Wittmer and Sales atop TCR podium once again
Compass Racing’s domination in the IMSA Continental Tire Challenge TCR class is never ending and the team took a 1-2-3 finish in the third round of the series at Mid Ohio.
While the #74 Audi RS3 LMS of Kuno Wittmer and Rodrigo Sales had led 53 of 76 laps on Saturday afternoon, they didn’t lead the last lap. However, they walked away with the victory.
In an odd twist of events, a GS class racecar pulled off track on the final lap with an empty fuel tank, creating a local caution, but not stopping the race. By rule, cars are not allowed to pass in an area of the racetrack that is under a local caution. Wittmer held the lead – as he had during the previous 38 laps – but was overtaken in the local caution area by teammate Tom Long in the #77 Audi RS3 LMS coming to the finish line. After the race the #74 was ruled the winner.
Wittmer said: “We topped the charts in all of the practice sessions. My teammate Rodrigo really held up his end, he was awesome. We pitted with the perfect strategy and we ended up with a 30-second lead, but we ended up having to conserve a lot of fuel. We had to do a lot of fuel conserving thus putting a lot of debris on the front tyres so when I had to push I had no grip. When Long initiated the pass I was quite surprised, so I’m glad the Stewards acted on it because it was a straight up pass under yellow.”
Long and co-driver Britt Casey Jr., who put the #77 on pole, wound up second, with Roy Block and Pierre Kleinubing making it a 1-2-3 finish for Compass Racing in the #75. Michael Johnson and Stephen Simpson in the #54 JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi RS3 LMS – returning for their first race of the season after Johnson suffered a broken leg during an incident at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 in early January – finished fourth after leading laps early in the race.
The next round will be the 4 Hours of Watkins Glen on June 30th.
Picture: IMSA
