It was a dominating effort for a pair of first-time IMSA race winners in Sunday’s IMSA Prototype Challenge race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Dakota Dickerson and Dylan Murry, both relatively new to the series’ LMP3 platform, teamed up for the first time this season and immediately gave the No. 54 MLT Motorsports Ligier JS P3 team its first win in its second start.
There was no magic pit strategy or luck involved as the two youngsters led the majority of the one-hour, 45-minute race. Dickerson, 22, needed just 10 minutes to move from fourth to first at the start of the race and held that position until he pitted with 50 minutes remaining. From there he handed the car to Murry, 18, who held off a hard-charging Neil Alberico in the No. 4 ANSA Motorsports Ligier JS P3 during the closing laps to secure the victory.
The win caps off a career weekend for Murry, who one day ago finished a career-best second in the IMSA MICHELIN Pilot Challenge race in a Mercedes-AMG GT4 for Riley Motorsports. He debuted in the MLT Motorsports LMP3 one race ago at Sebring International Raceway alongside his father David Murry.
“We just started the team, this is incredible,” said Murry. “Dakota was in the lead, came in and we put new Michelin tires on and I went out and just kept it in that position. The car was fantastic. This means a lot to me. I saw the 4 car kind of catch me. Every now and then he'd make a little mistake, fall back and then catch me again. It feels awesome."
For Dickerson, it was his first career IMSA win after starting his career in open-wheel cars. The 2018 F4 US champion was introduced to the LMP3 platform at the Michelin IMSA SportsCar Encore at Sebring in November when he drove in that event for ANSA Motorsports.
“I can't wipe the smile off my face,” added Dickerson. “The Ligier LMP3 car is fantastic to drive. Driving their F3 car and their LMP3 car, you can tell they know what they're doing building cars. I'd love to come back to IMSA. It's so much fun. The different mindset and doing endurance racing versus sprint racing is fantastic. Hopefully I'll be here for the rest of this season, if not next season."
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