The 2015 Lone Star Le Mans was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on September 19, 2015. The race was the eleventh round of the 2015 United SportsCar Championship.
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2015 IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship (IMSA TUSC) in August 2014. [1] It was the second consecutive year the event was held as part of the United SportsCar Championship. The 2015 Lone Star Le Mans was the eleventh of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2015 by IMSA, and was the eighth round not held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. [2] The race was held at the twenty-turn 3.426 mi (5.514 km) Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on September 19, 2015. [2]
Thirty-eight cars were officially entered for the Lone Star Le Mans. Action Express Racing (AER) fielded two Chevrolet Corvette DP cars while VisitFlorida Racing (VFR) and Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) fielded one. Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) entered one Ford-powered Riley MkXXVI. Mazda Motorsports had two Lola B12/80 cars and Michael Shank Racing (MSR) entered one Ligier JS P2 chasis with Honda HR28TT twin-turbocharged 2.8-liter V6 engine. [3] [4] They were joined by DeltaWing. The Prototype Challenge (PC) class was composed of Nine Oreca FLM09 cars: two from BAR1 Motorsports and two from Starworks Motorsport. CORE Autosport, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Performance Tech, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, and RSR Racing entered one car each. [3] GTLM was represented by eight entries from four different brands. In the list of GTD entrants, twelve GT-specification vehicles were represented by six different manufacturers. The No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS ultra was reinstated to the Tudor United SportsCar Championship after making its first appearance since the Laguna Seca round. [5] Lone Star Racing made their series debut. [6]
Friday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying session gave 15-minute sessions to all categories. Cars in GTD were sent out first before those grouped in GTLM, PC, and Prototype had three separate identically timed sessions. Regulations stipulated teams to nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each classes starting order. IMSA would arranged the grid to put all Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM, and GTD cars. [7]
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡. P stands for Prototype, PC (Prototype Challenge), GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans) and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 01 |  Chip Ganassi Racing | Scott Pruett | 1:58.441 | _ | 1‡ |
| 2 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian |  Oswaldo Negri Jr. | 1:58.512 | +0.071 | 2 |
| 3 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | Christian Fittipaldi | 1:59.008 | +0.567 | 3 |
| 4 | P | 10 | Wayne Taylor Racing | Jordan Taylor | 1:59.033 | +0.592 | 4 |
| 5 | P | 31 | Action Express Racing | Eric Curran | 2:00.011 | +1.570 | 5 |
| 6 | P | 90 | VisitFlorida.com Racing |  Michael Valiante | 2:00.111 | +1.670 | 6 |
| 7 | P | 0 | DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/TracFone |  Memo Rojas | 2:01.570 | +3.129 | 7 |
| 8 | PC | 11 | RSR Racing | Chris Cumming | 2:02.222 | +3.781 | 8‡ |
| 9 | PC | 85 | JDC-Miller MotorSports | Matt McMurry | 2:02.697 | +4.256 | 9 |
| 10 | P | 70 | SpeedSource | Tristan Nunez | 2:02.779 | +4.338 | 10 |
| 11 | P | 07 | SpeedSource | Tom Long | 2:03.484 | +5.043 | 11 |
| 12 | PC | 38 | Performance Tech Motorsports | James French | 2:03.586 | +5.145 | 12 |
| 13 | PC | 54 | CORE Autosport | Jon Bennett | 2:03.697 | +5.256 | 13 |
| 14 | PC | 8 | Starworks Motorsport | Mike Hedlund | 2:04.009 | +5.568 | 14 |
| 15 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche North America |  Patrick Pilet | 2:04.396 | +5.955 | 17‡ |
| 16 | PC | 52 | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | Mike Guasch | 2:04.432 | +5.991 | 15 |
| 17 | GTLM | 25 | BMW Team RLL |  Dirk Werner | 2:04.490 | +6.049 | 18 |
| 18 | GTLM | 912 | Porsche North America |  Earl Bamber | 2:04.625 | +6.184 | 19 |
| 19 | GTLM | 3 | Corvette Racing |  Antonio García | 2:04.651 | +6.210 | 20 |
| 20 | GTLM | 17 | Team Falken Tire | Wolf Henzler | 2:04.813 | +6.372 | 21 |
| 21 | GTLM | 24 | BMW Team RLL | John Edwards | 2:04.968 | +6.527 | 22 |
| 22 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Tommy Milner | 2:05.245 | +6.804 | 23 |
| 23 | GTLM | 62 | Risi Competizione |  Giancarlo Fisichella | 2:05.996 | +7.555 | 24 |
| 24 | PC | 61 | BAR1 Motorsports | Don Yount | 2:08.350 | +9.909 | 16 |
| 25 | GTD | 48 | Paul Miller Racing |  Dion von Moltke | 2:11.097 | +12.656 | 25‡ |
| 26 | GTD | 33 | Riley Motorsports | Ben Keating | 2:11.658 | +13.217 | 26 |
| 27 | GTD | 63 | Scuderia Corsa | Bill Sweedler | 2:11.729 | +13.288 | 27 |
| 28 | GTD | 007 | TRG-AMR North America |  Christina Nielsen | 2:11.761 | +13.320 | 28 |
| 29 | GTD | 73 | Park Place Motorsports | Patrick Lindsey | 2:12.213 | +13.772 | 29 |
| 30 | GTD | 44 | Magnus Racing | John Potter | 2:12.478 | +14.037 | 30 |
| 31 | GTD | 80 | Lone Star Racing | Dan Knox | 2:12.835 | +14.394 | 31 |
| 32 | GTD | 23 | Team Seattle / Alex Job Racing |  Ian James | 2:12.935 | +14.494 | 32 |
| 33 | GTD | 97 | Turner Motorsport | Michael Marsal | 2:13.054 | +14.613 | 33 |
| 34 | GTD | 22 | Alex Job Racing | Cooper MacNeil | 2:13.126 | +14.685 | 34 |
| 35 | GTD | 45 | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Mike Vess | 2:16.353 | +17.912 | 35 |
| 36 | GTD | 76 | Compass360 Racing | Ray Mason | 2:16.518 | +18.077 | 36 |
| 37 | PC | 16 | BAR1 Motorsports | No Time Established | 37 | ||
| 38 | PC | 88 | Starworks Motorsport | No Time Established | 38 | ||
| Sources: [8] [9] | |||||||
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡. P stands for Prototype, PC (Prototype Challenge), GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans) and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).
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