2018 Oak Tree Grand Prix

The 2018 Oak Tree Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia on August 19, 2018. The race was the tenth round of the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Track map of VIR

Background

Virginia International Raceway, where the race was held.

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2017.^[1] It was the fifth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2018 Oak Tree Grand Prix was the tenth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2018 by IMSA, and was the seventh round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup.^[2] The race was held at the ten-turn 3.270 mi (5.263 km) Virginia International Raceway on August 19, 2018.^[1] As in previous years, the event was also the second GT-only round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship season, in which only the GTLM and GTD classes were scheduled to compete.^[2]

After the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase 2 weeks earlier, Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 241 points, ahead Antonio García and Jan Magnussen with 237 points, and Joey Hand and Dirk Müller with 232 points.^[3] With 250 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow with an eighteen-point advantage over Katherine Legge with 232 points.^[3] Ford and Lamborghini were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Ford Chip Ganassi Racing and Paul Miller Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.^[3]

On August 13, 2018, IMSA issued the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event.^[4] In GTD, the Ferrari 488 GT3 received a reduction in turbo boost and a fuel capacity reduction of 2 liters. No changes were made in GTLM.

Entries

Further information: 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship § Entries

A total of 18 cars took part in the event split across 2 classes. 8 cars were entered in GTLM, and 10 in GTD.^[5] In GTD, Park Place Motorsports and Squadra Corse Garage Italia were absent. Gunnar Jeannette substituted for Alessandro Pier Guidi in the Scuderia Corsa #63 entry due to a clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Silverstone. Mario Farnbacher substituted for Álvaro Parente returned to the Meyer Shank Racing #86 entry.

Practice

There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Friday morning and afternoon. The third on Saturday morning lasted an hour.^[6]

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 11:45 am ET on Friday and ended with Richard Westbrook topping the charts for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, with a lap time of 1:42.627.^[7]

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap
1	GTLM	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Richard Westbrook	1:42.627	_
2	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Earl Bamber	1:42.761	+0.134
3	GTLM	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Joey Hand	1:42.793	+0.166
Source:[8]

Practice 2

The second practice session took place at 4:25 pm ET on Friday and ended with Antonio García topping the charts for Corvette Racing, with a lap time of 1:41.743.^[9]

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap
1	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Antonio García	1:41.743	_
2	GTLM	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ryan Briscoe	1:42.262	+0.519
3	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Tommy Milner	1:42.351	+0.608
Source:[10]

Practice 3

The third and final practice session took place at 8:35 am ET on Saturday and ended with Tommy Milner topping the charts for Corvette Racing, with a lap time of 1:41.205.^[11]

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap
1	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Tommy Milner	1:41.205	_
2	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Connor De Phillippi	1:41.448	+0.243
3	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Earl Bamber	1:41.512	+0.307
Source:[12]

Qualifying

Saturday afternoon's 40-minute qualifying session was divided into two groups.^[6] Both categories had 15-minute individual sessions, and regulations stipulated teams to nominate a single driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order with the grid arranged to put the GTLM cars ahead of all GTD entries.^[13]

Qualifying results

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	GTD	15	3GT Racing	Jack Hawksworth	1:44.107	_	9‡
2	GTD	33	Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsport	Jeroen Bleekemolen	1:44.323	+0.216	10
3	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Bill Auberlen	1:44.360	+0.253	11
4	GTD	14	3GT Racing	Kyle Marcelli	1:44.516	+0.409	12
5	GTD	48	Paul Miller Racing	Madison Snow	1:44.626	+0.519	13
6	GTD	58	Wright Motorsports	Patrick Long	1:44.758	+0.651	14
7	GTD	93	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin	Lawson Aschenbach	1:44.797	+0.690	171
8	GTD	86	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin	Mario Farnbacher	1:44.954	+0.847	16
9	GTD	63	Scuderia Corsa	Cooper MacNeil	1:45.506	+1.399	182
10	GTD	44	Magnus Racing	John Potter	1:45.918	+1.811	163
11	GTLM	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ryan Briscoe	1:55.580	+11.473	1‡
12	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Patrick Pilet	1:56.170	+12.063	2
13	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	John Edwards	1:56.185	+12.078	3
14	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Antonio García	1:56.760	+12.653	4
15	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Connor De Phillippi	1:57.148	+13.041	5
16	GTLM	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Joey Hand	1:57.202	+13.095	6
17	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Tommy Milner	1:57.492	+13.385	7
18	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Earl Bamber	1:57.874	+13.767	8
Sources:[14][15]

• ¹ The No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.5 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting driver).^[13]
• ² The No. 63 Scuderia Corsa entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[13]
• ³ The No. 44 Magnus Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[13]

