The first few minutes of the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park were quite frantic as Stephen Simpson of JDC/Miller Motorsports pulled of a gap of over 14 seconds in the opening 15 minutes - after catching the GT Daytona backmarkers in the first five minutes.
James French, running second in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports entry, had to save fuel, resulting in Simpson running away with a 37-second lead until the first round of pit stops.
In GTD, Dion von Moltke in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing was the one to beat leading ahead of Ben Keating of Riley Motorsports at the start. After Keating ran off at the esses, it seemed like the Park Place Motorsports Porsche of Lee Kingsley could challenge the Audi of Moltke, but settled for second with a gap of three-and-a-half seconds.
After 67 laps, Simpson, still leading in PC, came for his first pitstop, rejoining the track in fouth. All the other PC competitors made their mandatory pit stops on the next lap. Afterwards, GTD cars made their pit stops. Ben Keating was the only one opting to stay out, hoping for a yellow. Then disaster struck for the JDC/Miller Motorsports crew.
Simpson came to a sudden stop approaching the esses due to a fuel flow issue in his Chevrolet V8 engine, bringing out the first full course caution of the day.
Conor Daly in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA FLM09 lead the way ahead of Bruno Junqueira in the No. 11 RSR Racing entry at the restart. In the GTD category on the restart, Andy Lally slashed off a door of the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari driven by Bill Sweedler. Lally, in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Flex-Box Porsche 911 GT America, suffered a cut tire during the contact.
With just over one hour remaining in the race, disaster struck yet again - this time, for the leaders in both PC and GTD
Both of the class leaders, Conor Daly and Christopher Haase, were involved in a vicious accident in the fast final corner of the track, with the Audi of Haase hitting the ORECA FLM09 as Daly attempted to pass him on the inside, sending them both flying through the grass run-off area and hard into the tire barrier. Bruno Junqueira and Jeroen Bleekemolen inherited the lead in Prototype Challenge and GT Daytona, respectively.
Drivers had to endure about seven minutes of yellow until the green flag came back out following the fast accident between the two leaders. The restart saw Junqueira continuing his lead over Tom Kimber-Smith.
Just a few laps later, Kimber-Smith made an impressive move down the inside into Turn 1 to pass Junqueira for the lead. Kimber-Smith stayed in front after the last round of pit stops for both classes with half-an-hour remaining, and he was able to hold onto it to bring the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry to victory lane.
Turner Motorsport, meanwhile, played the fuel strategy perfectly and only pitted once during the race. The No. 97 car saved fuel and held off a late charge from Bleekemolen to win in GTD - capping off what started as a terrible weekend for the No. 97 BMW Z4 of Turner Motorsport as Michael Marsal had a heavy crash in Practice 1 on Friday.
The next race for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase, will take place at Road America with all four classes present at the track on August 7-9. Follow @VAVELSportsCar on Twitter for coverage leading up to and during the race weekend.
David van den Boom is a writer for the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @david__vdb.