SportsCars

IMSA Notebook

Action Express Corvette DP on its way to victory at Watkins Glen
Action Express Corvette DP on its way to victory at Watkins Glen

Action Express Racing has finished one-two at the last two races, and don't rule out a third-straight sweep: The team took the top two spots last year at Road America, the next stop on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule for the Prototype cars.

Not that these last two victories were easy. With only a week between last Sunday's the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Ontario, and the Sahlen's Six Hours at the Glen at Watkins Glen International in New York on July 3, it was a scramble for all the teams.

"Obviously, back-to-back races without returning to our race shop provide a bit of a challenge," said Action Express Team Manager Gary Nelson. "Even though it was a challenge, everyone on the team worked together and we were able to have a couple really good race weekends. It's a nice start to the second half of the season, but now we have to focus on finishing the season strong."

At Watkins Glen, the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype won, with the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Corvette DP second. At Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, the No. 31 won, followed by the No. 5. The team has finished first and second four times, and at the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase August 5-7 — the next time the Prototype cars are on the track — they'll be looking for number five.

TAKING THE WEEKEND OFF: The next race on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, which, at just 1.5 miles in length, is the shortest track on the IMSA schedule. So the Prototypes will be taking one race off, allowing the GT Le Mans, GT Daytona and Prototype Challenge competitors to get the spotlight.

The Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge series also will be in action. Practice and qualifying will be on Friday, July 22, with racing on Saturday.

Bill Ford presents the Le Mans trophy
Bill Ford presents the Le Mans trophy

TROPHY TIME: The champagne has long since stopped flowing at the Le Mans 24 Hours, but there was still one thing left to do for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. On Tuesday, they checked that box.

Drivers Joey Hand (US), Dirk Müller (GER), Sébastien Bourdais (FRA) and team owner Chip Ganassi joined Ford Performance executives to present the winners' trophy to Ford Motor Company employees on Tuesday at Ford's Product Development Center, while third-place finishers Ryan Briscoe (AUS) and Richard Westbrook (GB) joined them for a formal presentation with Ford executives, question-and-answer sessions and autograph signing near Ford's global world headquarters.

"It's always a great day when you can bring a celebration like our Le Mans victory back to Ford employees and be able to present this trophy to them," said Dave Pericak, global director, Ford Performance. "This victory for was them. So many of our employees worked very hard to help us get ready to race at Le Mans, and we couldn't have done it without them. And all of our employees, here and globally, have been behind us from the start in this effort, and we wanted to let them know how much their support meant to us."

With his 175th victory Ganassi becomes the only owner in history to win the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Rolex 24 At Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and Le Mans 24 Hours.

Chip Ganassi and Raj Nair
Chip Ganassi and Raj Nair

Ganassi attended with team partner Rob Kauffman, Chip Ganassi Racing President Steve Lauletta, Managing Director Mike Hull, IMSA sports car team principal Mike O'Gara and WEC team principal George Howard-Chappell. Multimatic Vice President Larry Holt and Doug Yates, CEO of Roush Yates Engines, also were on hand for the celebration.

"The new Ford GT is a spectacular car and we feel honored to be the ones to race it and represent Ford," Ganassi said. "In just two-and-a-half years this Ford Performance Chip Ganassi Racing program has won the 12 Hours of Sebring, the Rolex 24 At Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans – among others. You can probably call that the sports car triple crown — the three biggest sportscar races in the world and Ford and Chip Ganassi Racing have made an indelible mark on all of them. I couldn't be more proud."

First unveiled to the media at Le Mans last year, the Ford GT's Le Mans victory came 395 days after the car turned a wheel for the first time on May 20, 2015, at Calabogie Motorsports Park in Canada. The new Ford GT began as a secret project that only a few Ford employees knew about, but has become a company-wide point of pride.

"I think what's important with any program you're on, but especially this one, is you have to look back at how it started," Hand said. "This race car started with all the employees at Ford and Ford Performance, in the special basement studio. Having a car that could race to win Le Mans and then to do it, on the day of the anniversary, is nothing short of amazing. It's the people at Ford, from the Ford family down, to Multimatic and Chip Ganassi Racing that make it as special as it is. We all feel like we're a family on this program. I think everyone can be really proud, on all levels of this program, about what we did."

In all, four Ford GTs raced at Le Mans — two that campaign fulltime in the global FIA World Endurance Championship, based in the UK, and two that compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in North America. They raced at Le Mans with the numbers 66, 67, 68, 69, in homage to the four years Ford won the storied race in a row with the Ford GT40.

The morning of the visit, Westbrook and Briscoe presented a pair of boots and gloves they were wearing at Laguna Seca, when they earned the first win for the new Ford GT, to The Henry Ford museum.

"(The win at Laguna Seca) was a great stepping stone to the success we were able to continue with going to Le Mans and beyond," Briscoe said. "I think it was just a really important win for everyone involved, especially on the race team. Just to give us the confidence that we can get the job done and yes, we can do this and let's go to Le Mans and do it again. We'd had a few issues in the races before, so it was just great to have an absolutely trouble-free weekend and everything was really reliable, performance was strong. It was the perfect way to send off to Le Mans."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Both the No. 66 Ford GT (the car that won at Le Mans) and the No. 67 (the p3 finisher) were on display for employees to see.

"It's amazing (to see the support)," Westbrook said. "At Le Mans Dave (Pericak) and Raj (Nair) were always reminding us about how popular this program is and how much support for this program there is in Dearborn, and that was a big comfort racing at Le Mans, knowing that we're racing for a big team, not just our guys at the track, but all of those people supporting us back at Ford World Headquarters in Michigan and around the world. To come see them is really special. It reminds us of why we're racing. We're not just racing for ourselves, but for a whole workforce. A huge amount of people who have put a lot of work into this program. It's really special."

HOMETOWN ADVANTAGE: Based just up the road from Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Markham, Ontario, Multimatic Motorsports was hoping for a good showing in front of its hometown crowd, and it delivered. The Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge team, fielding the No. 15 Ford Shelby Mustang GT350R-C, not only qualified on the pole, but led all but three laps en route to the team's second victory of the year.

And that second victory was a long time coming: The first was at the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

"We were coming off a couple of mediocre results and I think we both really wanted to win today. It's really nice to do that in front of my home crowd and my home track," said veteran driver Scott Maxwell, who shared the wheel with Billy Johnson.

Multimatic, Maxwell and Johnson also had a hand in the Ford GT's win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race the next day — Multimatic built the Ford GTs, and Maxwell, a former class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, handled all the initial shakedown testing on the car. And Johnson drove one of the four Ford GTs at Le Mans this year, laying down the fastest lap of the race for his class.

LIVE ON NETWORK TELEVISION: The IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday, July 23 will be televised live on FOX. The three-hour telecast begins at 3 p.m. ET.

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