Defending IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship LMP2 class champions AO Racing secured their first victory of the season in dramatic fashion, capturing a thrilling class win as the LMP2 category returned to action following a three-month hiatus.
Dane Cameron held a comfortable five-second lead in the #99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07 with just 45 minutes remaining, but had to withstand a furious late-race charge from Alex Quinn in the #04 CrowdStrike Racing entry. Quinn whittled the deficit down to less than a second through heavy traffic before a yellow flag on the final lap froze the field and sealed the hard-fought victory for AO Racing under caution.
The triumph marks the first win at Watkins Glen for the trio of Cameron, PJ Hyett, and Jonny Edgar. It is the ninth overall victory for AO Racing, their first since winning at Road America last summer, and a milestone 20th IMSA class win for Cameron, alongside the third for Hyett and the second for Edgar.
“It is a bit of a déjà vu from last season, to be honest,” Hyett said, referencing finishes of fifth and seventh at Daytona and Sebring, respectively, before a runner-up result at Watkins Glen started a title run. “It’s always frustrating when you know you have the right car and you just catch the wrong side of a safety car in previous races, and we know we have the right car and the right team to do stuff like this, and it’s just a testament to the entire team. It feels great to win one. We got it done, so that’s all that counts.”
A ‘classic IMSA race’
Despite missing out on the race victory, the second-place finish unofficially moves the #04 team into the LMP2 championship lead. They now hold a 55-point advantage over both the AO Racing squad and the #22 United Autosports USA team, which entered the weekend as the points leaders but finished the race in fifth.
“Honestly, a pretty classic IMSA race, coming and going with traffic, some hard fights and strategies and things playing across LMP2 in terms of when people are pivoting and overs and unders and all sorts of things,” Cameron said. “I had a lot of fun today. We were pretty aggressive and something we were working on as a group. I think we’ve been conservative sometimes, car-wise, driving-wise, things like that. We felt like there was a few times last year that was bad for us. Again, kind of a poor start to the year, and at some point, you need to stop the bleeding and get one on the board. And the car was awesome as soon as we rolled off the truck. We were super quick. And great to close that one off for sure.”