2021 Northeast Grand Prix
The 2021 Northeast Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, on July 17, 2021. This race was the seventh round of the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship, and the fourth round of the 2021 WeatherTech Sprint Cup.
Initially scheduled to run for two hours and 40 minutes, severe weather in the area caused just under 90 minutes of the event to be completed. Antonio García and Jordan Taylor scored overall victory for Corvette Racing; their fourth class victory of the season.[1]
Background
[edit]
International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in September 2020. It was the sixth year it was part of the IMSA SCC.[2] The 2021 Northeast Grand Prix was the seventh of twelve sports car races of 2021 by IMSA, and it was the fourth round held as part of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup. The race was held at the seven-turn 1.530 mi (2.462 km) Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, on July 17, 2021.[3]
The race marked IMSA's return to Lime Rock Park following the 2020 edition's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] As in previous years, the event was also the first GT-only round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship season, in which only the GTLM and GTD classes were scheduled to compete.[3]
On July 8, 2021, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event.[5] In GTLM, after a 1-2 finish at the WeatherTech 240, the Corvette received a 10 kilogram weight increase. The Porsche, meanwhile, received a 20 kilogram weight break. No changes were made in GTD.
Before the race, Antonio García and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 1082 points, 81 points ahead of Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy followed by Cooper MacNeil in third.[6] With 1296 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley, ahead of Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn.[6] Chevrolet and BMW were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Corvette Racing and Turner Motorsport each led their own Teams' Championships.[6]
Entries
[edit]A total of 16 cars took part in the event, split across two classes. 3 cars were entered in GTLM, and 13 in GTD. 17 cars were featured on the pre-event entry list, and the final tally of 16 was reached following Alegra Motorsports' withdrawal due to sponsorship issues.[7]
GTLM saw an identical entry list from the previous round at Watkins Glen, comprising the pair of Corvette Racing entries and the lone Porsche from WeatherTech Racing. In GTD, Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports didn't return after completing their planned single outing at Watkins Glen, while Pfaff Motorsports, Wright Motorsports, and Magnus Racing returned after skipping the most recent round, which only paid points towards the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.
Practice
[edit]There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, both on Friday. The first session lasted one hour on Friday morning while the second session lasted 75 minutes on Friday afternoon.[8]
Practice 1
[edit]The first practice session took place at 11:45 am ET and ended with Antonio García topping the charts for Corvette Racing, with a lap time of 50.456. Nick Tandy's No. 4 Corvette was second fastest followed by Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 79 Porsche.[9] The GTD class was topped by the No. 19 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of Franck Perera with a time of 52.499, ahead of Patrick Long in the No. 16 Porsche.[10]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GTLM | 3 | Corvette Racing | Antonio García | 50.456 | _ |
| 2 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Nick Tandy | 50.493 | +0.037 |
| 3 | GTLM | 79 | WeatherTech Racing | Mathieu Jaminet | 50.796 | +0.340 |
| Sources:[11][12] | ||||||
Practice 2
[edit]The second and final practice session took place at 1:55 pm ET on Friday and ended with Tommy Milner topping the charts for Corvette Racing, with a lap time of 50.961, 0.329 seconds faster than Jordan Taylor's No. 3 Corvette.[13] The GTD class was topped by the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Zacharie Robichon with a time of 52.380. Aaron Telitz's No. 14 Lexus was second fastest followed by Trent Hindman in the Wright Motorsports entry.[14] The session was red flagged for 15 minutes to due severe weather.[15]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Tommy Milner | 50.961 | _ |
| 2 | GTLM | 3 | Corvette Racing | Jordan Taylor | 51.290 | +0.329 |
| 3 | GTD | 9 | Pfaff Motorsports | Zacharie Robichon | 52.380 | +1.419 |
| Sources:[16][17] | ||||||
Qualifying
[edit]_(cropped).jpg)
Qualifying was broken into two sessions.[8] The first was for cars in the GTD class. Roman De Angelis qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 23 car for Heart of Racing Team, beating Aaron Telitz in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing entry by 0.045 seconds. Richard Heistand was third in the No. 39 Audi followed by Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Lexus.[18]
The final session of qualifying was for the GTLM and GTD classes. Jordan Taylor qualified on pole in GTLM driving the No. 3 car for Corvette Racing, beating teammate Tommy Milner in the sister No. 4 Corvette Racing entry by less than 0.150 seconds.[19] Jack Hawksworth set the fastest time in the GTD points paying session and earned 35 championship points.[20] The session saw one incident when Cooper MacNeil, driving the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche, spun at turn 3 and got stuck on the grass. For causing a red flag, MacNeil had his best two laps from the session deleted.[18]
Qualifying results
[edit]Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GTLM | 3 |  Corvette Racing | Jordan Taylor | 49.958 | _ | 1‡ |
| 2 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Tommy Milner | 50.100 | +0.142 | 31 |
| 3 | GTLM | 79 | WeatherTech Racing | Cooper MacNeil | 50.833 | +0.875 | 2 |
| 4 | GTD | 23 | Heart Of Racing Team |  Roman De Angelis | 51.729 | +1.771 | 4‡ |
| 5 | GTD | 14 | Vasser Sullivan Racing | Aaron Telitz | 51.774 | +1.816 | 5 |
