2017 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase

IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase was part of the series' schedule for the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road America's victory lane in August 2016.^[1] It was the fourth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2017 Continental Tire Road Race Showcase was the ninth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2017 by IMSA, and was the sixth round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup.^[2] The race was held at the fourteen-turn 4.048 mi (6.515 km) Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 6, 2017.^[2] After the Northeast Grand Prix two weeks earlier, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 226 points, ahead of João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi with 207 points, and Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson with 200 points.^[3] With 216 points, the PC Drivers' Championship was led by James French and Patricio O'Ward with a thirty-four point advantage over Don Yount.^[3] Antonio García and Jan Magnussen led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 211 points, ahead of Joey Hand and Dirk Müller with 204 points.^[3] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 228 points, ahead of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen with 211 points. Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Performance Tech Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa each led their own Teams' Championships.^[3]

During this race weekend, IMSA holds their "State of the Series" annual press conference, in which they confirm and announce their future plans for the series they sanction.

On July 27, 2017, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of performance for the event.^[4] In GTLM, the Ford GT received an increase in turbo boost pressure.

A total of 34 cars took part in the event split across 4 classes. 8 cars were entered in P, 3 in PC, 8 in GTLM, and 15 in GTD.^[5] In P, José Gutiérrez and Olivier Pla replaced David Ostella and Nicholas Boulle in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry.^[5] VisitFlorida Racing switched from the Riley Mk. 30 to the Ligier JS P217.^[6][7] Mazda Motorsports were absent after Joest Racing took over the RT24-P program and undergo extensive testing.^[8] As a result, the team would not contest the remaining races of the season and SpeedSource would shut down.^[9][10] In PC, Gustavo Yacamán joined Mark Kvamme in the #26 BAR1 Motorsports entry. In GTD, Alex Job Racing and TRG skipped the event.^[5][11] Lone Star Racing made their first appearance since the Circuit of the Americas round.^[5] Michael de Quesada returned to the Alegra Motorsports entry. Scott Pruett and Robert Alon swapped seats in the 3GT Racing entries.^[12] Riley Motorsports - WeatherTech Racing switched from the Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the Porsche 911 GT3 R due to BOP concerns.^[13]

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.^[14]

The first practice session took place at 11:20 am CT on Friday and ended with Marc Goossens topping the charts for VisitFlorida Racing, with a lap time of 1:59.977.^[15] The PC class was topped by the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca FLM09 of James French with a time of 2:07.523.^[15] Patrick Pilet was fastest in GTLM while Patrick Lindsey set the fastest time in GTD.^[16]

The second practice session took place at 4:10 pm CT on Friday and ended with Stephen Simpson topping the charts for JDC-Miller MotorSports, with a lap time of 1:55.057.^[19] Patricio O'Ward set the fastest time in PC.^[20] The GTLM class was topped by the #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Dirk Müller with a time of 2:03.967. Antonio García was second in the #3 Corvette Racing entry and Bill Auberlen rounded out the top 3.^[19] Colin Braun was fastest in GTD.^[20]

The third and final practice session took place at 8:55 am CT on Saturday and ended with Ryan Dalziel topping the charts for Tequila Patrón ESM, with a lap time of 1:53.851.^[23] Patricio O'Ward set the fastest time PC by 2.984 seconds ahead of Buddy Rice in the #20 BAR1 Motorsports entry.^[24] The GTLM class was topped by the #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M6 GTLM of Martin Tomczyk with a time of 2:02.129.^[24] Lawson Aschenbach was fastest in GTD.^[23] The session ended early after Katherine Legge crashed at Canada Corner. The car suffered heavy damage to the front, but Legge was uninjured and exited her car.^[25]

In Saturday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars.^[28][14]

The first was for cars in GTD class. Jeroen Mul qualified on pole for the class driving the #16 car for Change Racing, besting Jesse Krohn in the Turner Motorsport entry.^[29]

The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. Dirk Müller qualified on pole driving the #66 car for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, beating Ryan Briscoe in the sister #67 entry Ford Chip Ganassi Racing by over seven tenths of a second.^[30][31]

The third session of qualifying was for cars in the PC class. James French set the fastest time driving the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry.^[32]

