2017 Northeast Grand Prix

IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the Northeast Grand Prix 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 third consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the twenty-sixth annual running of the race. The 2017 Northeast Grand Prix was the eighth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2017 by IMSA, and was the fifth round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup.^[2] The race was held at the seven-turn 1.530 mi (2.462 km) Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut on July 22, 2017.^[2] For the first time since the 2009 running of the event, the PC class would not be competing.^[3][4]

After the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix one week earlier, Antonio García and Jan Magnussen led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 182 points, ahead of Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims with 179 points, and Joey Hand and Dirk Müller with 172 points.^[5] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 203 points, ahead of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen with 195 points.^[5] Chevrolet, and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa each led their own Teams' Championships.^[5]

A total of 25 cars took part in the event split across two classes. 8 cars were entered in GTLM and 17 in GTD.^[6] In GTD, Alex Job Racing returned after skipping the previous round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.^[6][7] Patrick Long joined Daniel Morad in the Alegra Motorsports entry.^[8] TRG made their first appearance since the Circuit of the Americas round.^[9] Jesse Krohn joined Jens Klingmann in the Turner Motorsport entry.^[10]

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, both on Friday. The two one-hour sessions were on Friday afternoon.^[11]

The first practice session took place at 12:05 pm ET on Friday and ended with Dirk Müller topping the charts for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, with a lap time of 51.077.^[12] Jörg Bergmeister was fastest in GTD.^[13]

The second and final practice session took place at 2:25 pm ET on Friday and ended with Gianmaria Bruni topping the charts for Porsche GT Team, with a lap time of 50.601.^[16] Madison Snow set the fastest time in GTD.^[17]

Friday afternoon's 40-minute two-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 then arranged the grid to put GTLMs ahead of GTD cars.^[20][11]

Qualifying was broken into two sessions. The first was for cars in GTD class. Madison Snow qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 48 car for Paul Miller Racing.^[21]

The final session of qualifying was for the GTLM class. Gianmaria Bruni qualified on pole driving the No. 912 car for Porsche GT Team, besting Ryan Briscoe in the #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entry.^[22]

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

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Gianmaria Bruni	50.404	_	1‡
2	GTLM	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ryan Briscoe	50.540	+0.136	2
3	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Dirk Werner	50.606	+0.202	3
4	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	John Edwards	50.681	+0.277	4
5	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Tommy Milner	50.720	+0.316	5
6	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jan Magnussen	50.730	+0.326	6
7	GTLM	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Dirk Müller	50.806	+0.402	7
8	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Bill Auberlen	50.939	+0.535	8
9	GTD	48	Paul Miller Racing	Madison Snow	52.508	+2.104	9‡
10	GTD	54	CORE Autosport	Colin Braun	52.699	+2.295	231
11	GTD	28	Alegra Motorsports	Patrick Long	52.836	+2.432	10
12	GTD	15	3GT Racing	Jack Hawksworth	52.876	+2.472	11
13	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Jens Klingmann	52.937	+2.533	12
14	GTD	73	Park Place Motorsports	Patrick Lindsey	52.947	+2.543	13
15	GTD	57	Stevenson Motorsports	Andrew Davis	52.960	+2.556	14
16	GTD	93	Michael Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian	Katherine Legge	52.961	+2.557	15
17	GTD	63	Scuderia Corsa	Christina Nielsen	53.010	+2.606	16
18	GTD	007	TRG	Brandon Davis	53.107	+2.703	17
19	GTD	14	3GT Racing	Sage Karam	53.140	+2.736	18
20	GTD	33	Riley Motorsports – Team AMG	Ben Keating	53.194	+2.790	19
21	GTD	86	Michael Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian	Oswaldo Negri Jr.	53.197	+2.793	20
22	GTD	16	Change Racing	Corey Lewis	53.294	+2.890	21
23	GTD	75	SunEnergy1 Racing	Kenny Habul	53.500	+3.096	252
24	GTD	50	Riley Motorsports – WeatherTech Racing	Cooper MacNeil	53.629	+3.225	223
25	GTD	23	Alex Job Racing	Bill Sweedler	53.998	+3.594	244
Sources:[23][24]

• ¹ The No. 54 CORE Autosport entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Articles 43.5 and 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting driver) and (Change of starting tires).^[20]
• ² The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Articles 43.5 and 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting driver) and (Change of starting tires).^[20]
• ³ The No. 50 Riley Motorsports – WeatherTech Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[20]
• ⁴ The No. 23 Alex Job Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).^[20]