Archangel Motorsports’ Aaron Telitz made his last pit stop on lap 98. From there, he made his fuel last over the final 54 laps (82 minutes) to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio with teammate/car owner Todd Coleman. It is the first victory in the series for the team and for both drivers.
“I just trusted what [Archangel Motorsports] told me to do,” Telitz told Frontstretch after the race. “I knew the [fuel] number that I had to hit, and I just started hitting it. It was a massive fuel save number, saving well over half a liter from full burn every lap. It was basically what we run every lap under caution.”
Coleman and Telitz’s margin of victory was 4.533 seconds over TeamTGM’s Paul Holton and Matt Plumb. Winward Racing’s Daniel Morad and Bryce Ward were third, then Ruckus Racing’s Scott Blind and JP Southern in their best-ever finish. Rebel Rock Racing’s Andrew Davis, Frank DePew and Robin Liddell were fifth.
Motorsports In Action’s Michael de Quesada started from pole in his McLaren Artura GT4. The Artura had shown great pace in both Pilot Challenge and VP Racing SportsCar Challenge competition all weekend and Sunday was no exception. De Quesada wasted no time opening up a gap on the pack.
Deily Motorsport returned to Pilot Challenge this weekend with a new Audi RS3 LMS TCR after starting the season with a Hyundai Elantra N TCR. Unfortunately, they only got the car on Tuesday. That meant that the weekend was always going to be a struggle.
15 minutes into the race, Jacob Deily suffered a left rear hub failure on his Audi. The wheel came off and flew into China Beach, stranding Deily and bringing out the first full course caution of the race. Deily and James Vance were out on the spot.
De Quesada held onto the advantage until the first round of pit stops just over an hour into the race. Then, disaster struck. First, the car didn’t want to take fuel. Then, the air jack broke on the McLaren, forcing the team to break out a floor jack to lift the car.
GT4 cars are not really designed to be jacked up using a traditional floor jack. The team had a lot of trouble getting the car to lift. Eventually, the deed was done, but the team lost two laps in the pits, ending any chances at victory.
Holton assumed control of the race following the pit stop issues. Morad was right behind, ready to pounce.
90 minutes into the race, Rockwell Autosport Development’s Eric…
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