During this race weekend, IMSA holds their "State of the Series" annual press conference, in which they confirm and announce their future plans for the series they sanction.
On July 27, 2017, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of performance for the event.[4] In GTLM, the Ford GT received an increase in turbo boost pressure.
There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Friday morning and afternoon. The third on Saturday morning lasted an hour.[14]
Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 11:20 am CT on Friday and ended with Marc Goossens topping the charts for VisitFlorida Racing, with a lap time of 1:59.977.[15] The PC class was topped by the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of James French with a time of 2:07.523.[15]Patrick Pilet was fastest in GTLM while Patrick Lindsey set the fastest time in GTD.[16]
The third and final practice session took place at 8:55 am CT on Saturday and ended with Ryan Dalziel topping the charts for Tequila Patrón ESM, with a lap time of 1:53.851.[23]Patricio O'Ward set the fastest time PC by 2.984 seconds ahead of Buddy Rice in the #20 BAR1 Motorsports entry.[24] The GTLM class was topped by the #24 BMW Team RLLBMW M6 GTLM of Martin Tomczyk with a time of 2:02.129.[24] Lawson Aschenbach was fastest in GTD.[23] The session ended early after Katherine Legge crashed at Canada Corner. The car suffered heavy damage to the front, but Legge was uninjured and exited her car.[25]
In Saturday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars.[28][14]
The first was for cars in GTD class. Jeroen Mul qualified on pole for the class driving the #16 car for Change Racing, besting Jesse Krohn in the Turner Motorsport entry.[29]
The third session of qualifying was for cars in the PC class. James French set the fastest time driving the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.[32]
1 The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing entry was moved to the back of the P field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).[28]
2 The No. 24 BMW Team RLL entry was moved to the back of the GTLM field as per Articles 40.2.12 and 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Engine change) and (Change of starting tires).[28]
3 The No. 48 Paul Miller Racing entry initially qualified sixth for the GTD class. However, their car failed post qualifying inspection after the team's Lamborghini was using unhomologated parts as well as not meeting technical compliance. The car's ECU was also confiscated by IMSA. As a result, Paul Miller Racing were fined $7,500, and received a 15-point penalty in the Drivers' and Teams' Championships.[35][36]
4 The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).[28]
5 The No. 28 Alegra Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).[28]
6 The No. 93 Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian entry was moved to the back of the GTD as per Article 43.5 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting driver).[28]
Race
Post-race
The result kept Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor atop the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 258 points, 26 points ahead of sixth-place finishers Barbosa and Fittipaldi.[37] As a result of winning the race, French and O'Ward clinched the PC Drivers' Championship with 1 race left for the category.[37][38] In the GTLM Drivers' Championship, Hand and Müller advanced from third to second.[37] The result kept Balzan and Nielsen atop the GTD Drivers' Championship while Aschenbach and Davis advanced from fifth to third.[37] Cadillac, and Ferrari continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships. Ford took the lead of the GTLM Manufactures' Championship while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa kept their respective advantages in the Teams' Championships with three rounds left in the season.[37]
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