The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Ricky Taylor qualified on pole driving the #10 car for Wayne Taylor Racing, besting José Gutiérrez in the #52 entry from PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.^[32]

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

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	P	10	Wayne Taylor Racing	Ricky Taylor	1:53.058	_	1‡
2	P	52	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	José Gutiérrez	1:54.075	+1.017	2
3	P	2	Tequila Patrón ESM	Scott Sharp	1:54.088	+1.030	3
4	P	90	VisitFlorida Racing	Marc Goossens	1:54.186	+1.128	4
5	P	22	Tequila Patrón ESM	Johannes van Overbeek	1:54.189	+1.131	5
6	P	31	Whelen Racing Engineering	Eric Curran	1:54.222	+1.164	6
7	P	5	Mustang Sampling Racing	Christian Fittipaldi	1:54.588	+1.530	111
8	P	85	JDC-Miller MotorSports	Mikhail Goikhberg	1:54.648	+1.590	7
9	PC	38	Performance Tech Motorsports	James French	1:59.149	+6.091	8‡
10	GTLM	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Dirk Müller	2:01.422	+8.364	12‡
11	PC	20	BAR1 Motorsports	Don Yount	2:02.128	+9.070	9
12	GTLM	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ryan Briscoe	2:02.203	+9.145	13
13	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Alexander Sims	2:02.211	+9.153	14
14	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Gianmaria Bruni	2:02.440	+9.382	15
15	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	Martin Tomczyk	2:02.583	+9.525	332
16	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Patrick Pilet	2:02.670	+9.612	16
17	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin	2:03.358	+10.300	17
18	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jan Magnussen	2:03.581	+10.523	18
19	PC	26	BAR1 Motorsports	Mark Kvamme	2:04.817	+11.759	10
20	GTD	16	Change Racing	Jeroen Mul	2:06.649	+13.591	19‡
21	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Jesse Krohn	2:06.823	+13.765	20
22	GTD	73	Park Place Motorsports	Patrick Lindsey	2:07.149	+14.091	21
23	GTD	15	3GT Racing	Scott Pruett	2:07.170	+14.112	22
24	GTD	57	Stevenson Motorsports	Andrew Davis	2:07.403	+14.345	23
25	GTD	48	Paul Miller Racing	Madison Snow	2:07.415	+14.357	353
26	GTD	86	Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Oswaldo Negri Jr.	2:07.469	+14.411	24
27	GTD	63	Scuderia Corsa	Christina Nielsen	2:07.477	+14.419	25
28	GTD	33	Riley Motorsports - Team AMG	Ben Keating	2:07.793	+14.735	26
29	GTD	14	3GT Racing	Robert Alon	2:07.984	+14.926	27
30	GTD	50	Riley Motorsports - WeatherTech Racing	Cooper MacNeil	2:08.979	+15.921	28
31	GTD	75	SunEnergy1 Racing	Kenny Habul	2:09.321	+16.263	324
32	GTD	54	CORE Autosport	Jon Bennett	2:09.547	+16.489	29
33	GTD	28	Alegra Motorsports	Michael de Quesada	2:10.442	+17.384	345
34	GTD	80	Lone Star Racing	Dan Knox	Disqualified		30
35	GTD	93	Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Did Not Participate			316
Sources:[33][34]

• ¹ The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing entry was moved to the back of the P field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[28]
• ² The No. 24 BMW Team RLL entry was moved to the back of the GTLM field as per Articles 40.2.12 and 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Engine change) and (Change of starting tires).^[28]
• ³ The No. 48 Paul Miller Racing entry initially qualified sixth for the GTD class. However, their car failed post qualifying inspection after the team's Lamborghini was using unhomologated parts as well as not meeting technical compliance. The car's ECU was also confiscated by IMSA. As a result, Paul Miller Racing were fined $7,500, and received a 15-point penalty in the Drivers' and Teams' Championships.^[35][36]
• ⁴ The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[28]
• ⁵ The No. 28 Alegra Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[28]
• ⁶ The No. 93 Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian entry was moved to the back of the GTD as per Article 43.5 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting driver).^[28]