Spike the Dragon wins IMSA at CTMP after massive crash for Tom Dillmann ends race under SC
- Aaron Carroll
- Jul 13
- 7 min read
Written by Aaron Carroll
The No.99 AO Racing LMP2 of Dane Cameron and PJ Hyett has dominated the IMSA round at CTMP, a race that ended under safety car conditions after a scary shunt for Tom Dillmann in the No.43 LMP2. The No.81 Ferrari won in GTD PRO and the No.45 Lamborghini in GTD.
The LMP2 cars led the three class field around on the formation lap, ahead of two hours and 40 minutes of racing. Rain spoiled other races on the schedule, but it was a completely dry start for the WeatherTech series.
The No.99 AO Racing 'Spike the Dragon' led away at the green flag, with PJ Hyett and Daniel Goldburg in the No.22 United Autosports car pulled away from the pack very early on.
Back in GTD the No.021 Ferrari and the No.45 Lamborghini touched, and both cars spun around. There was no need for a Full-Course Yellow (FCY) though, and they both continued on at the back. The Ferrari got a drive-through for the incident.
Neil Verhagen in the No.1 BMW led from pole in GTD PRO, and similarly Jack Hawsworth in the No.12 Lexus led GTD from pole after five minutes of racing. Verhagen managed to build a small gap early on, roughly a second and a half back to Aaron Telitz in the No.14 Lexus. The gaps in GTD were as tight as they could be.
After just 10 minutes of racing, Hyett had come up to the back of the GTD field. Traffic management would be absolutely crucial for the LMP2 drivers, especially with the bronze drivers in the car early on in the race.
Around this time the No.2 United Autosports LMP2 had a spin, but seemed to have gotten away with it relatively unscathed, despite a clash with the barrier.
Chris Cumming in the No.73 got caught out with the No.120 Porsche GTD, getting overtaken around the outside by the No.52 of Nick Boulle.
Meanwhile the No.11 TDS LMP2 had a spin from third place at the final corner. Steven Thomas got going again, albeit in 10th place. He had a clash with Goldburg in the No.22, but race control deemed it a racing incident.
Thomas had more contact a handful of laps later, cutting across the front of the No.120 Porsche too soon and damaging the front of the Porsche slightly.
After the first tour through the traffic, Hyett had a 12 second lead over Goldburg, who was in turn 15 seconds ahead of George Kurtz in the No.04.
The No.120 was under attack from the No.36 DXDT Corvette of Robert Wickens. The Canadian went for a move around the outside, but went deep, allowing the No.27 Aston Martin through. Instead of being up to fourth, the home hero was down in sixth.
The No.8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 was tagged by the leading No.99 when he was being lapped, spinning at the final corner. Still no need for FCY however, as John Farano got going again after a slight delay.
The No.11 TDS car decided to pit after about 25 minutes, a scheduled stop, to put them out of sequence to everyone else after their spin. 10 minutes later, Thomas in that car had more trouble, bouncing over the grass at turn 8, however he re-joined without spinning.
The first on schedule stop for the LMP2s came for Goldburg in the second placed No.22 car. The United Autosports team got him back out just in front of the No.99 leader, meaning Goldburg stayed on the lead lap. This stop triggered a flurry of LMP2 stops.
They returned to the track with Hyett still at the head of the field, but his lead to Goldburg cut down to eight seconds. That pit stop advantage didn't last long however, as Hyett had the gap out to 18 seconds within 20 minutes.
There were four cars involved in a small pileup on the track. The No.04 LMP2 tried to go down the inside of the No.70 Ferrari and both were spun around. The No.73 and No.74 were innocent victims, as they caught the back of the Crowdstrike car. All four cars got going again with no intervention needed.
The two GTD classes took their turn for pit stops after about 50 minutes of racing. A handful of cars decided not to pit with the group however, going longer than the rest. In GTD PRO it was the No.77 Porsche, No.65 Ford and the No.81 Ferrari. In GTD it was the No.021 Ferrari running that strategy solo.
Behind those, the No.14 Lexus held the net lead (fourth) in GTD PRO and the No.12 Lexus held the net lead (second) in GTD. The No.65 Ford of Fred Vervisch was the first of the four to blink, followed by the No.021 and No.77 the next lap. All three dropped down the order in their respective classes.
