IMSA Crowns 2017 Champions
Sebring Winning Cadillac Team
Takes Top Honors
Champions across the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar
Championship came together at the annual season-ending banquet
be recognized for their achievements and to celebrate the
conclusion of a thrilling 2017 season.
In the Prototype class, brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor as part of
their father’s team, Wayne Taylor Racing, dominated the first half
of the season in their No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R.
to take home the Prototype driver and team championship. After
winning five straight races to open the season, including Sebring,
the Taylors are now the winningest drivers in WeatherTech
Championship history with 12 victories apiece.
Ricky and Jordan Taylor won the Prototype Championship
“This is something that obviously our family has been around my
whole life, and I built it up in my mind what it’s going to be like,”
said Ricky Taylor. “This is obviously a dream come true. I never
would’ve imagined that I’d get to share this experience with my
family and such a great group of guys and great group of partners
we all have here tonight. I’m just really going to soak this in. It’s
nice we’ve got another three months until Daytona to enjoy being
the champions.”
Cadillac also took home the Prototype and Patrón Endurance
Cup manufacturer championships with additional wins from
each of the two Action Express Racing teams. Those teams
were the No. 31 Whelen Engineering team of Dane Cameron
and Eric Curran and the No. 5 Mustang Sampling team of fulltime
drivers Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa with Filipe
Albuquerque who won the Patrón Endurance Cup team and
driver championships.
Performance Tech Motorsports came just shy of winning everything
the Prototype Challenge (PC) class had to offer in 2017. The
team won seven of eight races, while James French took home
seven TOTAL Pole Awards and co-driver Patricio O’Ward posted
the fastest lap at each event. Performance Tech, French, O’Ward
and endurance driver Kyle Masson received the following awards
– the Patrón Endurance Cup driver and team championships in
PC’s final year of WeatherTech Championship competition.
In the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class, Chevrolet and Corvette Racing
outlasted intense competition to bring home all three class championships.
In what many consider to be the closest GT racing in
the world, the No. 3 Corvette C7.R duo of Antonio Garcia and Jan
Magnussen recorded a top-five finish in every race this season,
including three victories. These championships were the second
consecutive for the manufacturer and team.
Corvette drivers Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen won the
GTLM title
“This Manufacturer Championship is so special because of the
amazing team effort in this intensely competitive GTLM class,”
said Mark Reuss, executive vice president of General Motors.
“Corvette Racing’s passion, dedication and perseverance made
the difference. We love racing and learn from every lap about how
to deliver the right combination of power, reliability, efficiency and
overall performance. We apply those lessons to every Corvette on
and off the track. I’m so proud of everyone on the team.”
In a close competition, the Patrón Endurance Cup championships
went to two GTLM separate entities, neither of which won the
class championship. Ford was presented with the manufacturer
trophy, while the No. 911 Porsche GT Team with full-time drivers
Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner took home the team and driver
championships.
Finally, the GT Daytona (GTD) class saw exponential growth
heading into the 2017 season, which saw a total of eight manufacturers
compete full-time and seven of which won at least one
race this year. However, it was defending champions Alessandro
Balzan and Christina Nielsen in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari
488 GT3 that were crowned yet again after finishing on the podium
seven times.
Newcomer Mercedes-AMG won the Patrón Endurance Cup
manufacturer championship and the No. 33 Riley Motorsports-
Team AMG Mercedes-AMG GT3 with drivers Ben Keating,
Jeroen Bleekemolen and Mario Farnbacher secured the Patrón
Endurance Cup team and driver championship.
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