The 2017 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The Race was held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 6, 2017. The race was the ninth round of the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship.
IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase was part of the series' schedule for the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road America's victory lane in August 2016. [1] It was the fourth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2017 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase was the ninth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2017 by IMSA, and was the sixth round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. [2] The race was held at the fourteen-turn 4.048 mi (6.515 km) Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 6, 2017. [2] After the Northeast Grand Prix two weeks earlier, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 226 points, ahead of João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi with 207 points, and Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson with 200 points. [3] With 216 points, the PC Drivers' Championship was led by James French and Patricio O'Ward with a thirty-four point advantage over Don Yount. [3] Antonio García and Jan Magnussen led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 211 points, ahead of Joey Hand and Dirk Müller with 204 points. [3] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 228 points, ahead of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen with 211 points. Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa each led their own Teams' Championships. [3]
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.
A total of 34 cars took part in the event split across 4 classes. 8 cars were entered in P, 3 in PC, 8 in GTLM, and 15 in GTD. [5] In P, José Gutiérrez and Olivier Pla replaced David Ostella and Nicholas Boulle in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry. [5] VisitFlorida Racing switched from the Riley Mk. 30 to the Ligier JS P217. [6] [7] Mazda Motorsports were absent after Joest Racing took over the RT24-P program and undergo extensive testing. [8] As a result, the team would not contest the remaining races of the season and SpeedSource would shut down. [9] [10] In PC, Gustavo Yacamán joined Mark Kvamme in the #26 BAR1 Motorsports entry. In GTD, Alex Job Racing and TRG skipped the event. [5] [11] Lone Star Racing made their first appearance since the Circuit of the Americas round. [5] Michael de Quesada returned to the Alegra Motorsports entry. Scott Pruett and Robert Alon swapped seats in the 3GT Racing entries. [12] Riley Motorsports - WeatherTech Racing switched from the Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the Porsche 911 GT3 R due to BOP concerns. [13]
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]
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]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 90 | VisitFlorida Racing | Marc Goossens | 1:59.977 | _ |
| 2 | P | 5 | Mustang Sampling Racing | Christian Fittipaldi | 2:00.890 | +0.913 |
| 3 | P | 52 | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | Oliver Pla | 2:01.029 | +1.052 |
| Sources: [17] [18] | ||||||
The second practice session took place at 4:10 pm CT on Friday and ended with Stephen Simpson topping the charts for JDC-Miller MotorSports, with a lap time of 1:55.057. [19] Patricio O'Ward set the fastest time in PC. [20] The GTLM class was topped by the #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Dirk Müller with a time of 2:03.967. Antonio García was second in the #3 Corvette Racing entry and Bill Auberlen rounded out the top 3. [19] Colin Braun was fastest in GTD. [20]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 85 | JDC-Miller MotorSports | Stephen Simpson | 1:55.057 | _ |
| 2 | P | 5 | Mustang Sampling Racing | João Barbosa | 1:55.161 | +0.104 |
| 3 | P | 31 | Whelen Engineering Racing | Dane Cameron | 1:55.224 | +0.167 |
| Sources: [21] [22] | ||||||
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 RLL BMW 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]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 2 | Tequila Patrón ESM | Ryan Dalziel | 1:53.851 | _ |
