The 2016 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The Race was held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 7, 2016. The race was the ninth round of the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship.
Background
editPreview
edit
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2015.[1] It was the third consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2016 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase was the ninth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2016 by IMSA, and was the sixth round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup.[1] The race was held at the ten-turn 4.048 mi (6.515 km) Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 7, 2016.[2]
Before the race, João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 220 points, ahead of Eric Curran and Dane Cameron in second by four points, and Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor in third with 211 points.[3] With 267 points, Alex Popow and Renger van der Zande led the Prototype Challenge Drivers' Championship over Robert Alon and Tom Kimber-Smith by 17 points.[3] In GTLM, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner led the Drivers' Championship with 228 points, 10 ahead of Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook.[3] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 212 points; the duo held an thirteen-point advantage over Andy Lally and John Potter.[3] Chevrolet and Audi were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Action Express Racing, Starworks Motorsport, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa each led their own Teams' Championships.[3]
Entry list
editForty-one cars were officially entered for the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase, with most of the entries in the Prototype Challenge (PC), Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) categories. Action Express Racing (AER) fielded two Chevrolet Corvette DP cars while VisitFlorida Racing (VFR) and Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) fielded one. Mazda Motorsports had two Lola B12/80 cars and Michael Shank Racing (MSR) entered one Ligier JS P2 chassis with a Honda HR35TT twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 engine. Panoz brought the DeltaWing car to Road America for the fourth successive year.[4] The Prototype Challenge (PC) class was composed of eight Oreca FLM09 cars: three from Starworks Motorsports and two from BAR1 Motorsports. CORE Autosport, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Performance Tech and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entered one car each.[4][5] GTLM was represented by nine entries from five different brands.[4] In the list of GTD entrants, fifteen GT3-specification vehicles were represented by six different manufacturers. Alex Job Racing entered a third Porsche 911 GT3 R.[6] Black Swan Racing withdrew after Tim Pappas' father passed away.[7]
Practice
editThere were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Friday afternoon and the third on Saturday morning lasted an hour.[8]
Qualifying
editSaturday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying session gave 15-minute sessions to all categories. Cars in GTD were sent out first before those grouped in GTLM, PC, and Prototype had three separate identically timed sessions. Regulations stipulated teams to nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each classes starting order. IMSA would arranged the grid to put all Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM, and GTD cars.[9][8]
Qualifying results
editPole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 55 |  Mazda Motorsports
|
 Jonathan Bomarito
|
1:54.507 | – | 1‡ |
| 2 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing
|
 Christian Fittipaldi
|
1:55.659 | +1.152 | 2 |
| 3 | P | 10 | Wayne Taylor Racing
|
Ricky Taylor
|
1:55.685 | +1.178 | 3 |
| 4 | P | 70 | Mazda Motorsports
|
Tom Long
|
1:56.021 | +1.514 | 4 |
| 5 | P | 31 | Action Express Racing
|
Eric Curran
|
1:56.120 | +1.613 | 5 |
| 6 | P | 90 | VisitFlorida Racing
|
 Marc Goossens
|
1:56.992 | +2.485 | 6 |
| 7 | P | 0 | Panoz DeltaWing Racing
|
Sean Rayhall
|
1:57.227 | +2.720 | 7 |
| 8 | PC | 38 | Performance Tech Motorsports
|
James French
|
1:59.133 | +4.626 | 8‡ |
| 9 | PC | 7 | Starworks Motorsport
|
 José Gutiérrez
|
1:59.208 | +4.701 | 171 |
| 10 | PC | 85 | JDC-Miller MotorSports
|
 Misha Goikhberg
|
1:59.462 | +4.955 | 9 |
| 11 | PC | 20 | BAR1 Motorsports
|
Matt McMurry
|
1:59.519 | +5.012 | 10 |
| 12 | PC | 52 | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports
|
Robert Alon
|
1:59.625 | +5.118 | 11 |
| 13 | PC | 8 | Starworks Motorsport
|
 Alex Popow
|
1:59.634 | +5.127 | 12 |
| 14 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian
|
John Pew
|
2:00.4361 | +5.929 | 13 |
| 15 | PC | 26 | BAR1 Motorsports
|
Don Yount
|
2:01.091 | +6.584 | 14 |
| 16 | PC | 54 | CORE Autosport
|
Jon Bennett
|
2:02.376 | +7.869 | 15 |
| 17 | GTLM | 66 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing
|
 Dirk Müller
|
2:02.451 | +7.944 | 18‡ |
| 18 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche North America
