Having taken the race win last time out at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, shown great pace in practice at Road America and qualified fourth in the LMP2 class, it was all looking very good.
While the race itself was less than ideal from Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, starting fourth, serving multiple drive-through penalties en route to P7, 240 points were earned, moving the team to the top of the championship standings.
Nick Boulle qualified fourth, but unlike recent rounds where he was able to move to the front of the field, seemingly at will. He had to be content in handing over the #52 Oreca to teammate Tom Dillmann in the final stages in third position.
Penalties followed for various pitlane infractions, dropping Tom down to tenth position. It was a scrappy race in many ways, with long Full Course Yellow periods followed by brief moments of racing, but Tom was at least able to salvage points in bringing the car home in seventh, 16 seconds behind the race leader.
It wasn’t a great performance from the team, but others also had a less-than-ideal day, meaning that the team moved to the top of the championship standings with 1564 points, 27 clear of Riley heading into the closing stages of the season.
Tom Dillmann
“It was a frustrating race as in final practice, the pace of the car was really good, and we felt confident going into the race. Unfortunately, there were too many mistakes in the pitlane, and we had three drive-throughs, so from there, the race was compromised.
“I think we had everything to be on the podium again, but it just wasn’t our day. We have to take the result on the chin but on the plus, we took the lead in the championship. It looks like a four-way battle, so while it could have been better, we need to look forward to the next race, aim high and close the championship battle.”
Nick Boulle
“Road America was a really tough race for us. We are lucky to come away with any points after all the issues we faced. So, we have to look at that on the bright side. We scrounged together what we could.
“We will regroup now and make sure we don’t make any of these mistakes again and come back stronger for Indianapolis.”
Photo credit: Sideline Sports Photography