This weekend at Road America marked the first time that the American Le Mans Series met with the Grand-AM Road Racing, ahead of their merger next year into what will be known as the United Sports Car Racing. BMW Power was undoubtedly the force to reckon with right from the qualifications until the very end. In the Daytona Prototype class, Starworks Motorsports scooped the final win in the No.8 BMW Riley.
It was Team Sahlen in the No. 42 BMW/Riley Daytona Prototype car that set the fastest time of 2:00.028 during the qualifying session of the VisitFlorida.com Sports Car 250 at Road America. They edged out the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of Jordan Taylor by a thin 0.547 seconds, third came another BMW/Riley DP car of No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing that finished with a best time of 2:00:710. The Corvette DP of 8 Star Motorsports finished fourth followed closely by another Corvette from Action Express Racing.
Things were going well for Team Sahlen leading all way until lap 54 when the axle broke. Eventually the BMW/Riley of Starworks Motorsports took the lead in the DP class, Action Express Racing with their Corvette DP finished second and third to close the podium for the DP class.
In the GT class, BMW shined once more when the Turner Motorsports BMW M3 scooped the win followed by Park Place Motorsport’s Porsche 911 GT3. A second Turner Motorsports BMW M3 finished third in this class. In the GX class, it was the same Mazda 6 of Speedsource that had qualified first which took the final lead in the class.
During qualifications in the GT class, the No. 63 Ferrari 458 Italia of Scuderia Corsa finished first with a time of 2:11:183, it finished 6th in the main race.
While Cameron’s DP race car uses BMW’s older-generation 5.0-liter V8 powerplant, the other BMW DPs; the No. 01 Ganassi, the No.8 Starworks BMW Riley and the winner from Brickyard Grand Prix race No. 2 Starworks Motorsport Riley use Dinan-tuned 4.5-liter unit.
Meanwhile in the same location, the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge also took place with Snow Racing/Wright Motorsports driver Madison Snow scooping the BBS Pole Award with a time of 2:12.643. He went on to take a Platinum Cup race win, and set a new race lap record of 2:13.444 in a heated battle with EFFORT Racing’s Sloan Urry.
Excited Snow said, “That was a great race, I mean it was very chaotic, but I’m glad that was over with. When I knew we were going to go one lap at the end and I knew that was going to be complete chaos. I just had to hold Sloan (Urry) off but I managed to do it and that was great.”
Elsewhere the Grand-AM Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series also showcased the campaign “#TheFuture” during the racing events at Road America, this campaign simply shows the future of their merger when the two finally become one this coming year.
