IMSA: Guasch, Kimber-Smith take third PC victory at Lime Rock

Winners of the two longest races on the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship schedule, Mike Guasch and Tom Kimber-Smith gave PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports the Prototype Challenge (PC) victory at the shortest track, capturing Saturday’s Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park.

After trouble struck down the two dominant cars on the seven-turn, 1.474-mile circuit, Kimber-Smith passed Bruno Junqueira with 35 minutes remaining and went on to win in the No. 52 Cuttwood ORECA FLM09. It was the fourth podium finish of the season for Guasch and Kimber-Smith, who won the class at both the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

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"It’s great to have another victory. We’ve had a lot of bad luck this year," said Kimber-Smith. "Coming into this race we knew we needed to win to keep in the championship bout. Now we’re back in the championship hunt. The team did a fantastic job, and Mike’s opening stint was fantastic. Today everything seemed to go our way."

Added Guasch: "We kept pushing and pushing, and the other guys were using up their tires. We qualified a little poorly but that didn’t really matter. The track is just so small and so quick so you’re just round and round and round. I actually enjoy it, the competitiveness of hitting the same corner over and over again, trying different things. I like that."

Junqueira and Chris Cumming finished second in the No. 11 RSR Racing AutoMaxUSA ORECA FLM09, followed by the lapped No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Martini entry of Renger van der Zande and Mirco Schultis.

Stephen Simpson captured the TOTAL Pole Award and dominated the opening hour in the No. 85 JDC/Miller Motorsports UndergroundCellar.com ORECA FLM09. However, the car suddenly stopped in Turn 3 with an electrical problem at the one-hour, four-minute mark, bringing out a caution.  The car was taken to the garage, losing several laps for repairs. Simpson and co-driver Mikhail Goikhberg eventually finished sixth.

That gave the lead to Conor Daly, who had taken over from James French in the No. 38 Ric-Man Construction/GO-PUCK/Braille Batteries ORECA FLM09 for Performanc Tech Motorsports.  Daly attempted to follow Renger van der Zande – who had just regained one of his two lost laps – through the final Downhill turn when he had contact with the GT Daytona (GTD) class-leading No. 48 Castrol EDGE Audi R8 LMS of Christopher Haase. Both cars slammed into the tire barrier and were eliminated, although both drivers emerged unscathed.

That gave the lead to Junqueira, who led 41 laps before Kimber-Smith took the lead in traffic. Kimber-Smith retained the lead when both leaders pitted two laps later, and led the final 23 circuits, winning by 8.304 seconds.

NOTES:

• -The victory allowed Guasch and Kimber-Smith to cut into the margin of Bennett and Braun in the standings. Entering the race trailing by 10 points, the gap is now only three points, 222-219, with RSR Racing drivers Cumming and Junqueira third with 206 points.

• The turning point of the race may have occurred on the final pit stops for the No. 11 RSR Racing and No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports teams. While the No. 52 team elected to change two tires, the No. 11 team changed three, and had its fueling completed before the third tire was bolted on. “That could have been the difference,” said RSR starting driver Cumming. “We didn’t have the pace to catch them after that.”

• -Starworks Motorsport starting driver Mirco Schultis felt the key would be running a conservative pace in order to do the race with one pit stop.  Van der Zande was able to make back one of them, but found it impossible to make up the second lost lap.

• Sean Rayhall’s day got off to a rough start when he was assessed a stop plus one-minute, 40-second penalty for an improper wave-by shortly after taking over for Todd Slusher in the No. 16 BAR 1 Motorsports Top 1 Oil/Jet Suites/Edvisors entry. Rayhall, who finished second in his debut with the team at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, went on to finish fifth.

• All four TUDOR Championship classes will be in action for Round 9, the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America on Sunday, Aug. 9.