO (USA) 5 MAY ROUND 4/12
The one ‘intangible’ that stood between Mazda Team Joest and its long-overdue maiden DPI victory in the IMSA Sportscar Championship last Sunday at the challenging Mid-ohio Sports Car Course was the Montoya Factor. That’s as in ex-grand prix driver Juan Pablo Montoya.
The experienced Colombian struggled when he relieved Dane Cameron aboard Team Penske’s #6 Acura ARX-05 at the first pitstop after 40 minutes but he more than atoned in the late stages – and particularly at a restart following the day’s only full-course caution with 24 minutes remaining in the 160-minute contest. Montoya romped clear of Tristan Nunez’s Mazda RT24-P before measuring his pace to repeat the team’s success from one year ago.
Mazda was left to rue yet another event in which a potential win was agonisingly ripped from within its grasp, but could still claim some bragging rights with the performance of its pair of Multimatic-tuned prototypes. Briton Oliver Jarvis claimed his second pole of the season with a new lap record of 1m10.705s, fully a second below Helio Castroneves’s 2018 qualifying standard. Jarvis also posted a new race lap record on his way to a second-place finish, while the sister car of Jonathan Bomarito and new recruit Ryan Hunter-reay, who stepped in impressively for the absent (at Spa) Harry Tincknell, completed the podium.
After much of practice had been blighted by poor weather, the sun poked through just in time for the Sunday afternoon start to presage yet another intriguing battle for supremacy. Jarvis narrowly maintained his advantage at the start but was unable to shake off Cameron, who remained hot on his tail before finding a way through amid heavy GTD traffic on lap eight.
The Californian eked out a lead of almost five seconds prior to the first pitstops, after which Jarvis, who had pitted one lap earlier, was able to sneak past Montoya, also in traffic, on lap 35. Jarvis controlled the middle stages before handing over to
Nunez at half-distance.
This time Montoya had the benefit of greater familiarity over his young Floridian rival. Superb in and out-laps, assisted by typically excellent service from Penske, immediately transformed a three-second deficit into a three-second advantage.
Montoya was never likely to be beaten from there, although a full-course caution with just over 30 minutes remaining offered a sliver of hope for Mazda. No such luck. Montoya’s sublime skill on cold tyres – especially on a notoriously low-grip surface – proved the difference as he pulled three seconds clear of Nunez on the first greenflag lap, then extended his margin to over six seconds before easing off to ensure a memorable victory.
Brazilian pair Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr (Action Express Cadillac) extended their championship lead to four points after finishing in fourth spot, the only other runner on the lead lap.
Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber maintained Porsche’s stranglehold on GTLM by finishing just over two seconds clear of the Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, while Englishman Jack Hawksworth teamed with American Richard Heistand to secure his long-overdue maiden GTD victory for the AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus team after a thrilling late duel with the Acura of Trent Hindman/mario Farnbacher.