AUGUST 10, 2016

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
In a wild finish at Road America, Tommy Milner (No. 4 Corvette Racing Corvette C7.R, started by Oliver Gavin) passed Richard Westbrook (No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT, started by Ryan Briscoe) in the Moraine Sweep on the last lap to win the GT Le Mans shoot-out in the IMSA Continental Tire Road Race Showcase on Sunday afternoon. Milner, who has been driving exceptionally well all season, restarted fifth with just five minutes remaining and after a series of incidents unfolded before him, charged to the lead and the win. It was the fourth IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship win and sixth podium of the season for the GTLM points-leading duo of Milner and Gavin. “It was extraordinary, it was an epic win for us,” said Gavin, who watched Milner carve through the field. “Everyone was in disbelief. I think there were plenty of people at the truck thinking, how’d we win that?” This is what happened: Lined up directly behind the Prototype leaders on the final restart, Westbrook tried to hold off Toni Vilander (No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTE, started by Giancarlo Fisichella) for the lead when Nick Tandy (No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR, started by Patrick Pilet) got a run on the leading Ford and Ferrari from third coming out of Turn 3. Tandy moved to the inside of the top two for the lead when contact forced his Porsche into a spin in Turn 5. After he got around Frederic Makowiecki (No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR) Milner moved into third with two laps to go. Vilander’s Ferrari spun after making contact with the No. 55 Mazda Prototype of Tristan Nunez in Turn 1, and then Milner got by Westbrook and went on to win by 0.730 seconds. “It was a wild swing of emotions,” said Milner of the final three laps. “My mindset at the end of the race was to hopefully catch the Porsche in front of me and try to make something there. During the yellow they said on the radio there was a chance we could restart but we might finish under yellow. I went from bummed to not being able to race for fourth to seeing all of the guys ahead of us. Then seeing the Ford in the lead, knowing how close we are in points, I sort of hoped we’d be there. Everything happened in front of me. The Porsche spun, then the Ferrari got taken out, I got some help for sure. I was able to get by the 912 and then get close to the Ford. It looked like they were a little hurt, but I don’t know how we went from fifth with three laps to go.” John Edwards/Lucas Luhr (No. 100 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM) finished third in GTLM. Vilander ended up fifth and Tandy finished seventh. Check out John Thawley's scintillating images from "America's National Park of Speed" in the photo gallery here.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe (No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT) now trail Milner and Gavin for the GTLM class points lead by 13 points, 264-251, with three races remaining.
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Dane Cameron and Eric Curran (No. 31 Action Express Whelen Engineering/Team Fox Corvette Daytona Prototype) captured their second consecutive win of the season while leading Action Express Racing to its third consecutive 1-2 finish in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition in Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Elkhart Lake's Road America, "America's National Park of Speed." Teammates Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi (No. 5 Action Express Mustang Sampling Corvette DP) finished second – 0.626 seconds back – and saw their lead trimmed to one point (253-252) in a bid for a third consecutive Prototype class championship. Brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor (No. 10 WTR Konica Minolta Corvette DP) gave Corvette DPs a sweep of the podium, finishing 1.460 seconds back. “It’s great to see what this team has done since building it up in 2010,” said Cameron, who scored his series-leading ninth victory in WeatherTech Championship competition. “You can see what we’ve come to in the last few weekends. The cars are very close, the results and pace weekend-to-weekend shows that when we come to the race track, they are almost identical and each car has the same chance to win. So we’re going to keep running our race right now and it seems to be working for us. We have our own battles to fight for our championship.”
(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Tom Kimber-Smith (No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Professional Security Consultants/Westfield ORECA FLM09, started by Robert Alon) passed Jose Gutierrez (No. 7 Starworks Motorsport ORECA FLM09, started by Gustavo Yacaman) to take the lead just before the midway point, and led the final 39 laps to score the second Prototype Challenge (PC) victory of the season at Road America on Sunday. Colin Braun and Jon Bennett (No. 54 CORE autosport Flex-Box/Composite Resources/Crowdstrike ORECA FLM09) finished second, 2.557 seconds behind. Kyle Marcelli and TOTAL Pole Award winner and local star James French of nearby Sheboygan, Wis., finished third in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA FLM09. Gutierrez ended up fourth. The key moment of the race in PC came with 13 minutes remaining when Renger van der Zande and Stephen Simpson crashed in Turn 9 while battling for second, eliminating both contenders. Van der Zande and co-driver Alex Popow entered the race with a 17-point lead, winning three races among seven consecutive podium finishes for the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport ORECA. The DNF cut their lead to seven points over Alon and Kimber-Smith, 293-286.

