AUSTIN, Tex. - “It’s better late than never,” Scott Pruett said when co-driver Joey Hand took over in the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley after Pruett led the first hour of Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Tex. Hand went on to win, scoring the team’s first victory of 2015 with only one race remaining in what has been a difficult TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season.
Pruett extended his leading career total to 60 victories in major North American sports car competition – but his first since winning at Circuit of The Americas in 2014. In a dominant effort, Pruett led the opening hour after claiming the TOTAL Pole Award. Hand then led twice during his stint, including the final 19 laps on the 20-turn, 3.4-mile layout.
“The good Lord has blessed me with this incredible career,” Pruitt said. “I’ve had a lot of teammates over the years. Joey fits me really well so far. He grew up across town where I live, and it’s been great. It’s been a tough season, without a doubt. We had some bad luck this year or had strong cars and didn’t capitalize. Coming here, everything came together. Getting win No. 60 is incredible.”
Hand took the checkered flag 16.910 seconds ahead of Ricky Taylor, who joined his brother, Jordan, in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP. Wayne Taylor Racing gambled on a two-tire stop late in the race that briefly put Ricky Taylor in the lead, but Hand needed only four laps to chase him down.
“For me it’s a big one, my first win with the team as a full-time guy,” said Hand. “I’m so thankful to be a part of this team, it’s a bunch of winners and champions. I knew it would be a good place for me. We struggled right after Daytona. We couldn’t find it. We had a few good races lately but couldn’t capitalize on it. This weekend we showed up and had a lot of confidence. The boys did a great job tuning it in. That’s what it’s all about. We knew we had a fast race car so we tried to get out in front and stay in front. That’s what we do best. When you have a good race car it makes everything a lot easier.”
Prototype points leader Richard Westbrook finished third, holding off Ozz Negri in a hectic battle that went all the way to the checkered flag. Entering the race leading by a single point, Westbrook and Michael Valiante – co-drivers of the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP – enter the season-ending Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 3 with a six-point lead over both Action Express Racing teams, 279-273.
Both Action Express cars were assessed costly penalties late in the event. Dane Cameron received a drive-through penalty in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette DP started by Eric Curran after contact with Prototype Challenge (PC) driver Renger van der Zande, and came back to finish fifth. Joao Barbosa served a 60-second penalty after contact with GT Daytona (GTD) driver Townsend Bell, and finished sixth in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP started by Christian Fittipaldi.
Braun, Bennett Extend PC Lead With Second Victory
Colin Braun and Jon Bennett gave CORE autosport its second Prototype Challenge (PC) victory of the season in the No. 54 Flex-Box/Composite Resources ORECA FLM09, extending their points lead in the process.
Bennett ran in the top five throughout the opening hour before turning the car over to Braun, who took the lead with 56 minutes remaining. He lost to lead to Mikhail Goikhberg on his final stop, but Braun caught the Canadian in the final 30 minutes and pulled away, despite losing his power steering on the No. 54 machine. It was the team’s sixth podium finish, with its other victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Braun took the checkered flag 25.664 seconds ahead of Bruno Junqueira, who joined Chris Cumming in scoring the third consecutive top-two finish for the No. 11 RSR Racing AutoMaxUSA ORECA FLM09. Rounding out the podium was the No. 38 Ric-Man Construction/GO-PUCK/Braille Batteries ORECA FLM09 started by James French, giving the team its second-consecutive podium finish.
Tom Kimber-Smith finished fourth in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Cuttwood ORECA FLM09 started by Mike Guasch. Entering the race five points out of the lead, Guasch and Kimber-Smith now trail by 12 points. Unofficially, Bennett and Braun have 289 points, followed by the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports duo with 277 points, and Cumming and Junqueira with 275.
JDC/Miller Motorsports pitted under the opening caution, putting the team off sequence with the other PC contenders and allowing both Matt McMurry and Goikhberg to lead the race. McMurry, running his 100th career race at age 17, led 13 laps before his pit stop, while Goikhberg led five laps.
BMW Captures TUDOR Championship GTLM Victory
BMW Team RLL drivers Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen earned their second GT Le Mans (GTLM) victory of the 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season. The team’s first victory of the season came at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in April.
The No. 25 BMW team is now unofficially second in the GTLM standings, just three points behind leader Patrick Pilet in thee No. 911 Porsche North America heading into the season-ending Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta in two weeks.
Late in the race, the No. 911 and No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSRs looked as though they were on their way to their third consecutive 1-2 finish, but were forced to pit with three minutes remaining to refuel. Both cars were overtaken by Werner and Ferrari driver Giancarlo Fisichella. Nick Tandy was able to still place the No. 911 Porsche on the podium, finishing third with Pilet.
The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Pierre Kaffer and co-driver Fisichella earned their third consecutive GTLM podium with today’s second-place finish. The team had two consecutive third-place finishes from the two most recent events, VIRginia International Raceway and Road America.
Keating, Bleekemolen Repeat Lone Star Le Mans GTD Victory
Texas native Ben Keating and co-driver Jeroen Bleekemolen – who were victorious in last year’s Lone Star Le Mans – repeated that fortune, capturing the GT Daytona (GTD) victory. Keating also won at COTA in 2013 in the American Le Mans Series GTC class.
This is Keating’s third visit to the top step of the GTD podium in the 2015 TUDOR Championship season and the second for Bleekemolen and the No. 33 Riley Motorsports ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R after the team’s win at Road America. Keating won the class in this season’s Rolex 24 At Daytona in the No. 93 TI Automotive Viper, co-driven by Al Carter, Cameron Lawrence, Kuno Wittmer and Dominic Farnbacher.
Both the No. 33 Viper and the third-place finishing No. 48 Castrol EDGE Audi R8 LMS were penalized in the first half hour of the race for running the red light at the pit exit, but were able to make up time to finish on the podium.
Finishing one second behind class winner Bleekemolen the No. 97 Turner Motorsport Alverez & Marsal/IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 of Michael Marsal and Markus Palttala. It is Palttala’s first podium of the season and the team’s second – their last was at Lime Rock Park in July when Marsal and substitute driver Dane Cameron took the class victory.
Paul Miller Racing driver Christopher Haase was able to hold off hard charging Mario Farnbacher in the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT America at the finish, capturing a third-place finish. Haase and pole-sitting co-driver Dion von Moltke unofficially moved to second place in the GTD standings.
