2021 Road Race Showcase at Road America

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in September 2020. It was the eighth consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SportsCar Championship.^[1] The 2021 Road Race Showcase at Road America was the eighth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2021 by IMSA, and it was the fifth round held as part of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.^[2] The race was held at the fourteen-turn 4.048 mi (6.515 km) Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 8, 2021.^[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 August 3, 2021, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event.^[4] In DPi, the Mazda RT24-P received a 10 kilogram weight increase. In GTD, the Lexus RC F GT3 received a 10 kilogram weight increase. The Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was given a 6.7 horsepower reduction. The Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo and BMW M6 GT3 were given fuel capacity reduction of 1 and 2 liters, respectively. No changes were made in GTLM.

Before the race, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 2068 points, ahead of Oliver Jarvis and Harry Tincknell in second with 1987 points, and Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr with 1954 points.^[5] In LMP2, Mikkel Jensen and Ben Keating led the Drivers' Championship with 1087 points, ahead of Tristan Nunez and Steven Thomas.^[5] With 1468 points, Gar Robinson led the LMP3 Drivers' Championship, 96 points ahead of Jon Bennett and Colin Braun.^[5] Antonio García and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 1852 points, 191 points ahead of Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy followed by Cooper MacNeil in third.^[5] With 1606 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn, ahead of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley.^[5] Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Aston Martin were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Riley Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Heart of Racing Team each led their own Teams' Championships.^[5]

A total 35 cars took part in the event split across five classes. 6 were entered in DPi, 4 in LMP2, 7 in LMP3, 3 in GTLM, and 15 in GTD.^[6] Ryan Dalziel substituted for Kyle Tilley in the Era Motorsport entry due to a clash with the NASCAR Cup Series round at Watkins Glen.^[7] Jr III Motorsports and Wulver Motorsports made their IMSA SportsCar Championship debuts at this event while Dawson Racing was absent. Dan Goldburg returned to the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry after Mateo Llarena filled in at Watkins Glen. NTE Sport returned after skipping the Lime Rock round.^[8]

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, one on Friday and one on Saturday.^[9] The first session on Friday afternoon lasted one hour while the second session on Saturday morning lasted 105 minutes.

The first practice session took place at 6:10 PM CT on Friday and ended with Harry Tincknell topping the charts for Mazda Motorsports, with a lap time of 2:09.769.^[10]

The second and final practice session took place at 9:55 AM CT on Saturday and ended with Ricky Taylor topping the charts for Konica Minolta Acura, with a lap time of 1:49.752.^[12]

Qualifying was broken into four sessions.^[9] Rain fell and increased as qualifying progressed.^[14][15] The first was for cars in GTD class. Aaron Telitz's No. 14 Lexus was fastest overall, lapping at 2 minutes, 07.195 seconds, beating Trent Hindman's No. 16 Porsche by more than six-tenths of a second. Robby Foley was third in the No. 96 BMW followed by Zacharie Robichon in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche.^[16]

The second session was for cars in the GTLM and GTD classes. Jordan Taylor's No. 3 Corvette was 26th overall, and was the fastest GTLM car with a 2 minutes, 20.979 second laps. His teammate Nick Tandy qualified the No. 4 Corvette the GTLM grid's front row and Cooper MacNeil's No. 79 Porsche was third.^[15][17] Laurens Vanthoor set the fastest time in the GTD points paying session and earned 35 championship points.^[16]

The third session was for cars in the LMP3 class. Dan Goldburg's No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier was 23rd overall and was the fastest LMP3 car with a 2 minutes, 19.106 seconds lap.^[14]

The final session of qualifying was for cars in the DPi and LMP2 classes. Felipe Nasr's No. 31 Cadillac was third overall and would start from began from pole position with a 2 minutes, 7.195 seconds lap. He was seven-tenths clear of Ricky Taylor's No. 10 Acura in second. Kevin Magnussen took third for Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing. Ben Keating's No. 52 Oreca was 22nd overall and was the fastest LMP2 car with a 2 minutes, 18.511 seconds lap. Steven Thomas' No. 11 WIN Autosport Oreca took third and John Farano's No. 8 Tower Motorsport Oreca was third.^[17]

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

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	GTD	14	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Aaron Telitz	2:07.195	_	21‡
2	GTD	16	Wright Motorsports	Trent Hindman	2:07.862	+0.667	22
3	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Felipe Nasr	2:07.919	+0.724	1‡
4	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Robby Foley	2:07.953	+0.758	23
5	GTD	9	Pfaff Motorsports	Zacharie Robichon	2:08.209	+1.014	24
6	GTD	39	CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing	Richard Heistand	2:08.341	+1.146	25
7	GTD	23	Heart Of Racing Team	Roman De Angelis	2:08.569	+1.374	26
8	DPi	10	WTR-Konica Minolta Acura	Ricky Taylor	2:08.677	+1.482	2
9	GTD	12	Vasser Sullivan Racing	Frankie Montecalvo	2:08.702	+1.507	27
10	DPi	55	Mazda Motorsports	Oliver Jarvis	2:08.716	+1.521	3
11	GTD	1	Paul Miller Racing	Madison Snow	2:09.110	+1.915	28
12	DPi	01	Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing	Kevin Magnussen	2:09.194	+1.999	4
13	GTD	76	Compass Racing	Jeff Kingsley	2:09.321	+2.126	29
14	GTD	32	Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports	Shane Lewis	2:09.990	+2.795	30
15	GTD	88	Team Hardpoint EBM	Rob Ferriol	2:10.173	+2.978	31
16	GTD	66	Gradient Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer	2:10.263	+3.068	32
17	GTD	19	GRT Grasser Racing Team	Misha Goikhberg	2:10.266	+3.071	33
18	DPi	5	JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing	Tristan Vautier	2:10.497	+3.302	5
19	DPi	60	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Olivier Pla	2:10.500	+3.305	6
20	GTD	44	Magnus Racing with Archangel Motorsports	John Potter	2:12.194	+4.999	34
21	GTD	42	NTE Sport	Don Yount	2:14.383	+7.188	35
22	LMP2	52	PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports	Ben Keating	2:18.511	+11.316	7‡
23	LMP3	38	Performance Tech Motorsports	Dan Goldburg	2:19.106	+11.911	11‡
24	LMP3	74	Riley Motorsports	Gar Robinson	2:19.419	+12.224	12
25	LMP2	11	WIN Autosport	Steven Thomas	2:19.941	+12.746	8
26	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jordan Taylor	2:20.979	+13.784	18‡
27	LMP3	36	Andretti Autosport	Jarett Andretti	2:21.170	+13.975	13
28	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Nick Tandy	2:21.606	+14.411	19
29	LMP3	54	CORE Autosport	Jon Bennett	2:21.885	+14.690	14
30	LMP3	61	Wulver Motorsports	Augie Pabst	2:22.170	+14.975	15
31	GTLM	79	WeatherTech Racing	Cooper MacNeil	2:24.174	+14.979	20
32	LMP2	8	Tower Motorsport By Starworks	John Farano	2:24.176	+14.981	9
33	LMP3	30	Jr III Motorsports	Theodor Olsen	2:24.600	+17.405	17
34	LMP3	91	Riley Motorsports	Jim Cox	2:25.260	+18.065	17
35	LMP2	18	Era Motorsport	Dwight Merriman	2:27.462	+20.267	10
Sources:[18][19][20][21][22]