Robin Liddell and Frank DePew worked late into the evening to bring home the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge win on Saturday.
After severe weather delayed and consequently shortened the two-hour race to just 75 minutes, it was a battle down to the final lap on Saturday in the Grand Sport (GS) class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
On a restart with one lap remaining around the 4.048-mile circuit, Robin Liddell sat fourth in the No. 71 Rebel Rock Racing Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R. In Road America’s famed Canada Corner (Turn 12 of 14), he made a daring outside pass around the second- and third-place cars of Corey Fergus in No. 69 Motorsports In Action McLaren GT4 and Eric Foss in the No. 56 Mercedes-AMG GT4 for Murillo Racing.
From there, Liddell stalked the leading No. 75 Compass Racing McLaren GT4 of Kuno Wittmer, who had passed Fergus for the lead in Turn 2 on the final lap.
Coming down the front stretch to the checkered flag, Liddell seemed out of reach until Wittmer’s McLaren slowed in the middle of the track as Wittmer inadvertently pressed the pit-lane speed limiter button on his steering wheel. Liddell sped to the left of Wittmer, nearly in the grass, nipping him by a mere .070 seconds at the stripe for the win.
“Once you get weather like that, it really challenges the teams and the drivers to make the right decisions at the right time and to stay out of trouble and keep the car on the track,” said Liddell. “Frank (DePew, co-driver of the No. 71) did a super job as usual. He’s really come on so much, as we’ve talked about before. It’s not easy to handle a car like that around here with very little experience and the changing grip level on the changing surface.
“I was in second and I was like, ‘Oh, happy days, P2.’ Then we’re going up the front straight and suddenly I see the McLaren slowing down. I pulled over to the middle and then he started coming back. I said there was no way I was lifting here, so I just kept my foot in and went by in the grass. It was pretty cool.”
It’s the second victory for Liddell and DePew, who co-drove together to victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park just two races ago. The margin is also the fourth closest in Michelin Pilot Challenge history.
“I really just tried to hold position, not make mistakes, bring the car in and get a good pit stop situation,” said DePew. “Robin’s just the master, so we knew if it kept raining that we definitely would climb some positions. I don’t think we expected to win the race but we’re pretty happy with it.”
The view of the photo finish from the pits was just as murky, described DePew.
“Only when (engineer) Phil (Pierce) told me,” said DePew, of when he realized the win. “We saw the McLaren slow and we didn’t know what was going on. It had to be inches or a foot or something. It was not visible to us, but all of a sudden Phil said we were P1, so everybody went crazy.”
While a heartbreaking loss for Wittmer and co-driver Paul Holton, it’s Compass Racing’s best finish since a victory at the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway in January.
Foss held on for a third-place finish for Murillo Racing, Mercedes-AMG and co-driver Jeff Mosing.
Source: Read Full Article