AO Racing takes 'Spike' to maiden IMSA victory at CTMP

AO Racing's PJ Hyett and Dane Cameron drove "Spike the LMP2 Dragon," the purple No. 99 ORECA 07-Gibson, to its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Spike won the Chevrolet Grand Prix after the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition car of Jeremy Clarke and Tom Dillmann crashed out with just a little over 15 minutes left in Sunday afternoon's sprint race.

Dillmann, who took the lead from Cameron in the final pit stop cycles with an aggressive undercut – then got the caution that he needed to make it to the end on one tank of fuel – locked up into Turn 3 and crashed hard into the tire barriers. The Frenchman was awake and alert after the incident, though he was taken back to the circuit medical center in an ambulance. Further details on his condition will be provided as soon as they are available.

Inter Europol's misfortune handed first place back to Cameron and Hyett, who'd dominated the race from the opening lap until the last 45 minutes when Cameron lost the lead in the final pit sequence.

The No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA (Daniel Goldburg/Tom Blomqvist) finished second behind the safety car, followed by the No. 74 Riley (Gar Robinson/Felipe Fraga) in third, the No. 2 United Autosports USA car (Phil Fayer/Ben Hanley) in fourth and the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports car (Nick Boulle/Benjamin Pedersen) in fifth after a pit-lane penalty for driving away with equipment attached.

Stephen Thomas and Hunter McElrea took the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA to the checkered flag third on the road, but they were given a post-race time penalty for causing a collision with the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini GTD car with 33 minutes left. That penalty dropped them to eighth place.

Hyett and Cameron moved to within 78 points of LMP2 points leader Goldburg with just three races remaining for the LMP2 category.

More IMSA

Grosjean lands Rolex 24 drive with Myers Riley Motorsports

Formal, Ericsson deliver Wayne Taylor Racing North American Lamborghini World Final championship

Lamborghini reveals new Super Trofeo car

Two full course yellows in the last half-hour produced two surprise winners in the GT classes.

In GTD PRO, the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoe took its first win of the season, the first since the start of its technical alliance with Risi Competizione. They last stopped for fuel at exactly half-time, during a safety car caused by George Kurtz's accident in Turn 3. The gamble ultimately paid off, parlaying a 51-lap final stint into the first win of the year for Costa and Altoe.

The DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoe took its first win of the season. Jake Galstad/IMSA

A similar gamble helped give second place to the No. 4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3 of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg, which also stretched its last tank of fuel nearly half of the race to put one of the works Corvette Racing cars on the podium.

AO Racing's Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler drove "Rexy," the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R, to third place after some aggressive strategy early in the race helped the reigning GTD PRO champions gain track position.

The No. 3 Pratt Miller Corvette (Antonio Garcia/Alexander Sims) finished fourth in class, followed by local favorites Pfaff Motorsport and the No. 9 Lamborghini (Andrea Caldarelli/Marco Mapelli). A slow stop at mid-race dropped the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW (Madison Snow/Neil Verhagen) out of podium contention to sixth.

Jake Galstad/IMSA

Garcia and Sims still lead the GTD PRO standings, but their lead over Heinrich/Bachler was cut to 39 points. Costa closed to within 53 points of the lead after taking the win.

In GTD, the fuel gamble benefitted the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal and Trent Hindman. After Formal spun in a first-lap incident, the silver Lamborghini worked its way through the field and made its last stop just after half-distance.

The No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini (Misha Goikhberg/Mario Farnbacher) would have likely taken the lead in the closing stages, but with 33 minutes left, Farnbacher was hit at Turn 8 by the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA, causing him to shoot off into the barriers from second place.

Hindman held on to take the win, the first of the year for the WTR Lamborghini; GTD championship leaders Russell Ward and Philip Ellis finished second in their No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 to extend their points lead to 93 points.

The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 (Parker Thompson/Jack Hawksworth) completed the GTD podium, just one position ahead of the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette of Robert Wickens and Alec Udell.

While Wickens missed out on what would have been a popular podium finish at his home track, he and Udell did secure DXDT's best finish of the season.

One car, the No. 79 JDC-Miller MotorSports ORECA (Gerry Kraut/Scott Andrews), did not start the race due to insufficient track time for its drivers after suffering an engine failure during Saturday practice.

Up next is the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America, with all four classes in action, on Sunday, Aug. 3.

RESULTS