|
 Patrick Pilet
|
2:02.912 | +8.405 | 19 |
| 19 | GTLM | 67 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing
|
 Ryan Briscoe
|
2:02.936 | +8.429 | 392 |
| 20 | GTLM | 62 | Risi Competizione
|
 Giancarlo Fisichella
|
2:02.975 | +8.468 | 20 |
| 21 | GTLM | 912 | Porsche North America
|
 Earl Bamber
|
2:03.173 | +8.666 | 21 |
| 22 | PC | 88 | Starworks Motorsport
|
Mark Kvamme
|
2:03.215 | +8.708 | 16 |
| 23 | GTLM | 3 | Corvette Racing
|
 Antonio García
|
2:03.432 | +8.925 | 22 |
| 24 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing
|
 Oliver Gavin
|
2:03.521 | +9.014 | 23 |
| 25 | GTLM | 100 | BMW Team RLL
|
Lucas Luhr
|
2:04.129 | +9.622 | 403 |
| 26 | GTLM | 25 | BMW Team RLL
|
Bill Auberlen
|
2:04.882 | +10.375 | 414 |
| 27 | GTD | 23 | Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing
|
Alex Riberas
|
2:07.520 | +13.013 | 24‡ |
| 28 | GTD | 6 | Stevenson Motorsports
|
Andrew Davis
|
2:07.759 | +13.252 | 25 |
| 29 | GTD | 9 | Stevenson Motorsports
|
Matt Bell
|
2:07.785 | +13.278 | 26 |
| 30 | GTD | 33 | Riley Motorsports
|
Ben Keating
|
2:08.166 | +13.659 | 27 |
| 31 | GTD | 63 | Scuderia Corsa
|
 Christina Nielsen
|
2:08.237 | +13.730 | 28 |
| 32 | GTD | 16 | Change Racing
|
Spencer Pumpelly
|
2:08.243 | +13.736 | 29 |
| 33 | GTD | 27 | Dream Racing
|
Luca Persiani
|
2:08.334 | +13.827 | 30 |
| 34 | GTD | 48 | Paul Miller Racing
|
Madison Snow
|
2:08.495 | +13.988 | 31 |
| 35 | GTD | 73 | Park Place Motorsports
|
Patrick Lindsey
|
2:08.504 | +13.997 | 32 |
| 36 | GTD | 96 | Turner Motorsport
|
Bret Curtis
|
2:08.680 | +14.173 | 33 |
| 37 | GTD | 97 | Turner Motorsport
|
 Markus Palttala
|
2:09.048 | +14.541 | 34 |
| 38 | GTD | 44 | Magnus Racing
|
John Potter
|
2:09.881 | +15.374 | 385 |
| 39 | GTD | 80 | Lone Star Racing
|
Dan Knox
|
2:11.251 | +16.744 | 35 |
| 40 | GTD | 77 | Alex Job Racing
|
David MacNeil
|
2:15.449 | +20.942 | 36 |
| 41 | GTD | 22 | Alex Job Racing
|
Cooper MacNeil
|
No time6 | – | 37 |
| Sources:[10][11] | |||||||
- 1 The No. 60 MSR Ligier had its fastest lap deleted as penalty for causing a red flag during its qualifying session.
- 2 The No. 7 Starworks Motorsport entry was sent to the rear of the PC grid as per 13.1.2a of the Sporting regulations (Ride height).[9]
- 3 The No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entry was sent to the rear of the GTLM grid as per 13.1.2a of the Sporting regulations (Ride height).[9]
- 4 The No. 100 BMW Team RLL entry was sent to the rear of the GTLM grid as per article 8.3.2 of the Sporting regulations (Boost control violation).[9]
- 5 The No. 25 BMW Team RLL entry was sent to the rear of the GTLM grid as per article 8.3.2 of the Sporting regulations (Boost control violation).[9]
- 6 The No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi was sent to the rear of the GTD grid as per article 40.1.5 of the Sporting regulations (Tire change).[9]
- 7 The No. 22 Alex Job Racing Porsche had all qualifying laps forfeited as per Article 40.2.6. of the Sporting regulations (Working on the car during qualifying).[9]
Race
editRace results
editClass winners are denoted in bold and ‡.
References
edit- ^ a b Pruett, Marshall (August 8, 2015). "IMSA: 2016 schedule revealed". Racer. Archived from the original on January 1, 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "IMSA announces new title sponsor, 2016 schedule". motorsport.com. August 9, 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d e "2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – Championship Point Standings" (PDF). International Motor Sports Association. October 12, 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 26, 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ a b c "42 Entries for Road America". Sportscar365.com. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "IMSA: BAR1 confirms second car, Junqueira for Road America". Racer. 26 July 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "IMSA: WeatherTech Racing adds second car for Road America". Racer. 29 July 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ Dagys, John (3 August 2016). "Black Swan Suspends GTD Program". Sportscar365.com. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ a b Dagys, John (4 August 2016). "Continental Tire Keys to the Race: Road America". Sportscar365.com. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g "2016 IMSA Sporting Regulations & Series Supplementary Regulations of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship" (PDF). International Motor Sports Association. May 25, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 5, 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "03_Results.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. Alkamel Systems. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "01_Starting Grid.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. Alkamel Systems. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "Race Official Results" (PDF). results.imsa.com. Alkamel Systems. 19 August 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
- ^ "2016 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved 8 September 2024.