2022 IMSA at Lime Rock Park

IMSA rolled into Lakeville, CT, and Lime Rock Park on the 15th and 6th of July to put on a spectacular show for all the spectators dotting the hills around the 1.474-mile road course.

Friday morning was taken up with practice for the Michelin competitors later that day, the big guns, the Weathertech competitors, took to the track. The afternoon was broken down into various groups qualifying for Saturday’s races.

Saturday started with the GT Daytona pro and the GT Daytona groups having another warm-up session.

Before the Lime Rock 120, IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge for Grand Sport and Touring Cars race, there was a fan walk in the pits. This lets the fans get up close and personal with the cars and drivers.

At the start of the race, it was a Porsche Cayman on pole with a Toyota Supra in second, followed by more Porsches, Mercedes, and Mustangs.

Over the first hour of the Race, Robin Liddel, in his #71 Rebel Rock Racing Camaro, moved up from 10th place to 4th before making a pit stop under green flag conditions with 57 minutes to go in the race. A few minutes later, a full course caution came out due to a crash between the #56 Mercedes AMG GT4 and the # 46 Porsche GT4 RS Clubsport. With that, the leaders headed for the pits, and Lidell found himself in third place with a little more than a half-hour remaining.

Liddel got around the # 55 FCP Euro by Ricca Autosport Mercedes.

That done, he set his sights on the JG Wentworth Racing by PF Racing Mustang GT4 driven by Kyle Marcelli.

With 12 minutes to go, The Camero took the Mustang in Big Bend, but the Mustang stayed close and retook the lead on the uphill. Liddell in his Camero made the same move on the next lap and this time made it stick. The battle for second was now between two Mustangs, who, in the closing minutes, were passed by the # 7 Volt Racing Aston Martin.

Liddell took the victory with 2.951 seconds to spare over the Aston.

In a rough and ready TCR class race, the #.17 Unitronic-JDC Motorsports Audi RS3 LMS SEQ, driven by Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor, got a beating before taking the checkered flag 1.148-seconds ahead of the #15 Belgard & Techniseal Racing Audi RS3 LMS DSG.

In the afternoon, the GT Dayton pro and GT Daytona cars lined up in the pits for the fans to get a closer look before heading out to do battle.

Matt Campbell started on pole in the # 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R but lost the lead after the first round of pit stops.

Campbell fought back up to the front and got around the leading #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC GT3.

At the halfway point, Campbell turned the car over to his co-driver Mathieu Jaminet who extended their lead to 10 seconds before the only full course caution came out, bunching up the field.

Jaminet made a perfect restart and crossed the finish line ahead of the #23 The Heart Of Racing Astin Martin Vantage GT3. The #14 Lexus had to make do with third place.

The fourth race win for the series-leading #9 Pfaff Porsche puts them 215 points ahead of the second place #3 Corvette Racing Corvette C8 R that finished in fourth place.

The GTD class win came down to the last turn of the last lap Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow took the lead in the race’s final corner to score a victory with the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Total Lubricants/UIS and Paul Miller Auto Group BMW M4 GT3.