The #7 Penske Porsche Motorsport 963 of Matt Campbell began on pole and led the sphere to the inexperienced flag.
Sebastien Bourdais, who began fourth in Chip Ganassi Racing’s #01 Cadillac V-Sequence.R, jumped to the surface and instantly made it a three-wide struggle for the lead getting into Flip 1.
Campbell, on the within of each team-mate Mathieu Jaminet (beginning the #6 963) and Bourdais, locked up and missed the apex of the opening nook, which allowed Jaminet within the #6 entry to seize the lead. Consequently, it squeezed Bourdais, who was hit and spun round by the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist, who was then hit by Phillip Eng within the #24 BMW M Workforce RLL machine.
The primary warning got here out as a result of particles left over from the incident, which despatched Bourdais into the pits with proper entrance harm and in want of a nostril change. Blomqvist remained out on monitor regardless of harm to the entrance of his automotive, whereas Eng’s harm was vital sufficient to require a number of visits to the pitlane because it completed forty first total, and final within the GTP class, at 10 laps down.
The second warning got here out when the #18 ORECA LMP2 07 of Dwight Merriman (Era Motorsport) made slight contact with the #93 Acura NSX GT3 (Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR) within the GTD class popping out of the final nook of the 14-turn, 2.439-mile circuit. Merriman was despatched right into a spin in entrance of the sphere, with a number of close to misses till the yellow got here out.
A run of driver adjustments adopted quickly after, with Tandy changing Jaminet, whereas Nasr swapped with Campbell. Right now, Blomqvist remained in, however was serviced with a nostril change from the sooner contact.
Throughout the GTD cut up sequence below the warning, the Penske vehicles didn’t yield appropriately, in line with race management, permitting the #31 Whelen Cadillac of Pipo Derani to bizarrely dash to first place, regardless of operating below yellow, forward of the Penske Porsches.
Nasr jumped forward of Tandy on the restart going into Flip 1 with 1h35m to go, whereas Derani sped off within the lead.
#31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V- Sequence.R: Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims
Picture by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
It took 25 minutes for Nasr to shut on Derani, who overshot Flip 1 after fighting lapped site visitors. Because of this, Nasr grabbed the lead and introduced Tandy by means of, as nicely, whereas Derani fell to 3rd and instantly started to drop again from the Porsches.
With one hour remaining, Nasr and Tandy made slight contact whereas weaving by means of site visitors, which let Tandy shut and tease a shot for the lead popping out of Flip 4. Nevertheless, the monitor place remained unchanged.
The second of the race got here with 46 minutes left. Nasr pitted as Tandy inherited the lead and stayed out a further lap. On his out-lap, Nasr locked up going into Flip 7 and misplaced time on the grass, whereas Tandy stored it clear and got here away 7s forward after the cycle was full.
From there, the Briton maintained the lead and gapped his team-mate to win by 17.421s. The #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing completed third, with Connor De Phillippi guiding the staff to the end after co-driver Nick Yelloly dealt with the early operating.
The LMP2 battle was received by Mikkel Jensen within the #11 TDS Racing entry additionally co-driven by Steven Thomas. The successful transfer got here with 25 minutes left within the race, with Jensen driving by the #8 Tower Motorsports machine of Louis Deletraz, who had led the vast majority of the best way within the class.
Anthony Mantella and Wayne Boyd guided the #17 Ligier JSP320 for Tower Motorsports to victory in LMP3, 12s forward of Josh Burton – and co-driver Gar Robinson – within the #74 Riley Ligier.
#79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3: Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon
Picture by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
GTD Professional was received by the #79 Mercedes AMG GT3 co-driven by the WeatherTech Racing duo of Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon. They completed 3.493s forward of the #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for Coronary heart of Racing Workforce, piloted by Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas.
Philip Ellis supplied the late magic in GTD, pulling off the class-winning transfer with 4 minutes to go in Turns 8-9. Ellis pushed the #57 Mercedes AMG GT3 (Winward Racing) by Loris Spinelli’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 (Forte Racing), who ended up second at 1.268s behind on the end.