2016 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase

The 2016 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase 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 7, 2016. The race was the ninth round of the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship.

International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2015.^[1] It was the third consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2016 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase was the ninth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2016 by IMSA, and was the sixth round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup.^[1] The race was held at the fourteen-turn 4.048 mi (6.515 km) Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 7, 2016.^[2]

Before the race, João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 220 points, ahead of Eric Curran and Dane Cameron in second by four points, and Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor in third with 211 points.^[3] With 267 points, Alex Popow and Renger van der Zande led the Prototype Challenge Drivers' Championship over Robert Alon and Tom Kimber-Smith by 17 points.^[3] In GTLM, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner led the Drivers' Championship with 228 points, 10 ahead of Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook.^[3] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 212 points; the duo held a thirteen-point advantage over Andy Lally and John Potter.^[3] Chevrolet and Audi were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Action Express Racing, Starworks Motorsport, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa each led their own Teams' Championships.^[3]

Forty-one cars were officially entered for the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase, with most of the entries in the Prototype Challenge (PC), Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) categories. Action Express Racing (AER) fielded two Chevrolet Corvette DP cars while VisitFlorida Racing (VFR) and Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) fielded one. Mazda Motorsports had two Lola B12/80 cars and Michael Shank Racing (MSR) entered one Ligier JS P2 chassis with a Honda HR35TT twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6 engine. Panoz brought the DeltaWing car to Road America for the fourth successive year.^[4] The Prototype Challenge (PC) class was composed of eight Oreca FLM09 cars: three from Starworks Motorsports and two from BAR1 Motorsports. CORE Autosport, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Performance Tech and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entered one car each.^[4][5] GTLM was represented by nine entries from five different brands.^[4] In the list of GTD entrants, fifteen GT3-specification vehicles were represented by six different manufacturers. Alex Job Racing entered a third Porsche 911 GT3 R.^[6] Black Swan Racing withdrew after Tim Pappas' father passed away.^[7]

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 afternoon and the third on Saturday morning lasted an hour.^[8]

In the first session, Bomarito set the fastest time in the No. 55 Mazda with a time of 1 minute, 56.623 seconds, 0.231 seconds faster than teammate Miller in the sister No. 70 Mazda. Ricky Taylor was third quickest in WTR's No. 10 car.^[9] The fastest PC class car was Stephen Simpson's No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports car with a lap of 2 minutes, 00.519 seconds.^[10] Ford occupied first and second in GTLM with Westbrook faster than his teammate Müller by less than four-tenths of a second.^[9] Bryan Sellers' No. 48 Paul Miller Lamborghini recorded the fastest time in GTD.^[10]

In the second practice session, Negri led with a lap of 1 minute, 55.747 seconds, ahead of Nunez's No. 55 Mazda.^[11] The nine-vehicle PC class was led by CORE Autosport's No. 54 car, driven by Braun with a time of 1 minute, 59.060 seconds.^[12] With a 2:03.415 lap, Hand led the GTLM class in the No. 66 CGR Ford GT, followed by Luhr's No. 100 RLL BMW M6.^[11] Pumpelly led GTD with a time of 2:07.078.^[12]

Bomarito led the final practice session in the No. 55 Mazda with a lap of 1 minute, 55.021 seconds. Jordan Taylor's WTR car was second-fastest.^[13] A 1:58.898 lap saw van der Zande's No. 8 Starworks vehicle lead PC.^[14] With a 2:02.620 lap, García led the GTLM class in the No. 3 Corvette.^[14] Sellers led GTD with a time of 2 minutes, 06.753 seconds.^[14]

Saturday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying session gave 15-minute sessions to all categories. Cars in GTD were sent out first before those grouped in GTLM, PC, and Prototype had three separate identically timed sessions. Regulations stipulated teams to nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each classes starting order. IMSA would arranged the grid to put all Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM, and GTD cars.^[15][8]

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

• ¹ The No. 60 MSR Ligier had its fastest lap deleted as penalty for causing a red flag during its qualifying session.
• ² The No. 7 Starworks Motorsport entry was sent to the rear of the PC grid as per 13.1.2a of the Sporting regulations (Ride height).^[15]
• ³ The No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entry was sent to the rear of the GTLM grid as per 13.1.2a of the Sporting regulations (Ride height).^[15]
• ⁴ The No. 100 BMW Team RLL entry was sent to the rear of the GTLM grid as per article 8.3.2 of the Sporting regulations (Boost control violation).^[15]
• ⁵ The No. 25 BMW Team RLL entry was sent to the rear of the GTLM grid as per article 8.3.2 of the Sporting regulations (Boost control violation).^[15]
• ⁶ The No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi was sent to the rear of the GTD grid as per article 40.1.5 of the Sporting regulations (Tire change).^[15]
• ⁷ The No. 22 Alex Job Racing Porsche had all qualifying laps forfeited as per Article 40.2.6. of the Sporting regulations (Working on the car during qualifying).^[15]

With a total of 253 points, Barbosa and Fittipaldi's second-place finished allowed them to keep their advantage in the Prototype Drivers' Championship, but their advantage was reduced to 1 point by race-winners Curran and Cameron.^[18] Popow and van der Zande's sixth-place finish kept them atop the PC Drivers' Championship, but their advantage was reduced to 7 points over race winners Alon and Kimber-Smith.^[18] The final results of GTLM allowed Gavin and Milner to extend their advantage in the GTLM Drivers' Championship to 13 points over Briscoe and Westbrook.^[18] Balzan and Nielsen's third-place finish allowed them to increase their advantage in the GTD Drivers' Championship to 15 points over Lally and Potter. Bleekemolen and Keating advanced from fifth to fourth while Farnbacher and Riberas dropped to fifth.^[18] Chevrolet and Audi continued to top their respective Manufactures' Championships while Action Express Racing, Starworks Motorsport, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa kept their respective advantages in their of Teams' Championships with three rounds left in the season.^[18]

Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡. P stands for Prototype, PC (Prototype Challenge), GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans) and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).

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

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

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