All three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes return to action next week at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. for the two-hour, 40-minute Continental Tire Road Race Showcase on Sunday, Aug. 5.
It will mark the eighth of 10 races for the Prototype class, which last raced on July 8 in the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and the eighth of 11 races for the WeatherTech Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes, which participated in last weekend’s Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park.
The entry list features 35 cars led by a 14-car entry from the Prototype class. The GTLM class will have eight entries, while GTD has 13.
The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase starts at 2:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. local time) and will be televised live on FS1. It also will be carried live by IMSA Radio on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and SiriusXM Radio (Sirius 119/XM 202/App 972). Tickets are available now at RoadAmerica.com.
The provisional WeatherTech Championship entry list is attached.
Notes:
- Of the 69 drivers on the Pre-Event Entry List (the co-driver for Michael Schein in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R is still TBD), 28 have won at least one previous IMSA race at Road America since 2000.
- Jeroen Bleekemolen is the winningest active driver at Road America in the field with five career victories. The driver of the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 won the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GTC class in 2010, 2011 and 2013, and took WeatherTech Championship GTD wins in 2015 and 2016 alongside his current No. 33 co-driver, Ben Keating. Bleekemolen also is a two-time pole-winner at Road America, taking the top starting spot for ALMS GTC in 2010 and 2012.
- Two drivers on the entry list have four previous wins each at Road America:
- Oliver Gavin, who drives the No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, won the ALMS GTS class in 2005, the ALMS GT1 class in 2005 and 2007 and the WeatherTech Championship GTLM class in 2016. The last win came with his current co-driver, Tommy Milner.
- Joerg Bergmeister, who is making his first start in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R since the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on July 1, won the ALMS GT class in 2002 and 2004 and the ALMS GT2 class in 2005 and 2006.
- With four pole positions each, Gavin and No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT driver Dirk Mueller have the lead for most poles among active drivers at Road America. Gavin’s poles came in 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2010, while Mueller took the ALMS GT2 pole in 2008, the ALMS GT pole in 2011 and each of the last two years in GTLM.
- Mueller and his No. 66 co-driver Joey Hand are looking for their second consecutive victory two different ways. They won last weekend’s Northeast Grand Prix, which vaulted them back into the GTLM class points lead, and they also won the GTLM class in last year’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase.
- Joao Barbosa, who was injured in a cycling accident last month, is expected to return to the cockpit of the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R at Road America alongside co-driver Filipe Albuquerque. Barbosa missed the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix due to the injury. He took the overall and Prototype class victory at Road America back in 2014.
- Barbosa’s 2014 victory with then-co-driver Christian Fittipaldi, kicked off a run of three consecutive wins for Action Express Racing. Dane Cameron and Eric Curran won for the team in both 2015 and 2016. This year, Cameron is sharing the No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi car with Juan Pablo Montoya, while Curran remains in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R with co-driver Felipe Nasr. Curran and Nasr are currently one point ahead of their AXR teammate, Albuquerque, in the Prototype championship standings.
- Corvette Racing is the winningest active team at Road America, with a total of seven victories on the picturesque Wisconsin road course. The team had an impressive run of four consecutive ALMS GT1 class wins from 2005 through 2008, and last won in 2016 when Gavin and Milner triumphed in GTLM aboard the No. 4 Corvette. The team’s next victory will be its 100th in IMSA competition (82 ALMS, 16 WeatherTech Championship, 1 GRAND-AM).
- Bolstered by those seven victories, Chevrolet is the winningest manufacturer in IMSA competition at Road America since 2000 with a total of 13 victories. That’s two ahead of Porsche, which has the second most, and four ahead of third-place BMW.
