The 2019 Northeast Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the

International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...

(IMSA). The race was held at

Lime Rock Park Lime Rock Park is a natural-terrain motorsport road racing venue located in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States, a hamlet in the town of Salisbury, in the state's northwest corner. Built in 1956, it is the nation's third oldest continuously op ...

Lakeville, Connecticut Lakeville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States, close to Dutchess County, New York. It is within the town of Salisbury, but has its own ZIP Code (06039). As of the 2010 census, the population of Lak ...

on July 20th, 2019, as the eighth round of the 2019 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the fourth round of the 2019 WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

Background

This race is the first of two GT-only races on the 2019 IMSA calendar, in which the prototype classes, Daytona Prototype international (DPi) and Le Mans Prototype (LMP2), will not be taking part. This is in accordance with IMSA's philosophy of occasionally rotating classes out of certain races to reduce costs. On July 11th, 2019, IMSA released a technical bulletin regarding the Balance of Performance for the race. The GT Le Mans (GTLM) balance of performance constraints would remain as they were in the previous round at

Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formerly Mosport Park and Mosport International Raceway) is a multi-track motorsport venue located north of Bowmanville, in Ontario, Canada, east of Toronto. The facility features a , 10-turn road course; a adva ...

. In the GT Daytona (GTD) class, after winning the previous round, the

BMW M6 GT3 The BMW M6 is a high-performance version of the 6 Series marketed under the BMW M sub-brand from 1983 to 2018 (with a break from 1990 to 2004). Introduced in the coupe body style, the M6 was also built in convertible and fastback sedan ('Gran C ...

was given a power reduction of 12 horsepower, as well as a 2-liter fuel capacity reduction and a restriction of turbo boost. The

Ferrari 488 GT3 The Ferrari 488 (Type F142M) is a mid-engine sports car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari. The car replaced the 458, being the first mid-engine Ferrari to use a turbocharged V8 since the F40. It was succeeded by the Ferra ...

and the Porsche 911 GT3 R were made 10 and five kilograms lighter, respectively.

Entries

On July 10th, 2019, the entry list for the event was released, featuring 22 cars. There were eight cars entered in GTLM, and 14 in GTD. The most notable change to the grid included the return of

Blancpain GT World Challenge America The GT World Challenge America is a North American auto racing series launched in 1990 by the Sports Car Club of America. It has been managed by the Stephane Ratel Organisation since 2018, and has been sanctioned by the United States Auto Club si ...

full-time team Wright Motorsports, with drivers Anthony Imperato and Porsche Junior Professional driver Matt Campbell. Pfaff Motorsports regular driver

Scott Hargrove Scott Hargrove (born February 1, 1995) is a Canadian racing driver from Vancouver, British Columbia. Hargrove in the winningest driver in IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada history. Having competed in both Sports car racing and Open-wheel car ...

would sit out the Lime Rock Park event as well as the following event at

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...

, replaced instead by Porsche Junior driver Dennis Olsen for the Lime Rock event. Olsen and Campbell are set to switch places for Road America. Due to this event happening 50 years and one day after the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...

moon landing, GTD team

Magnus Racing Magnus Racing is an automobile racing team based in Tooele, Utah, currently competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The team was established in 2010 by John Potter and runs Acura NSX GT3 car in the series. History The team fin ...

decided to commemorate the anniversary of the mission by launching a one-off livery designed to look like the

Saturn V rocket Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with three stages, and powered with liquid fuel. It was flown from 1967 ...

, and run under the number 11. As Magnus Racing usually ran under car number 44, the team received special dispensation by IMSA to count the points they would score as number 11 towards their full-season points under number 44.

Race report

Qualifying results

Pole positions In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

in each class are indicated in bold and by .

Results

Class winners are denoted in bold and .

References

External links

{{Sportscar Race Report , Year_of_race = 2019 , Sportscar_Series = WeatherTech SportsCar Championship , Previous_race_in_season =

2019 SportsCar Grand Prix The 2019 Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario on July 7th, 2019. This race was the seventh r ...

, Next_race_in_season =

2019 Road Race Showcase at Road America The 2019 Road Race Showcase at Road America was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 4, 2019, as the ninth round of the 2019 We ...

Northeast Grand Prix

Northeast Grand Prix The Northeast Grand Prix (until 2006: New England Grand Prix) is a professional sports car race held at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States as part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Previous editions of the Gran ...