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Tudor Championship – Down To The Wire
- Updated: September 17, 2015
Ferrari leads the GTD class. [Photo by Jack Webster]
At the Circuit of the Americas this Saturday the IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship will take place, sharing the stage with the FIA-WEC.
The IMSA series is coming to a rapid conclusion, with only Austin and Petit Le Mans yet to run this season and the championship battles in all classes are hotter than ever.
Of the four classes running in the IMSA Tudor series, no driver or manufacturers championship has yet been decided and are unlikely to be finalized until the last race of the season at Road Atlanta.In the Prototype class, things couldn’t be closer, with VisitFlorida.com Racing drivers Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook leading the driver’s standings over Action Express drivers Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi by only 1 point. Another single point back are teammates Dane Cameron and Eric Curran in the other Action Express entry. A bit further back, but certainly not out of the picture, are Ganassi Racing drivers Joey Hand and Scott Pruett driving for Ford, with Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor close behind them in another Corvette DP.
In the LMPC class, things are just about as tight, with Jon Bennett and Colin Braun of Core Autosport leading the championship by only 5 points over PRI Mathiasen Motorsports drivers Mike Gausch and Tom Kimber-Smith. Closely following in third are RSR drivers Chris Cumming and Bruno Junqueira.
In the GLTM class it has been a battle all season long among drivers for Porsche, Corvette, BMW and Ferrari. Porsche currently leads the manufacturers championship over BMW and Corvette, with Ferrari close behind. In GTLM drivers, Patrick Pilet leads the way for Porsche, with Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen right behind for Corvette. Again, this class, both for manufacturers and drivers will not be decided until the end of Petit Le Mans.
In the GTD class, the top drivers: Christina Nielsen, Townsend Bell, Bill Sweedler, Christopher Haase and Dion Von Moltke are only separated by only 8 points. Ferrari leads the manufacturers battle over Audi and Porsche, but again the point margins are tiny.
The TUDOR United SportsCar race in Austin promises more intense competition as drivers and manufacturers know that the season in coming down to the wire and opportunities to gain points in search of a championship are very limited.
Look for a lot of action in each class in Austin.
Jack Webster has been shooting motorsports since the early 1970’s, covering Formula One, CanAm, F5000, TransAm, GrandAm and American Le Mans races, among others. In addition to his photography, he has also worked on racing teams, both in IMSA and IndyCar, so has a complete knowledge of the inner workings of motorsport. Both his photography and writing can be seen here on racingnation.com. Eddie LePine has been involved in motorsports for over 30 years as photographer, columnist, and driver. Eddie also is now a retired racer (well, retired unless a good ride pops up). You can usually find Eddie in the paddock area, deep in conversation with a driver.