It was an abnormal race: it (rolling start) began under the yellow flag as the drivers failed to keep the spots they held on the starting grid before the green flag was waved! In Europe, competitors must wait to cross the starting line before overtaking their rivals, but in the U.S. as soon as the green flag is waved, the race has begun, including for the drivers situated in the back of the field. But in order to change positions, they still must wait for the green flag.

Four minutes after the second green flag, the race was once again neutralized after an incident for Team RLL's #100 BMW M6 driven at the time by John Edwards who stopped on the track. The protagonists in the three classes (only PC, GTLM and GTD were represented at Lime Rock) had just 12 minutes to battle before the #911 official Porsche 911 driven by Patrick Pilet stopped on the track and caused a new neutralization. The French driver, GTLM class champion (GT Le Mans is the name given to the LM GTE Pro class overseas), managed to reach pit lane before causing another deployment of the safety car, in the same turn 15 minutes later!

The race finally resumed for nearly an hour before the #912 official Porsche 911 driven by Earl Bamber, overall winner at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the #25 BMW M6 of Dirk Werner collided, eliminating both cars from the race. So the German GTs let the Corvettes, Fords and Ferraris fight it out, a confrontation from which emerged victorious the two yellow cars, already winners at the opening round, the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

As in Florida at the end of January, the #4 C7.R driven by Oliver Gavin, who clocked the best in-race lap, and Tommy Milner, winners in the LM GTE Pro class at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, preceded the #3 sister car of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen, who had to do a drive-through after a wheel touched the line in pit lane during a refuelling. The two Chevrolets, separated by less than a second on the starting line, were followed by the #67 Ford GT of Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe who started from the pole and were the winners at the two previous rounds, Watkins Glen and Mosport, whereas the #62 Ferrari 488 GTE of Risi Competizione finished fourth.

The battle wa fierce as well in GTD (GT Daytona) between the two Audi R8 LMSs which finished neck-and-neck, John Potter and Andy Lally (#44, Magnus Racing) snatching it from the #6 car driven by Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis (Stevenson Motorsports). The #33 Dodge Viper of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekmolen rounded out the podium.

The finish was just as close in the PC class (Prototype Challenge). In the absence of P class (Prototype) cars, Renger van der Zande and Alex Popow clinched the overall win with Starworks Motorsport, the winning outfit in LM P2 at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, after the class victories at Detroit and Watkins Glen. The #8 Oreca Formula Le Mans finished ahead of that of Robert Alon and Tom Kimber-Smith, three-time class winners at Le Mans, (#52 of PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports) and James French and Kyle Marcelli (#38 of Performance Tech Motorsports).

The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, of which the IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) is the promoter and organizer, will soon head to the Road America circuit at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin from August 5th through the 7th.

Results

Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

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Photo: Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin, official Chevrolet Corvette drivers, celebrate their class win at Lime Rock.