IMSA – Pipo Derani offers ESM a first success in 2017

Since the start of the Road America weekend (Wisconsin), it was difficult to see who could prevent Wayne Taylor Racing from winning on a regular basis. But the brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor, lined up in the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-VR and dominating the first part of the race, found an opponent stronger than them at the end of the race.

At the restart following the trackside stop of the No. 6 BMW M24 – Team RLL, Pipo Derani (Ligier-Nissan Nismo n°22 – ESM) took the advantage of Jordan Taylor for the virtual commands of the classification, behind the No. 85 Oreca – JDC-Miller Motorsports which had not yet observed its last stop.

If a final neutralization, following the accident of the No. 3 Acura NSX GT93 – Michael Shank Racing, will disrupt the last twenty minutes, Derani, until now on the offensive on the cutting-edge Oreca, will wait patiently for the return to the pits of the leading prototype to emerge in the lead and control the final laps to offer a first success to the ESM team in 2017 and the first victory for a prototype other than a Cadillac this season.

Jordan and Ricky Taylor follow in second position ahead of the second Ligier-Nissan Nismo n°2 – ESM of Dalziel – Sharp which completes the podium in front of the Cadillac DPi-VR n°31 – Action Express Racing of Cameron – Curran and the Ligier n° 90 – VisitFlorida Racing by Goossens – van der Zande for the first race of this chassis in IMSA.

The duo Barbosa – Fittipaldi (Cadillac DPi-VR n°5 – Action Express Racing) and the Ligier n°52 – PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports de Pla – Gutiérrez follow in the category standings ahead of the Oreca n°85. No surprises in PC, since the Oreca FLM09 n°38 – Performance Tech Motorsports by French – O’Ward logically wins after dominating the weekend in Wisconsin.

In GTLM, Ford won after taking pole position in qualifying. Joey Hand and Dirk Müller (Ford GT n°66 – Chip Ganassi Racing) ont pris l’avantage décisif sur la Porsche 911 RSR n°912 de Gianmaria Bruni – Laurens Vanthoor après l’avant-dernière neutralisation causée par la sortie de piste de la Porsche 911 RSR n°911 de Dirk Werner, victime d’un contact avec une Corvette.

The second No. 67 Ford GT of Briscoe – Westbrook completes the podium ahead of the No. 7 Corvette C4.R of Garcia – Magnussen and n°3 of Milner – Gavin, despite contact for the latter with the BMW M6 n°25 – Team RLL of Sims – Auberlen at the very end of the race.

BMW wins in GTD with the #6 M3 GT96 – Turner Motorsport by Krohn – Klingmann, which precedes the No. 911 Porsche 3 GT73 R – Park Place Motorsports of Bergmeister – Lindsay and the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT57 – Stevenson Motorsports of Aschenbach – Davis.

Race ranking

Find the report of the Road America IMSA event, in issue 2126 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.