| 2 | P | 10 | Wayne Taylor Racing | Jordan Taylor | 1:53.994 | +0.143 |
| 3 | P | 85 | JDC-Miller MotorSports | Stephen Simpson | 1:54.040 | +0.189 |
| Sources: [26] [27] | ||||||
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 second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. Dirk Müller qualified on pole driving the #66 car for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, beating Ryan Briscoe in the sister #67 entry Ford Chip Ganassi Racing by over seven tenths of a second. [30] [31]
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]
The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Ricky Taylor qualified on pole driving the #10 car for Wayne Taylor Racing, besting José Gutiérrez in the #52 entry from PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. [32]
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 10 |  Wayne Taylor Racing | Ricky Taylor | 1:53.058 | _ | 1‡ |
| 2 | P | 52 | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports |  José Gutiérrez | 1:54.075 | +1.017 | 2 |
| 3 | P | 2 | Tequila Patrón ESM | Scott Sharp | 1:54.088 | +1.030 | 3 |
| 4 | P | 90 | VisitFlorida Racing |  Marc Goossens | 1:54.186 | +1.128 | 4 |
| 5 | P | 22 | Tequila Patrón ESM | Johannes van Overbeek | 1:54.189 | +1.131 | 5 |
| 6 | P | 31 | Whelen Racing Engineering | Eric Curran | 1:54.222 | +1.164 | 6 |
| 7 | P | 5 | Mustang Sampling Racing |  Christian Fittipaldi | 1:54.588 | +1.530 | 11 1 |
| 8 | P | 85 | JDC-Miller MotorSports |  Mikhail Goikhberg | 1:54.648 | +1.590 | 7 |
| 9 | PC | 38 | Performance Tech Motorsports | James French | 1:59.149 | +6.091 | 8‡ |
| 10 | GTLM | 66 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing |  Dirk Müller | 2:01.422 | +8.364 | 12‡ |
| 11 | PC | 20 | BAR1 Motorsports | Don Yount | 2:02.128 | +9.070 | 9 |
| 12 | GTLM | 67 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing |  Ryan Briscoe | 2:02.203 | +9.145 | 13 |
| 13 | GTLM | 25 | BMW Team RLL |  Alexander Sims | 2:02.211 | +9.153 | 14 |
| 14 | GTLM | 912 | Porsche GT Team |  Gianmaria Bruni | 2:02.440 | +9.382 | 15 |
| 15 | GTLM | 24 | BMW Team RLL | Martin Tomczyk | 2:02.583 | +9.525 | 33 2 |
| 16 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche GT Team |  Patrick Pilet | 2:02.670 | +9.612 | 16 |
| 17 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Oliver Gavin | 2:03.358 | +10.300 | 17 |
| 18 | GTLM | 3 | Corvette Racing |  Jan Magnussen | 2:03.581 | +10.523 | 18 |
| 19 | PC | 26 | BAR1 Motorsports | Mark Kvamme | 2:04.817 | +11.759 | 10 |
| 20 | GTD | 16 | Change Racing |  Jeroen Mul | 2:06.649 | +13.591 | 19‡ |
| 21 | GTD | 96 | Turner Motorsport |  Jesse Krohn | 2:06.823 | +13.765 | 20 |
| 22 | GTD | 73 | Park Place Motorsports | Patrick Lindsey | 2:07.149 | +14.091 | 21 |
| 23 | GTD | 15 | 3GT Racing | Scott Pruett | 2:07.170 | +14.112 | 22 |
| 24 | GTD | 57 | Stevenson Motorsports | Andrew Davis | 2:07.403 | +14.345 | 23 |
| 25 | GTD | 48 | Paul Miller Racing | Madison Snow | 2:07.415 | +14.357 | 35 3 |
| 26 | GTD | 86 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Oswaldo Negri Jr. | 2:07.469 | +14.411 | 24 |
| 27 | GTD | 63 | Scuderia Corsa | Christina Nielsen | 2:07.477 | +14.419 | 25 |
| 28 | GTD | 33 | Riley Motorsports - Team AMG | Ben Keating | 2:07.793 | +14.735 | 26 |
| 29 | GTD | 14 | 3GT Racing | Robert Alon | 2:07.984 | +14.926 | 27 |
| 30 | GTD | 50 | Riley Motorsports - WeatherTech Racing | Cooper MacNeil | 2:08.979 | +15.921 | 28 |
| 31 | GTD | 75 | SunEnergy1 Racing | Kenny Habul | 2:09.321 | +16.263 | 32 4 |
| 32 | GTD | 54 | CORE Autosport | Jon Bennett | 2:09.547 | +16.489 | 29 |
| 33 | GTD | 28 | Alegra Motorsports | Michael de Quesada | 2:10.442 | +17.384 | 34 5 |
| 34 | GTD | 80 | Lone Star Racing | Dan Knox | Disqualified | 30 | |
| 35 | GTD | 93 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Did Not Participate | 31 6 | ||
| Sources: [33] [34] | |||||||
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]
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.
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