(John Thawley ~ Motorsports Photography @ www.johnthawley.com ~ 248.227.0110)
Jeroen Bleekemolen (No. 33 ViperExchange.com/Cruising with the Monkey Dodge Viper GT3-R, started by Ben Keating) beat the No. 73 Park Place Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Lindsey to the stripe by 1.76 seconds to win the GT Daytona class at Road America. It was the second win of the season for Bleekemolen and Keating, and closed their GTD points deficit to 21 points, 243-222, behind the series-leading No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE of Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan, who finished third. Andy Lally and John Potter (No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3) finished fourth. Entering the race second in GTD points, 13 points back, Lally and Potter now enter the final three-race stretch 15 points behind Scuderia Corsa, and the duo of Nielsen and Balzan, 243-228.

(Photo by Lesley Ann Miller/LAT Photo USA ©2016, courtesy of Toyota Racing)
Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing FedEx Freight Toyota Camry) won the Cheez-It 355 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International on Sunday. It was a typical NASCAR road race at the Glen marked by full-course cautions, red flags and hot tempers. Joey Logano (No. 22 Team Penske Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion) slipped by Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Team Penske Miller Lite Ford Fusion) after Keselowski got into Martin Truex Jr. (No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota Camry) in the last corner. Keselowski finished third. Get more NASCAR info here.

(FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy)
Sweden’s Timmy Hansen (No. 21 Team Peugeot-Hansen PEUGEOT 208 WRX) won the World RX of Canada, round seven of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy.  Hansen took an unexpected victory after he was promoted to the final when Russia’s Timur Timerzyanov (No. 7 World RX Team Austria Ford Fiesta) was black flagged after an incident in the semi-final.  Andreas Bakkerud (No. 13 Hoonigan Racing Division Ford Focus RSRX) and Johan Kristoffersson (No. 3 Volkswagen RX Sweden Volkswagen Polo) finished second and third, respectively. “I am so surprised to win – I wasn’t even supposed to be in the last six but after Timerzyanov’s black flag, I was told I needed to line up for the final,” explained 22-year-old Hansen, who broke his car’s front-right suspension during yesterday’s second qualifying session. The FIA World Rallycross Championship returns to European soil for the eighth round of the season in Loheac, France (September 3-4).

(Ford Performance photo)
Billy Johnson (No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Shelby GT350R-C, started by Scott Maxwell) took the lead on the final lap on Saturday at Road America - as Charles Espenlaub attempted to stretch the fuel in the No. 99 Automatic Racing Invisible Glass Aston Martin Vantage, started by Charles Putman - and went on to score the duo's third consecutive IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge victory in the GS class, and their fourth of the season. Espenlaub, trying for the upset, came up short and had to pit on the white flag lap for a splash of fuel, ending up fourth. Jeroen Bleekemolen (No. 21 Muehlner Motorsports America Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, started by Peter Ludwig), held off Guy Cosmo (No. 64 TGM Motorsports Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, started by Ted Giovanis) by just 0.079 seconds – although 13.596 seconds behind Maxwell.

(BMW)
BMW will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding and its illustrious racing history at the four premiere events of Monterey Car Week from August 18-21 in Monterey, California. It will be the largest celebration outside of Munich this year. BMW will be a featured marque at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion; The Quail - A Motorsports Gathering; Legends of the Autobahn and at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. BMW will be represented at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion by 64 vintage BMW race cars, ranging from a strong group of 1930’s 328s to the BMW V12 LMR of 1999. The Rolex Reunion will also be the largest gathering of BMW M1 ProCars ever assembled in the USA. Finally, all five factory IMSA specification 3.0 CSLs will be back together for the first time since they raced in 1975 and 1976.

