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Barnburner In Austin

The winning Corvette DP. [Photo by Jack Webster]

The winning Corvette DP. [Photo by Jack Webster]

by Jack Webster & Eddie LePine

For lap after lap, Jordan Taylor and Dane Cameron did battle for the overall win at the IMSA WeatherTech race at the Circuit of the Americas. Taylor in his Konica Minolta Corvette DP and Cameron in his Whelen Action Express Corvette DP raced each other closely and cleanly on the way to a very close finish.

In the end it was Jordan Taylor winning the battle of the Corvette DPs, taking the victory by just 1.42 seconds over Cameron. On the way to the win, Jordan’s brother and teammate Ricky Taylor set the fastest lap of the race.

Jordan Taylor told us he thought Dane was able to get close due to his (Jordan’s) spin, which let Dane see the Konica Minolta car up ahead, and a target in sight is like red meat to a race driver. Jordan was able to stay ahead by working the traffic and forcing Dane to use up his tires in the heat. In the end, Jordan held on for the victory in a clean fought battle.

The finish at Austin is certainly going to set up a very exciting end to the season at Petit Le Mans, where any of the top three Corvette DP cars – the two Action Express entries and the Wayne Taylor entry – could take that championship.

In LMPC it was also a close battle to the flag, with Renger van der Zande and Alex Popow taking the victory by under one second from Robert Alon and Tom Kimber-Smith. Amazingly, they finished fifth overall as well.

In GTLM it was a good day for Porsche, with the factory 911 RSRs taking a fine one-two win, with the Earl Bamber and Frederic Makowiecki piloted machine taking the win over teammates Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy. The #3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen finished third.

In GTD, it was victory for BMW with Turner Motorsport drivers Bret Curtis and Jens Klingmann winning over the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini in second place.

It was a long hot race, with temperatures in the 90s and the fans that braved the heat were certainly entertained with an exciting and close contest.

Now it is on to Petit Le Mans for the final race of the 2016 season, where all the driver, team and manufacturer titles in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be decided once and for all. With just Petit remaining on the calendar, all the championships are still up for grabs, and no one has a lock on anything yet.

Petit Le Mans – a 1000-mile endurance contest – will certainly be a fitting finale to what has been an outstanding season of IMSA sports car racing.

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