Crucially for all four cars, they made it past the one hour mark. That meant that if they could do another one hour stint, their final stop would be shorter than the rest of the field as everyone took their shorter stint (40 minutes) in the first stint. The No.81 pit with just more than 90 minutes left.
Just as the team were in the middle of their stop, the No.04 Crowdstrike LMP2 hit the wall hard, bringing out the first FCY of the race. CEO of the company that is the namesake of the team, George Kurtz was at the wheel, but thankfully quickly got out of the car.
Away from the incident, this was a crucial point for the engineers and strategists in the pit lane, as most cars were expected to pit. This also eliminated the substantial gap Hyett had built at the front of LMP2.
The timing of this intervention made it possible for the LMP2s to make it to the end of the race with just one for stop, although it would be tight.
All of the top six in LMP2 came in, with most taking a driver change and new tyres. The No.74 Riley car even took on a new rear end. Dane Cameron took over the No.99, and they came out in the lead still ahead of the No.22, now driven by Tom Blomqvist.
Most of the GTD PROs and GTDs pit into a very busy pit lane. The No.14 Lexus had a slow stop, dropping down the GTD PRO order. A selection of cars didn't pit, the lead of which being the No.57 Mercedes GTD.
The No.2, No.18 and No.73 LMP2s came in a lap later than everyone else, in an attempt to get back on the lead lap. Those three cars would also be slightly closer to being able to finish the race on one more stop.
Everyone got away cleanly at the restart, with Cameron beginning to put a gap on the cars behind. The other AO Racing car led in GTD PRO, the No.77 Porsche benefitting from their offset strategy. The No.57 Mercedes led in GTD, since they did not pit under the caution.
Blomqvist in the No.22 United Autosports was struggling as we approached one hour to go. He lost position to the No.43 of Tom Dillmann, the No.52 of Benjamin Pedersen and the No.11 of Hunter McElrea. Dillmann in the Inter Europol machine was also catching Cameron for the lead of the race.
The No.66 Ford Mustang in GTD was given a drive-through penalty after the Gradient team made a mistake and allowed a tyre to accidentally roll into the fast lane of the pits.
A few pit stops cycled through in GTD, with the No.4 Corvette leading GTD PRO and No.45 Lamborghini leading GTD. Both of those, and a few other cars pit of of sequence, and owed an extra stop at that stage.
The No.43 of Dillmann pit with 45 minutes to go. The team put on a full tank of fuel, and a fresh set of tyres. It would be tricky to get to the end, but possible with a good amount of fuel saving. The No.99 followed them in the next lap, and they lost the lead for the first time this race.
Inter Europol were able to pull off the undercut, and take the lead of the race. Other LMP2s were in as well, with the No.52 pulling off a bit too soon, while the fuel hose was still attached. The mechanical holding the hose was pulled to the ground, but was uninjured. The car was given a drive-through for leaving the pits with equipment attached.
The No.57 Mercedes made a move on the No.12 Lexus for third in GTD, and didn't initially make it stick, but went for another move two corners later and got the position.
That became second, as the No.78 that was running in that position went into the wall at high speed with 30 minutes to go. He was tagged by the No.11 TDS Racing LMP2, which sent Mario Farnbacher into the wall. The FCY was called to remove the stricken car. The No.11 was given a penalty for the incident.
Despite the high speed nature of the crash, Farnbacher was able to get the car back to the pits and back out on track, although a few laps down on the class leaders.
This removed all fuel concerns for the LMP2 cars, and those who hadn't pit yet in both GTD classes. A lot of cars in all classes took new tyres, and full tanks of fuel.
When we went to green the No.48 lead away, but just half a lap later, Tom Dillmann found himself in the wall. There was a failure on the front right of the car as he turned into the corner, and he went careening into the barrier at high speed.
A very scary accident for Dillmann, who was extracted from the car by the IMSA rapid response safety team.
The race never got going again, so the No.99 came through to win the race under the safety car. The No.22 United car was second. The No.81 Ferrari won in GTD PRO and the No.45 in GTD after both cars used strategy to find themselves at the front.
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