(Triumph)
The Triumph Infor Rocket Streamliner became the fastest Triumph ever built by achieving a speed of 274.2 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats on August 8, 2016. Piloted by TT legend Guy Martin, the streamliner smashed the previous official Triumph record that stood at 245.667 mph as well as the unofficial Triumph Record of 264 mph, both set by Bob Leppan, in the Gyronaut X-1. Martin set the speed record on his very first run, breaking the 46-year-old Triumph record. When asked about becoming the fastest ever Triumph record holder Martin commented: “It’s good and we are moving in the right direction, but it is just one step on the way to what me and team are here to do.” The Triumph Infor Rocket features a carbon Kevlar monocoque construction with two turbocharged Triumph Rocket III engines producing a combined 1,000 bhp at 9,000 rpm. The motorcycle is 25.5 feet long, 2 feet wide and 3 feet tall. Powered by methanol fuel, the bike is competing in the Division C (streamlined motorcycle) category.

(Photo by Richard Prince, courtesy of GM/Chevrolet Racing)

Members of Corvette Racing, Chevrolet leadership and partners from Mobil 1 celebrated the team’s 100th all-time victory with a special photo shoot during last weekend’s International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) event at Road America. "America's National Park of Speed." Corvette Racing became the first team to reach the 100-win plateau in IMSA history with a victory July 23 at Lime Rock Park with Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin driving the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. The duo delivered win No. 101 the next race with a victory last Sunday at Road America in the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase.

Statement from family of Bryan Clauson

INDIANAPOLIS, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 - The family of Indy 500 veteran and USAC champion driver Bryan Clauson released the following statement this morning: 

"Last night, the 7th of August, we said goodbye to our son, my fiancé, our friend, Bryan Clauson. He was surrounded by family and friends and we were grateful that we could experience his final moments with him. 

Our Bryan fought to the end with the same desire that he demonstrated behind the wheel of all the various race cars he would park in victory lane. However, we were more proud of our Bryan that took a moment to make a young fan's day, or demonstrated his uncommon kindness and appreciation toward his friends, family and fans. 

We would like to thank everybody who has shown their concern toward us and kept us in their prayers. We will never be able to truly thank you. We would also like to thank the staff at Bryan Medical Center who stood and fought with our Bryan since he arrived here early yesterday morning. 

We know that our Bryan is also your Bryan and that you would like to participate in honoring him. A service will be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at a date and time to be announced soon. In lieu of flowers, or to make a donation, people may direct their contributions to the USAC Benevolent Fund website at http://usacbf.org/cash-donation/ or checks should be made out to the USAC Benevolent Foundation in the name of Bryan Clauson. The address is 124 E Northfield Drive, Suite F #129, Brownsburg, IN 46112. 

Thank you for being a part of our Bryan's life. 

Lauren, Tim, Di, and Taylor."

America's National Park of Speed.

I was getting caught up on the Pirelli World Challenge Races at Road America, and thought I saw the Autoextremist.com sign at Turn 5. Could you please show a picture of it, and the story behind it? I am a huge fan of both Road America and your website!

DR
Scottsdale, Arizona


Editor-In-Chief's Note: I first went to Elkhart Lake's Road America in 1967, when my brother Tony was racing a "A" Production Corvette in the SCCA June Sprints National races. I've been going ever since. If you have traveled around to race tracks as much as I have - including the famed Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany - you will come to appreciate Road America, simply the most stunning natural-terrain road racing circuit in North America. With a track layout that has been unaltered since it was first opened in 1955 - which, believe me, is a rarity - and a park-like setting that is simply unrivaled, Road America is the race track for road racing enthusiasts in this country. To me, Road America looks and feels like a national park, and the track's theme line - America's National Park of Speed - is something I came up with to best describe the feeling you get when you're there. We first used it on that Autoextremist billboard in Turn 5 and I'm proud to say that it has become a fixture there. I gave the theme line to the track to use several years ago and I encouraged track president George Bruggenthies and his talented staff to use the theme consistently in all of their communications, and it's really starting to pay dividends. It's gratifying to hear the theme on TV broadcasts and to see it in-person when you're at the track. -PMD