Previous Road America Race-Winning Drivers in 2018 Field Since 2000 (28)
Jeroen Bleekemolen (5) – ALMS GTC – 2010, 2011, 2012; GTD – 2015, 2016
Joerg Bergmeister (4) – ALMS GT – 2002, 2004; ALMS GT2 – 2005, 2006
Oliver Gavin (4) – ALMS GTS – 2004; ALMS GT1 – 2005, 2007; GTLM – 2016
Bill Auberlen (3) – ALMS GT2 – 2009; ALMS GT – 2012, 2013
Joey Hand (3) – ALMS GT2 – 2009, ALMS GT – 2010, GTLM – 2017
Eric Curran (3) – GRAND-AM GT – 2011, P/Overall – 2015, 2016
Dane Cameron (3) – GTD – 2014, P/Overall – 2015, 2016
Patrick Long (2) – ALMS GT2 – 2005, 2006
Jan Magnussen (2) ALMS GTS – 2003, ALMS GT1 – 2008
Scott Sharp (2) – ALMS P2 – 2008, ALMS P1/Overall – 2009
Dirk Mueller (2) – ALMS GT – 2010, GTLM – 2017
Ben Keating (2) – GTD – 2015, 2016
Richard Westbrook (1) – ALMS GT2 – 2008
Gunnar Jeannette (1) – ALMS PC – 2010
David Heinemeier Hansson (1) – ALMS P2 – 2012
Jon Bennett (1) – ALMS PC – 2012
Cooper MacNeil (1) – ALMS GTC – 2012
Tristan Nunez (1) – GRAND-AM GX – 2013
Joao Barbosa (1) – P/Overall -2014
Renger van der Zande (1) – PC – 2014
Nick Tandy (1) – GTLM – 2015
Patrick Pilet (1) – GTLM – 2015
Robert Alon (1) – PC – 2016
Tommy Milner (1) – GTLM – 2016
Johannes van Overbeek (1) – P/Overall – 2017
Pipo Derani (1) – P/Overall – 2017
James French (1) – PC – 2017
Jesse Krohn (1) – GTD – 2017
Previous Road America Pole Winners (Since 2000) in 2018 Field (15)
Oliver Gavin (4) – ALMS GTS – 2003; ALMS – GT1 – 2005, 2008; ALMS GT – 2010
Dirk Mueller (4) – ALMS GT2 – 2008; ALMS GT – 2011; GTLM – 2016, 2017
James French (3) – PC – 2015, 2016, 2017
Joerg Bergmeister (2) – ALMS GT – 2004; ALMS GT2 – 2006
Joey Hand (2) – ALMS GT2 – 2009; P/Overall – 2015
Jeroen Bleekemolen (2) – ALMS GTC – 2010, 2012
Jonathan Bomarito (2) – ALMS GT – 2013; P/Overall – 2016
Ricky Taylor (2) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall; P/Overall – 2017
Jan Magnussen (1) – ALMS GT2 – 2007
Kyle Marcelli (1) – ALMS PC – 2012
Dane Cameron (1) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2013
Colin Braun (1) – ALMS PC – 2013
Ryan Dalziel (1) – P/Overall – 2014
John Edwards (1) – GTLM – 2014
Earl Bamber (1) – GTLM – 2015
Previous Road America Race-Winning Teams (Since 2000) in 2018 Field (12)
Corvette Racing (7) – ALMS GTS – 2002, 2004; ALMS GT1 – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008; GTLM – 2016
BMW Team RLL (3) – ALMS GT2 – 2009; ALMS GT – 2010, 2012
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing (3) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2011, 2012; GTLM – 2017
Turner Motorsport (3) – GRAND-AM GT – 2013; GTD – 2014, 2017
Action Express Racing (3) – P/Overall – 2014, 2015, 2016
Acura Team Penske (2) – ALMS P2 – 2006; ALMS P2/Overall – 2007
AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports (2) – ALMS PC – 2011; PC – 2016
Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports (2) – GTD – 2015, 2016
CORE autosport (1) – ALMS PC – 2012
Porsche GT Team (1) – GTLM – 2016
Patrón ESM (1) – P/Overall – 2017
Performance Tech Motorsports (1) – PC – 2017
Previous Road America Race-Winning Manufacturers (Since 2000) in 2018 Field (9)
Chevrolet – 13
Porsche – 11
BMW – 9
Audi – 7
Ferrari – 5
Ford – 4
Nissan – 4
Acura – 3
Mazda – 2