Race

Post-race

By finishing second place in the race, García and Magnussen took the lead of the GTLM Drivers' Championship.^[16] The result kept Sellers and Snow atop the GTD Drivers' Championship with 275 points, 13 points ahead of Legge.^[16] Ford and Lamborghini continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Corvette Racing took the lead of the GTLM Teams' Championship. Paul Miller Racing kept their advantage in the GTD Teams' Championship with two rounds remaining.^[16]

Results

Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Final race classification Pos Class No. Team Drivers Chassis Tire Laps Time/Retired Engine 1 GTLM 25 BMW Team RLL Connor De Phillippi Alexander Sims BMW M8 GTE M 88 2:40.52.276‡ BMW S63 4.0 L Turbo V8 2 GTLM 3 Corvette Racing Antonio García Jan Magnussen Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 88 +1.323 Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8 3 GTLM 24 BMW Team RLL John Edwards Jesse Krohn BMW M8 GTE M 88 +2.116 BMW S63 4.0 L Turbo V8 4 GTLM 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Joey Hand Dirk Müller Ford GT M 88 +30.907 Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Turbo V6 5 GTLM 912 Porsche GT Team Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 911 RSR M 88 +35.530 Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 6 GTLM 4 Corvette Racing Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 88 +36.345 Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8 7 GTD 14 3GT Racing Dominik Baumann Kyle Marcelli Lexus RC F GT3 C 86 +2 Laps‡ Lexus 5.0L V8 8 GTD 58 Wright Motorsports Patrick Long Christina Nielsen Porsche 911 GT3 R C 86 +2 Laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 9 GTD 86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin Katherine Legge Mario Farnbacher Acura NSX GT3 C 86 +2 Laps Acura 3.5 L Turbo V6 10 GTD 63 Scuderia Corsa Cooper MacNeil Gunnar Jeannette Ferrari 488 GT3 C 86 +2 Laps Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 11 GTD 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsport Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating Mercedes AMG GT3 C 86 +2 Laps Mercedes-AMG M159 6.2 L V8 12 GTD 48 Paul Miller Racing Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Lamborghini Huracán GT3 C 86 +2 Laps Lamborghini 5.2 L V10 13 GTD 44 Magnus Racing John Potter Andy Lally Audi R8 LMS GT3 C 86 +2 Laps Audi 5.2L V10 14 GTD 93 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin Justin Marks Lawson Aschenbach Acura NSX GT3 C 86 +2 Laps Acura 3.5 L Turbo V6 15 GTD 96 Turner Motorsport Robby Foley Bill Auberlen BMW M6 GT3 C 85 +3 Laps BMW 4.4 L Turbo V8 16[a] GTD 15 3GT Racing Jack Hawksworth David Heinemeier Hansson Lexus RC F GT3 C 86 +2 Laps Lexus 5.0L V8 17 DNF GTLM 911 Porsche GT Team Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy Porsche 911 RSR M 42 Clutch Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 18 DNF GTLM 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook Ford GT M 40 Engine Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Turbo V6 Sources:[18][19]

Tyre manufacturers Key Symbol Tyre manufacturer C Continental M Michelin

Notes

1. The no. 15 3GT Racing entry was moved to the rear of the GTD classification for not meeting minimum refueling time^[17]

Standings after the race

Prototype Drivers' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 Eric Curran Felipe Nasr 228 2 Filipe Albuquerque 221 3 Jon Bennett Colin Braun 218 4 Jordan Taylor Renger van der Zande 216 5 Misha Goikhberg Stephen Simpson 206

GTLM Drivers' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 1 Antonio García Jan Magnussen 269 2 1 Ryan Briscoe Richard Westbrook 265 3 Joey Hand Dirk Müller 260 4 Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner 252 5 Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor 251

GTD Drivers' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 Bryan Sellers Madison Snow 275 2 Katherine Legge 262 3 Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating 246 4 Cooper MacNeil 237 5 1 Dominik Baumann Kyle Marcelli 227

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

Prototype Teams' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Team Points 1 No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing 228 2 No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing 221 3 No. 54 CORE Autosport 218 4 No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing 216 5 No. 99 JDC-Miller Motorsports 206

GTLM Teams' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Team Points 1 1 No. 3 Corvette Racing 241 2 1 No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing 237 3 No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing 232 4 No. 4 Corvette Racing 227 5 No. 912 Porsche GT Team 225

GTD Teams' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Team Points 1 No. 48 Paul Miller Racing 275 2 No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanin 262 3 No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports 246 4 No. 63 Scuderia Corsa 237 5 No. 14 3GT Racing 227

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

Prototype Manufacturers' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Manufacturer Points 1 Cadillac 269 2 Acura 254 3 Nissan 239 4 Mazda 238

GTLM Manufacturers' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Manufacturer Points 1 Ford 295 2 Chevrolet 283 3 Porsche 274 4 BMW 267 5 Ferrari 58

GTD Manufacturers' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Manufacturer Points 1 Lamborghini 282 2 Acura 263 3 1 Lexus 258 4 1 Mercedes-AMG 252 5 Ferrari 250

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.