2020 Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio



The 2020 Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, on September 27, 2020. This race was the seventh round of the 2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the fifth round of the 2020 WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

Hélio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor claimed their third consecutive overall victory for Acura Team Penske, while Antonio García and Jordan Taylor were crowned victors in GTLM for the fourth time that season. In GTD, Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz of AIM Vasser Sullivan similarly scored their third class victory of the season.

Background
Then International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2020 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2019. It was the third consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC. The event was the seventh of eleven sports car races of 2020 by IMSA, and the fifth of seven races on the WeatherTech Sprint Cup. The event was one of the first postponed by IMSA as a result of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, with the organization citing CDC regulations on public gatherings as the official cause of postponement. A tentative reschedule for the weekend of September 27th followed shortly thereafter, which became the finalized date on which the race was held. As with most events on the 2020 calendar, the race was held with a limited number of spectators in accordance with Ohio Department of Health guidelines. A maximum of 6,000 spectators were permitted, facemasks were required, temperature checks were instituted, and paddock access was restricted. Acura Team Penske duo Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya entered the race as defending champions.

On September 11, 2020, IMSA released their latest technical bulletin outlining BoP for the race. The DPi class featured changes to fuel capacity, as the Cadillac and Mazda received three liter fuel capacity increases. No changes were made to GTLM competitors. In GTD, the Acura received a decreased fuel capacity of one liter, while the Porsche and Lexus received increases of one and two liters respectively. The Aston Martin also received a 30 kilogram weight decrease.

Before the race, Ryan Briscoe and Renger van der Zande led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 150 points, ahead of Sébastien Bourdais and João Barbosa in second with 146 points, and Pipo Derani in third with 145 points. Antonio García and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 191 points, 14 points ahead of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner in second. With 150 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by Mario Farnbacher and Matt McMurry, ahead of Aaron Telitz. Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Acura were leading their respective Manufactures' Championships while Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R, Corvette Racing, and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian each led their own Teams' Championships.

Entries
A total of 24 cars took part in the event, split across three classes. 8 were entered in DPi, 4 in GTLM, and 12 in GTD. JDC-Miller Motorsports' driver lineup once again shuffled, as Matheus Leist and Stephen Simpson were replaced by Tristan Vautier and Gabriel Aubry. Porsche's factory GTLM effort was sidelined at Mid-Ohio after positive COVID-19 tests within the team's 24 Hours of Le Mans camp, which had competed the previous weekend with much of their IMSA cohort in attendance. As a result, the already anemic GTLM class was further reduced to just four competitors. GTD featured a late withdrawal of the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari, as driver Cooper MacNeil was competing in both Ferrari Challenge and IMSA competition, and was leading the championship of the former. The Ferrari Challenge was racing at Laguna Seca, so MacNeil's IMSA entry was pulled from the Mid-Ohio race.

Practice
There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted one hour on Friday while the second session on Saturday lasted 75 minutes.

Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 6:00 pm ET on Friday and ended with Juan Pablo Montoya topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:13.057. Antonio García was fastest in GTLM with a time of 1:19.690. Bill Auberlen set the fastest time in GTD.

Practice 2
The second and final practice session took place at 10:55 am ET on Saturday and ended with Hélio Castroneves topping the charts for Acura Team Penske, with a lap time of 1:11.395. Jordan Taylor set the fastest time in GTLM. Aaron Telitz was fastest in GTD with a time of 1:20.465.

Qualifying
Sunday's morning qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the DPi, GTLM, and GTD classes, which lasted for 15 minutes each, and a ten minute interval between the sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am (GTD) class requiring a Bronze/Silver Rated Driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put DPis ahead of the GTLM and GTD cars.

The first was for cars in the GTD class. Aaron Telitz qualified on pole for the class driving the #14 car for AIM Vasser Sullivan, besting Matt McMurry in the #86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian entry.

The second session was for cars in the GTLM class. Jordan Taylor qualified on pole driving the #3 car for Corvette Racing, beating Jesse Krohn in the #24 BMW Team RLL entry by over four-tenths of a second.

The final session of qualifying was for cars in the DPi class. Dane Cameron qualified on pole driving the #6 car for Acura Team Penske, beating teammate Hélio Castroneves in the sister #7 Acura Team Penske entry by less than less than twenty-hundredths of a second.

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


 * The No. 3 Corvette Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTLM field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).
 * The No. 24 BMW Team RLL was moved to the back of the GTLM field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).
 * The No. 4 Corvette Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTLM field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).
 * The No. 25 BMW Team RLL entry was moved to the back of the GTLM field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).
 * The No. 76 Compass Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field for violating competition rules regarding the car's ride height.
 * The No. 74 Riley Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).
 * The No. 30 Team Hardpoint entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).

Post-race
As a result of winning the race, Hélio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor advanced from sixth to third in the DPi Drivers' Championship. Bourdais and Barbosa dropped from second to fifth while Derani moved from third to second. With 226 points, Antonio García and Jordan Taylors' victory allowed them to increase their advantage over Gavin and Milner to 17 points. The result kept Farnbacher and McMurry atop the GTD Drivers' Championship, 3 points ahead of race winner Telitz. Hardwick and Long advanced from fifth to fourth while Aschenbach and Robinson jumped from sixth to fifth. Cadillac and Chevrolet continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Lexus took the lead of the GTD Manufactures' Championship. Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R, Corvette Racing, and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian kept their respective advantages in Teams' Championships with four rounds remaining 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.