| 6 | GTD | 39 | CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing | Richard Heistand | 51.784 | +1.826 | 6 |
| 7 | GTD | 12 | Vasser Sullivan Racing | Frankie Montecalvo | 51.937 | +1.979 | 7 |
| 8 | GTD | 1 | Paul Miller Racing | Madison Snow | 51.989 | +2.031 | 8 |
| 9 | GTD | 9 | Pfaff Motorsports | Zacharie Robichon | 52.023 | +2.065 | 9 |
| 10 | GTD | 96 | Turner Motorsport | Robby Foley | 52.053 | +2.095 | 10 |
| 11 | GTD | 16 | Wright Motorsports | John Potter | 52.142 | +2.184 | 11 |
| 12 | GTD | 66 | Gradient Racing |  Till Bechtolsheimer | 52.271 | +2.313 | 12 |
| 13 | GTD | 76 | Compass Racing | Jeff Kingsley | 52.278 | +2.320 | 13 |
| 14 | GTD | 19 |  GRT Grasser Racing Team | Misha Goikhberg | 52.400 | +2.442 | 14 |
| 15 | GTD | 88 | Team Hardpoint EBM | Rob Ferriol | 53.333 | +3.375 | 15 |
| 16 | GTD | 44 | Magnus Racing with Archangel Motorsports | John Potter | 53.396 | +3.438 | 16 |
| Sources:[21][22][23] | |||||||
- 1 The No. 4 Corvette Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTLM field as per Article 40.5 of the Sporting regulations (Engine change).[24]
Race
[edit]Post-race
[edit]With a total of 1852 points, García and Taylor's victory allowed them to increase their advantage over Milner and Tandy in the GTLM Drivers' Championship. Jaminet advanced from eighth to fifth.[25] As a result of winning the race, De Angelis and Gunn took the lead of the GTD Drivers' Championship.[25] Chevrolet continued to took the GTLM Manufactures' Championship while Aston Martin took the lead of the GTD Manufactures' Championship.[25] Corvette Racing kept their advantage in GTLM Teams' Championship while Heart of Racing Team took the lead of the GTD Teams' Championship with five rounds remaining in the season.[25]
Race results
[edit]Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.
Standings after the race
[edit]
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
|
|
|
|
|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
|
|
|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
References
[edit]- ^ Dagys, John (July 17, 2021). "Garcia, Taylor Win Weather-Shortened Northeast Grand Prix". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
- ^ Pruett, Marshall (September 9, 2020). "IMSA reveals 2021 WeatherTech Championship calendar". racer.com. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ a b "2021 WeatherTech Championship Schedule Published". dailysportscar.com. September 9, 2020. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ "Entry List Notebook – Northeast Grand Prix". imsa.com. July 7, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
Welcome Back to Lime Rock: One of the oldest natural terrain road courses in the United States, Lime Rock Park was built in 1956. It has hosted IMSA events for most of the past two decades, but last year's race was canceled due to the pandemic.
- ^ "TB-IWSC-21-26-Lime-Rock-BoP-Tables-07082021.pdf" (PDF). imsa.com. July 8, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
- ^ a b c "00_Championship Points - Official.pdf" (PDF). results.imsa.com. July 7, 2021. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
- ^ Dagys, John (July 16, 2021). "Alegra Mercedes-AMG GT3 Withdrawn from Lime Rock Park". sportscar365.com. John Dagys Media. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
- ^ a b "2021 IMSA Official Schedule and SR Lime Rock 070721 V1" (PDF). results.imsa.com/noticeBoard.php. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ Dagys, John (July 16, 2021). "Garcia Tops Opening Practice at Lime Rock". sportscar365.com. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ Kish, Ryan (July 16, 2021). "Corvette starts strongly in Lime Rock IMSA GT". racer.com. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ "03_Results_Practice 1.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. July 16, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ "06_Fastest Lap By Driver_Practice 1.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. July 16, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ Dagys, John (July 16, 2021). "Milner Tops Rain-Affected Practice 2 at Lime Rock". sportscar365.com. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ Kish, Ryan (July 16, 2021). "Milner keeps Corvette ahead in second Lime Rock practice". racer.com. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ Malsher-Lopez, David (July 16, 2021). "Lime Rock IMSA: Milner, Robichon lead interrupted second practice". motorsport.com. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ "03_Results_Practice 2.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. July 16, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ "06_Fastest Lap By Driver_Practice 2.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. July 16, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
- ^ a b Malsher-Lopez, David (July 16, 2021). "Lime Rock IMSA: Corvette and Aston Martin take poles". motorsport.com. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
- ^ Kish, Ryan (July 16, 2021). "Jordan Taylor edges Milner for pole at Lime Rock Park". racer.com. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
- ^ "Taylor Takes Pole For GT Only Race At Lime Rock". dailysportscar.com. July 17, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
- ^ "03_Results_Qualifying - GTD Points-GTLM Position and Points.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 27, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
- ^ "03_Results_Qualifying - GTD Position.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
- ^ "01_Grid_Race_Official.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. July 17, 2021. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
- ^ "2021-IMSA-SPORTING-REGULATIONS-and-SSR-IWSC-Blackline-082621-V1.pdf" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-11-11. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "00_Championship Points - Official.pdf" (PDF). results.imsa.com. July 20, 2021. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
- ^ "03_Results_Race_Official.PDF" (PDF). July 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
- ^ "2021 NORTHEAST GRAND PRIX". racing-reference.info. Retrieved August 28, 2023.