Alex Popow and Renger van der Zande teamed up on a hot and busy day at Lime Rock Park to score their third IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory of the season in the IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix.
Popow, driving the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport ORECA FLM09, started fifth and nearly sustained damage in an incident at the start, but was able to fight his way to the lead 33 minutes into the race after the first round of pit stops under caution. He led the next 30 laps before turning the car over to van der Zande, who took the lead with one hour, five minutes remaining, and led the rest of the way in the Prototype Challenge (PC) class.
“I’m very happy with the win, it’s another advantage for the championship,” said van der Zande, who joined Popow in winning for the third time in four races. “Lime Rock is a crazy place, because it’s a small track and you’re always wrestling your way through the traffic. It’s a fair fight here, because you can easily lose position coming through traffic. I love coming to Lime Rock, and I’m very happy with my team.”
Tom Kimber-Smith came up just 0.815 seconds short of repeating at Lime Rock in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Professional Security Consultants/Westfield Motorsports ORECA. Robert Alon led twice for extended periods during his double stint, losing the lead on a pair of pit stops. Kimber-Smith took over with one hour, four minutes remaining, and ran second behind van der Zande the rest of the way.
“I really got held up in a lot of traffic,” said Kimber-Smith, a resident of nearby Pleasant Valley, New York who scored his sixth podium finish of the season. “That gave Renger a gap. Then I was able to pull back from a 14-second deficit. But Renger had a good race, and he had a fast car. This year we seem to be quite quick, but just not reaching the top step of the podium enough.”
James French and Kyle Marcelli finished third in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA.
Unofficially, van der Zande and Popow increased their lead in the PC standings to 17 points over Alon and Kimber-Smith, 267-250.
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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