Corvette again the alpha amid Hurricane Delta
Corvette duo Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor secured their fifth IMSA Sportscar win of the season under the lights in an all-gt race 0n a sodden Charlotte ‘roval’.
The night contest was delayed by an hour due to wet conditions brought about by Hurricane Delta, and it was still raining when the green flag was waved, with Taylor leading from pole.
His time in first place was short-lived however, as Jesse Krohn’s RLL BMW took the lead on lap four. Taylor then lost second to Porsche’s Fred Makowiecki, only for the French racer to spin the
911 RSR into the Turn 2 wall.
Although he made it back to the pits, the car was retired soon afterwards, capping a bad night for Porsche after
Laurens Vanthoor had suffered damage in the sister car that also forced its retirement.
The four remaining GTLM contenders pitted under the resulting caution, after which John Edwards (in for Krohn) led Garcia, the second Corvette of Tommy Milner (started by Oliver Gavin) and the BMW that Connor De Phillippi had taken over from Bruno Spengler.
Fresh from his win in the Indianapolis 8 Hours, De Phillippi closed in on Milner to recover third on lap 26, and they remained in the same order until lap 47 when Garcia retook the lead from Edwards.
Milner’s crash on the banking, later attributed to a part of the Corvette’s right-rear suspension breaking, brought out a late caution.
Garcia was unfazed at the restart and escaped the clutches of the BMWS to consolidate victory over Edwards and De Philippi, in doing so extending his and Taylor’s championship lead to 24 points over Milner and Gavin.
GT Daytona class honours fell to the Turner Motorsport BMW M6 shared by Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley. An early spin for Foley forced Auberlen to deliver metronomic speed to mount a recovery.