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Race Results
 
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – A frantic finish to the feature race of the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America saw Porsche Penske Motorsport score a dramatic 1-2 overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class finish in Round 7 of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

A record crowd for a sports car race at the classic Wisconsin road course watched Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 Porsche 963 hold off Porsche Penske Motorsport teammate Felipe Nasr in the identical No. 7 car through heavy traffic in the closing laps to win Sunday by 0.390 seconds. 

Hard-charging Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 crossed the line in third place less than a second behind Nasr, closely followed by Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. The top four were separated by just 1.449 seconds at the checkered flag after two hours and 40 minutes of intense competition.

It was a thrilling spectacle as the exotic GTP prototypes bobbed and weaved through the pack of production-based GT3 cars in the race’s waning moments.

“We had a couple of contacts in the last laps, I touched quite a few cars,” Jaminet said. “That was pure IMSA-style racing. This is why we love it; this is why we want to come back every time.

“You can be nowhere the day before, and nowhere at the start of the race, and two hours later, you come back with a big trophy,” he added. “Big thanks to the team to pull out the strategy, to put the numbers together.”

It was a back-to-front effort by the Porsche pair. Dane Cameron suffered problems Saturday in qualifying in the No. 7 and a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility dropped Nick Tandy in the No. 6 to the rear of the field after a first-lap clash with Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac.

Porsche Penske Motorsport utilized pit strategy to move both cars back into contention. The Porsches and the No. 10 Acura made pit stops for tires, fuel and driver changes under a full-course caution on the 28th lap, with the No. 7 Porsche stopping again four laps later to top off. When the final yellow flew with 37 minutes remaining, Porsche gambled and kept both cars on track while the No. 10 Acura pitted, putting Jaminet and the No. 6 in the lead.

“I knew it was a long shot, but from the moment I got in the car, I had always in my mind that we could make it to the end, depending on the yellows,” Jaminet said. “This is something I was already discussing before, and I was saving fuel like hell.”

When racing resumed with 16 minutes remaining, he pulled out a small lead before encountering a staggering amount of GT traffic for his final two laps.

“It was a pretty wild last few laps, especially when we were catching traffic,” said Nasr, who chased Jaminet hard through the traffic but couldn’t make a move for the lead. “It got dicey out there. But the execution was perfect and it was a great day for Porsche Penske Motorsport with a 1-2 here. I feel like our race was all over the place. At one point, we had to make an extra stop to change the rear tail because I got hit from behind.

“It’s one of those days that making points on the competition was super important, when their cars had issues or didn’t have the desired results. I was just one car from the win, but congrats to the guys in the No. 6.”

Porsche Penske Motorsport has earned four GTP class wins in 2024, two by each car. Cameron and Nasr maintained their lead in the GTP standings, while Jaminet and Tandy leapfrogged the No. 01 Cadillac Racing duo of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande into second place, an even 100 points behind the leaders. Bourdais and van der Zande finished ninth on Sunday and fell 185 points from the lead with two GTP races remaining.

The next round of the WeatherTech Championship featuring all four classes is the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Sept. 19-22.