2017 Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown

The 2017 Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on May 6, 2017. The race was the fourth round of the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Background
IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown was part of the series' schedule for the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road America's victory lane in August 2016. It was the fourth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2017 Advance Auto Parts Sportscar Showdown was the fourth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2017 by IMSA, and was the second round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. The race was held at the ten-turn 3.426 mi Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on May 6, 2017. Unlike in previous years where the race was run alongside the FIA World Endurance Championship event as a double-header, the 2017 edition was a standalone event.

After the BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix four weeks earlier, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 105 points, ahead of João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi with 89 points, and Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson with 82 points. With 72 points, the PC Drivers' Championship was led by James French, Patricio O'Ward, and Kyle Masson with a twelve-point advantage over Sean Rayhall. Joey Hand and Dirk Müller led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 91 points, ahead of Antonio García and Jan Magnussen with 89 points. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen with 98 points, ahead of Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 77 points. Cadillac, Ford, and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, and Riley Motorsports Team AMG each led their own Teams' Championships.

Entries
A total of 39 cars took part in the event split across 4 classes. 10 cars were entered in P, 3 in PC, 9 in GTLM, and 16 in GTD. In P, Marco Bonanomi replaced Tom Kimber-Smith in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry while José Gutiérrez returned after missing the previous race at Long Beach. In PC, Starworks Motorsport skipped the event. Nicholas Boulle joined Stefan Wilson in the #26 BAR1 Motorsports entry. In GTLM, Wolf Henzler replaced Kévin Estre in the #912 Porsche GT Team, due to a clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. In GTD, Lone Star Racing made their first appearance of the season. Parker Chase and Harry Gottsacker replaced Wolf Henzler and Jan Heylen in the #991 TRG entry. Kenny Habul returned to the #75 SunEnergy1 Racing entry. Mathieu Jaminet subbed for Michael Christensen in the #28 Alegra Motorsports due to a clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

Practice
There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, two on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third on Friday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 9:45 am CT on Thursday and ended with Ricky Taylor topping the charts for Wayne Taylor Racing, with a lap time of 1:57.116. The PC class was topped by the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of Patricio O'Ward with a time of 2:00.522. Dirk Müller was fastest in GTLM and Tristan Vautier set the fastest time GTD.

Practice 2
The second practice session took place at 2:55 pm CT on Thursday and ended with Jordan Taylor topping the charts for Wayne Taylor Racing, with a lap time of 1:56.595. James French set the fastest time in PC. The GTLM class was topped by the #25 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM of Alexander Sims with a time of 2:03.703. John Edwards was second in the sister #24 car and Laurens Vanthoor rounded out the top 3. Tristan Vautier was fastest in GTD.

Practice 3
The third and final practice session took place at 8:55 am CT on Friday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Whelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:56.117. Patricio O'Ward set the fastest time PC by 3.382 seconds ahead of Don Yount in the #20 BAR1 Motorsports entry. The GTLM class was topped by the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Giancarlo Fisichella with a time of 2:02.915. Mathieu Jaminet was fastest in GTD.

Qualifying
In Friday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars.

Qualifying was broken into four sessions. The first was for cars in GTD class. Mathieu Jaminet qualified on pole for the class driving the #28 Alegra Motorsports, besting Jack Hawksworth in the #15 3GT Racing entry.

The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. John Edwards qualified on pole driving the #24 BMW Team RLL entry, beating Giancarlo Fisichella in the #62 Risi Competizione entry by less than one tenth of a second.

The third session of qualifying was for cars in the PC class. James French set the fastest time driving the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.

The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Ricky Taylor qualified on pole by nearly 1.6 seconds clear of Johannes van Overbeek.

Qualifying results
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.


 * The No. 15 3GT Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD after failing post qualifying technical inspection.
 * The No. 80 Lone Star Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).

Post-race
With a total of 141 points, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor's victory allowed them to increase their advantage over Fittipaldi and Barbosa in the Prototype Drivers' Championship to 22 points. In PC, Yount and Rice advanced from fourth to second. With 124 points, García and Magnussen's victory allowed them to take the lead of the GTLM Drivers' Championship. With a total of 133 points, Bleekemolen and Keating's victory allowed them to increase their advantage over Balzan and Nielsen to 24 points. Cadillac and Mercedes-AMG continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Chevrolet took the lead of the GTLM Manufactures' Championship. Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, and Riley Motorsports kept their respective advantages in the their respective of Teams' Championships while Corvette Racing took the lead of the GTLM Teams' Championship with eight races left in the season.

Results
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Standings after the race

 * 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.