Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin – Nissan power claimed victory yesterday with Pipo Derani and Johannes van Overbeek taking the No.22 ESM team machine to the top spot in the Road America round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Both Nissan-powered Onroak entries finished on the podium with Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel finishing the day in third place.
The two cars were in contention throughout the day on the picturesque 4.0-mile Road America circuit. In the two hour, 40-minute race, Derani made the key move on a restart with 37 minutes remaining. He drafted up behind championship leader Jordan Taylor and then made the pass around the outside into turn one.
At the time, the move was for second place, but the race leader was out of sequence and needed to pit, which allowed Derani to charge to victory – the first for the Nissan-powered Onroak Daytona Prototype International chassis.
Restart with 35m to go. @PipoDerani goes around the outside in turn 1 to go to 2nd place.
⏱ https://t.co/itFz2jeADU pic.twitter.com/Bw0eeQKNMI— Nissan NISMO (@NISMO) August 6, 2017
“To win at Road America is amazing. Hopefully this is just the beginning,” said Derani.
“It was really important on the restart because Road America is such a high speed track. Every time we tried to get close to the guy in front we would lose the aero and it is really hard during green flag laps. I knew I had to use the restart to try to get really close to him and try a pass. Fortunately, I got a good exit out of the last corner and I managed to use the tow all the way down to the first corner.”
Added the talented Brazilian: “I was able to make the pass on the outside, which is very nice. It was the move that got us the win today. I’m really proud that we managed to put ourselves in position to win today.”
Huge day at @roadamerica. @PipoDerani @JohannesvanOver win for the @Nissan-powered @PatronESM team with Scott Sharp @ryan_dalziel 3rd. pic.twitter.com/o0U5yH00G2
— Nissan NISMO (@NISMO) August 7, 2017
Take a brief inside look at yesterday’s double podium day at @roadamerica pic.twitter.com/NmIH9btL7q
— Tequila Patrón ESM (@PatronESM) August 7, 2017
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