Corvette Daytona Prototype Defends Road America Victory With Action Express In Continental Tire Road Race Showcase

Dane Cameron and Eric Curran have a double dose of momentum on their side for their return to Road America to defend their Prototype class victory in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase (live, FS1, 4 p.m. ET).

Cameron and Curran are coming off of a victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette Daytona Prototype. The 2015 Road America winners have scored podium finishes in five of their last six races to take second in the Prototype standings, trailing only Action Express Racing teammates Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi by four points, 220-216.

“It’s nice to go into Road America coming off a race win in Canada; we are now in second right behind our teammates,” Cameron said. “With three races to go, it’s nice to catch up in the points race and close the gap. Road America is my favorite track, having won there the last two years with Turner Motorsport [in 2014] and then last year with Action Express in the Whelen Engineering Corvette DP. Our goal going in is to not only defend our title at Road America, but to keep this Action Express winning streak going by winning races back-to-back.”

Curran is also a two-time Road America winner, carrying the Whelen colors in 2011 driving a Corvette in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series GT class for Marsh Racing.

Fittipaldi and Barbosa share the championship-leading No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP. Other Corvette DPs are the No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP driven by brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor, and the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP with drivers Marc Goossens and Ryan Dalziel.

Road America front-runners the past three years, Panoz DeltaWing Racing is looking for a breakthrough triumph this weekend when Katherine Legge and Sean Rayhall share the No. 0 DeltaWing Coupe. Legge finished third in class in the 2013 American Le Mans Series event at Road America, when the team led twice for 15 laps.

“We’re always fast there, and it’s a track where we’re always competitive,” said Legge. “Road America is my favorite race track. It’s storied, it’s got a bit of everything and I love the area. It’s a special place and I’m hoping we’ll be competitive again this year with the DeltaWing.”

Ozz Negri and John Pew also have enjoyed success in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Honda Ligier JS P2, finishing second in 2014. Completing the Prototype field are a pair of Mazda Prototypes for Jonathan Bomarito, Tristan Nunez, Tom Long and Joel Miller. The Mazda Prototypes have been fast throughout the 2016 campaign and will look to parlay that speed into a first WeatherTech Championship victory.

Prototype Challenge Winner Junqueira Returns With BAR1 Motorsports

Bruno Junqueira is seeking his second consecutive Prototype Challenge (PC) victory at Road America when he joins Matt McMurry in the No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports Gas Monkey Energy/Southwest Funding/Top1 Oil ORECA FLM09. Junqueira, who won with RSR Racing in 2015, joins a two-car entry which also includes the No. 26 ORECA for Don Yount and Johnny Mowlem.

“We’ve put a lot of work into making this happen,” said BAR1 Motorsports team owner Brian Alder. “Bruno’s record in the PC cars speaks for itself. It’s especially his qualifying statistics that caught our eye. The feedback he and Johnny can provide will be extremely valuable to our setups. Matt McMurry has exceeded the team’s expectations this season. Given his outstanding performances lately, the team anticipates he’ll pair up well with Bruno."

Renger van der Zande and Alex Popow won at Lime Rock Park to give the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport ORECA three victories and a second in the last four races, increasing their lead to 17 points in the PC standings with three rounds remaining. Starworks also will field the No. 88 Popcorn Sutton entry for Mark Kvamme and Richard Bradley, while Gustavo Yacaman joins Jose Gutierrez in the No. 7 car.

Robert Alon and Tom Kimber-Smith have claimed podium finishes in four of the last five races in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Professional Security Consultants/Westfield ORECA – including a victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca – and are second in the PC standings. Other PC contenders include Kyle Marcelli and James French of Sheboygan, Wisconsin in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry; and a pair of two-time 2016 winners, Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson in the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Hi-Tide Boat Lifts/Red Line Oil ORECA and Jon Bennett and Colin Braun in the No. 54 CORE autosport Flex Box/Composite Resources entry.

Practice for the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase begins at 12:40 p.m. CT on Friday, with qualifying on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. The weekend also includes the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, racing on Saturday at 11:35 a.m. CT.