Track: Raceway at Belle Isle Park
Race: Chevrolet Sports Car Classic
Date: June 1, 2019
No. 6 Acura ARX-05 DPi – Dane Cameron/Juan Pablo Montoya
Start: 1st
Overall Finish: 1st
Class Finish: 1st
Status: Running
Laps Completed: 58/58
Recap:
- Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya are the hottest duo on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship circuit after scoring their second-consecutive series win, this time on the streets of Belle Isle Park in Detroit, in the No. 6 Acura DPi.
- With the win, Cameron and Montoya become the first team with multiple wins on the year.
- Montoya started the weekend off in spectacular fashion with a track-record run in qualifying to score the team's second pole position of the season.
- After keeping the Acura in the lead, Montoya pitted under caution at the 31-minute mark and gave the reigns over to Cameron for the rest of the race.
- The only point in the race that the No. 6 machine was not in the lead was following this pit stop as they restarted from the third position, but Cameron quickly passed both positions in front of him and withstood numerous caution periods to bring home the win for team owner Roger Penske in his hometown.
- The No. 6 team is now second in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship DPi standings, five points out of the lead.
- The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Series will next visit Watkins Glen International on Sunday, June 30 for the Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen.
Quote:
"Certainly, we'll take the win today, especially with how hard everyone at Acura Team Penske has been working on this program. It's a little bit unexpected for us. Usually the street course is pretty good for the Cadillac, so we knew they were going to competitive here, but obviously we were looking for more of a podium than wins here and get some good points. I'm super excited to win here and get two in a row. Lots of people who get two wins in a row get championships, so hopefully that's a good omen for the balance of the season."
- Dane Cameron
No. 7 Acura ARX-05 DPi – Helio Castroneves/Ricky Taylor
Start: 2nd
Overall Finish: 3rd
Class Finish: 3rd
Status: Running
Laps Completed: 58/58
Recap:
- The No. 7 Acura DPi team of Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor turned in their second-consecutive podium finish on the streets of Belle Isle Park in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition with a third-place finish on Saturday afternoon.
- Castroneves nearly qualified the No. 7 on the pole position during the Friday afternoon time trials but lost out just at the last moment to a strong lap by Juan Pablo Montoya. He rolled off from the second position and fell into fourth on the opening lap.
- Like their teammates in the No. 6 Acura, the No. 7 crew brought Castroneves down pit lane under the caution period at the 31-minute mark where they switched to Taylor. Taylor would restart from the second position, the first car off pit road, after the solid pit stop by the crew and would take the Acura to the finish.
- Despite the race being routinely interrupted by caution flags, Taylor was able to hold off many of the advances of the other competitors to remain in the second position until late in the event when the No. 31 maneuvered past, relegating the team to a third-place finish.
- The finish dropped the No. 7 Acura team to third in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship points but they sit just six points out of the lead with the next race at Watkins Glen International on Sunday, June 30.
Quote:
"It was a good day for the No. 6 Acura. We were good, but not great. Dane (Cameron) and Juan (Montoya) were great today and they deserved to win. Obviously, though, it shows that our platform and our package is improving every week, and there are some really good tracks for our platform in the second half of the schedule. We are right there in the points fight and it's going to be a heck of a battle for the championship."
- Ricky Taylor