The fourth round of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship opened a new GT Daytona support series, with a Balance of Performance shake-up and close pole margins.
Thirty-six cars across four classes contested the round at Mid-Ohio on May 5, 2019, which opened the new Sprint Cup for GT Daytona cars. The winners were Cameron and Montoya in DPi, Bamber and Vanthoor in GTLM, and McMurry in LMP2, with the GTD title still open.
The 2019 Acura Sports Car Challenge of Mid-Ohio was an International Motor Sports Association sports car race held on May 5, 2019, at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. It was the fourth round of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the opening round of the new WeatherTech Sprint Cup.
Why was the 2019 Mid-Ohio round significant?
The round was the first of seven Sprint Cup rounds, a new support championship for GT Daytona cars. It was also the second consecutive year the event sat on the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar, and it was one of twelve sports car races held by IMSA that season.
IMSA president Scott Atherton confirmed the race in August 2018. The Sprint Cup covers the non-endurance events in the GTD calendar, and it uses the same scoring system as the full-time championship. Its sister series, the Michelin Endurance Cup, covers the endurance rounds instead.
The circuit itself is a thirteen-turn layout measuring 2.258 mi (3.634 km). Every practice and qualifying session of the weekend ran on that layout.
A new support series, a rain-hit first practice and pole margins measured in thousandths of a second.
What changed in the entry list?
A total of 36 cars took part across four classes. There were 11 cars in DPi, two in LMP2, eight in GTLM and 15 in GTD, which made GTD the largest class on the grid.
Lone Star Racing returned to IMSA competition in GTD, having last raced at Laguna Seca in 2017. Parker Chase, who had previously been under contract only for the endurance events, signed to run the full 2019 season with Starworks Motorsport.
The biggest addition was Compass Racing, which fielded a new McLaren 720S GT3 with factory backing in the Sprint Cup-only campaign. Its drivers were Paul Holton and Matt Plumb. McLaren Automotive also signed a multi-year agreement with IMSA on April 19, 2019, making it an automotive partner of the series.
Not every team came back. Precision Performance Motorsports and P1 Motorsports did not return to Mid-Ohio, with P1 leaving its Mercedes-AMG GT3 cars out of the championships altogether. Scheduling clashes at Spa-Francorchamps also forced changes, with Eric Lux, Marco Seefried and Ryan Hunter-Reay replacing Gabriel Aubry, Patrick Lindsey and Harry Tincknell.
How did the Balance of Performance change the order?
IMSA issued a Balance of Performance bulletin on April 24, 2019, and it made no changes to the DPi or GT Le Mans classes. In GTD, the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 gained 30 kilograms and lost 1 litre of fuel capacity, while the Audi R8 LMS and Mercedes-AMG GT3 were lightened.
The Lamborghini had won the previous two rounds, at Daytona and Sebring, so its penalty was the most significant adjustment in the class. The Audi lost 25 kilograms and the Mercedes lost 20 kilograms.
The McLaren 720S GT3 received its baseline weight of 1320 kilograms and an RPM limit of 8,000 for its first IMSA event.
Who led the championships before the race?
Going into the round, Derani and Nasr topped the DPi table on 92 points, two ahead of Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor. In LMP2, Cameron Cassels and Kyle Masson led with 67 points, and Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor led the GTLM standings with 91 points.
In DPi, Filipe Albuquerque and Joao Barbosa were third with 89 points. In LMP2, Cassels and Masson held a seven-point gap over Matt McMurry and Gabriel Aubry, and in GTLM, Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy were second with 87 points.
Mirko Bortolotti, Rik Breukers and Rolf Ineichen led the GTD Drivers' Championship with 70 points, which put them 16 points clear of the chasing crews.
What happened in practice?
There were three practice sessions before the race, two on Friday and one on Saturday. Those sessions set the reference times that teams carried into qualifying, which took place later the same Saturday. The Friday morning session lasted 75 minutes, the afternoon session lasted one hour, and the Saturday morning session lasted one hour.
The first session began at 10:05 am ET on Friday, and heavy rain meant 14 of the 36 entries set no time. Juan Pablo Montoya topped it for Acura Team Penske at 1:41.568, while Earl Bamber set the fastest GTLM time at 1:42.230, which was 2.208 seconds quicker than Tom Blomqvist's BMW.
The second session began at 3:15 PM ET on Friday. Oliver Jarvis topped it for Mazda Team Joest at 1:28.158. Ricky Taylor spun at turn 12 six minutes in, and the session was stopped for eight minutes. It was red flagged two times, and Will Hardeman spun at turn 12 and was beached in the gravel trap.
The Saturday morning session began at 8:00 am ET. Helio Castroneves topped it for Acura Team Penske at 1:12.737, and Ryan Briscoe led GTLM at 1:20.100. Townsend Bell went wide at turn 2 four minutes in, and the session was restarted with 6 minutes remaining.
Who took pole position in each class?
Qualifying ran on Saturday late morning in three groups of 15 minutes. Oliver Jarvis took the DPi pole, Sebastien Bourdais took GTLM, Richard Heistand took GTD, and Eric Lux was promoted to LMP2 pole after a penalty.
| Class | Pole sitter | Car | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| DPi | Oliver Jarvis | No. 77 Mazda Team Joest | 0.022 seconds ahead of Helio Castroneves |
| LMP2 | Eric Lux | Promoted after the No. 38 car dropped to the back | Driver change penalty |
| GTLM | Sebastien Bourdais | No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | 0.275 seconds ahead of Laurens Vanthoor |
| GTD | Richard Heistand | No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan | Zacharie Robichon dropped to fifth |
In GTD, Marco Seefried had his two best laps deleted for causing a red flag. Zacharie Robichon lost his fastest lap for not serving a drive-through penalty during the session's only red flag, which dropped him to fifth. Ben Keating was promoted to second in the class.
Jarvis beat Helio Castroneves by 0.022 seconds, but he ran out of fuel on his final lap and coasted to the pit lane. In LMP2, Kyle Masson set the fastest time in the No. 38 Performance Tech car, but the team changed its starting driver, so the car was moved to the back of the field.
Who won the race and how did the standings move?
Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya won the DPi race, Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor won in GTLM, and Matt McMurry won the LMP2 race. Derani and Nasr still led the DPi standings with 120 points after the round.
The DPi result moved Cameron and Montoya from fifth to fourth in the standings, while Albuquerque and Barbosa dropped from third to fifth. In LMP2, McMurry's win cut Cassels and Masson's lead to four points.
Bamber and Vanthoor's win took them to 126 points and extended their GTLM lead to seven points, with Garcia and Magnussen moving into second. In GTD, Farnbacher and Hindman took the lead of the drivers' championship with 84 points, and Heistand and Hawksworth advanced from seventh to third.
Meyer Shank Racing took the GTD Teams' Championship lead with eight rounds of the season still to run.
How did the Sprint Cup begin?
The Sprint Cup gave GTD teams a second championship to chase alongside the endurance programme. Mid-Ohio was the first round of it, and the early leaders in the teams' table set the tone for the rounds that followed.
The round opened the WeatherTech Sprint Cup, a new support championship for the GTD class. Its scoring system matches the full-time championship, and it covers non-endurance events only, which sets it apart from the Michelin Endurance Cup.
The launch also coincided with a shift in manufacturer commitments. Ford announced it would end its factory programme with Chip Ganassi Racing in GTLM at the end of 2019, two and a half weeks before the race, and McLaren's multi-year agreement with IMSA was signed shortly before the weekend.
