Campbell, Nasr Lead Porsche Penske To Near-Perfect Road America Victory

The pure performance of the Porsche 963 in its debut season of racing has not always been present, but at the IMSA Sportscar Weekend at Road America, the #7 Penske Porsche 963 of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr led the race, virtually from lights to flag, for the 963’s second competitive victory in 2023.

Nasr withstood a late press from the #60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 (Tom Blomqvist/Colin Braun) to secure the victory by just 4.6 seconds.

Acura took second and third place, with the #60 of Blomqvist and Braun finishing 30 seconds ahead of the #10 Konica Minolta Acura (Ricky Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque), which took advantage of a difficult day for several title contenders in the GTP class and gained the championship lead with just two races left in the 2023 season for IMSA’s top category.

After Alexander Sims crashed in the morning Warm-Up session, Action Express Racing scrambled to reconstruct the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R in time for the race. Sims and Pipo Derani finished a low-key sixth. But that’s much better than the fate of the #25 BMW M Team RLL Hybrid V8 (Connor de Phillippi/Nick Yelloly).

De Phillippi ran off into the gravel at the Carousel during the formation lap, had to start from the rear of the GTD field, then ran into the wall at the Kink less than ten minutes into the race.

Taylor and Albuquerque will take a 14-point lead over Derani and Sims into the Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on 17 September.

The #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsport Oreca 07 of Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin won LMP2 for the first time this season, propelling the duo to a 45-point championship lead.

In LMP3, the #74 Riley Ligier JS P320 of Gar Robinson and Josh Burdon won its fourth straight race of the season. Robinson now has a virtually unassailable 251-point lead with two races remaining.

After a hard battle for the lead between the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Ross Gunn/Alex Riberas) and the #3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD (Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor), it was the Aston Martin that won the GTD Pro class, the second straight win for Gunn and Riberas. Championship leaders Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat finished second in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.

And on the day they announced a move to GTD Pro for next season, Paul Miller Racing won GTD “Classic” for the fourth time this season, with the #1 BMW M4 GT3 of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow winning by just over two seconds from the #70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO (Brendan Iribe/Frederik Schandorff).

GTD Pro and GTD return to action for the second GTD-exclusive race of the season at VIRginia International Raceway on 27 August.

More to follow

Feature image © IMSA