The Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas was a lesson in Ford domination as the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Ford EcoBoost Prototype took an easy victory. Scott Pruett and Joey Hand dominated the weekend with Pruett taking pole position, fastest lap and the race victory. This was the 60th victory for Pruett and the 14th for Hand. The 01 Ford was followed to the podium by Jordan and Ricky Taylor of Wayne Taylor Racing while Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante took third position.
Lone Star Le Mans winners Scott Pruett and Joey Hand
The Action Express Corvette DP of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi looked assured of a podium finish until Barbosa tangled with the GTD Ferrari of Townsend Bell. Bell was given a drive through penalty and after serving it Barbosa retaliated making contact on track and was given a stop plus 60 second penalty which eliminated their chance at a podium.
The DeltaWing was leading the race briefly and angling for a podium finish before an off track excursion by Memo Rojas ended their podium chances and landed them a 7th place class finish.
In Prototype Challenge, Jon Bennett and Colin Braun of CORE autosport continued their dominant form with the win in Texas. Chris Cumming and Bruno Junqueira of RSR Racing grabbed second position and third was taken by James French and Connor Daly of Performance Tech Motorsports.
The GTLM race tightened up with BMW victory. Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner used fuel strategy to edge out the #62 Ferrari of Risi Competizione driven by Pierre Kaffer and Giancarlo Fisichella and the points leading Porsche of Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet. Auberlen and Werner have placed themselves in the perfect situation to steal the Championship in Road Atlanta in two weeks.
Finally, the GTD victory went to the Dodge Viper of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen of Riley Motorsports. The real story, however,was the battle between Townsend Bell and Joao Barbosa. The on track penalties compromised the Ferrari’s golden opportunity to close the points gap between the Aston Martin of Christina Nielsen and Kuno Wittmer.
An exciting race at Circuit of the Americas and a great set up for the finale in Road Atlanta.