LEXINGTON, Ohio (May 5, 2019) – The CORE autosport team left Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course unsatisfied after a late-race mechanical failure ended its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race early.
Colin Braun was in the No. 54 Nissan Ligier DPi, entering Turn Four, when the left front suspension broke. The car bounced into the gravel trap and brought out the race’s only full-course yellow. A quick examination of the car showed that it would be unable to continue with 35 minutes left in the race.
To that point, CORE had been running a steady and error-free race in the ADT Nissan. Driver Jon Bennett took the start from 11th on the grid and kept the car clear of the opening lap incidents ahead of him.
It was a uniquely challenging stint for Bennett and all the IMSA drivers. The weekend to that point had been cold and wet and run mainly on wet tires. On race day, the rain stopped and the sun came out while cars were on the grid. Bennett had only a lap and a half to get heat into the tires before the start and trust the grip would be there when the green flag came out.
After completing his minimum drive time, Bennett handed the car over to Braun, still in 11th. The pit stop was out of sync with the race leaders and put the No. 54 a lap down, but Braun managed to fight his way through the DPi field and get the lap back.
The team needed a full-course yellow to get back on the lead lap for good, otherwise each pit stop would put them a lap down. Unfortunately, it was Braun’s trip to the Turn Four gravel that finally brought out the safety car.
CORE will regroup and look ahead to Round Five of the IMSA Championship: the Detroit Grand Prix, May 31 – June 1. The race will air on NBC Sports Network, June 1, at 12:30pm.
JON BENNETT
Driver: No. 54 Nissan Ligier DPi
“It’s been a challenging weekend here at Mid-Ohio. It doesn’t help dealing with conditions that you know won’t be relevant to race conditions. I think we adapted fairly well. The team and Colin did an amazing job with the car to put us in a good position, but ultimately we had a mechanical failure end our day. Sometimes that’s how it goes at the race track. I’m looking forward to arriving strong at Detroit and giving our new partners at ADT a great race.”
COLIN BRAUN
Driver: No. 54 Nissan Ligier DPi
“It’s challenging to have different track conditions than you’ve had all weekend and then jump in, in the middle of the race and figure it out. I thought it was pretty fun though. Certainly we would have loved to have some dry practice to dial our car in. It’s a big advantage for the teams that had the same car here last year; they had something to work from, but we took a shot in the dark. I’m proud of all the guys. Jon did a great job and we had really nice pit stops. I think we did all we could do given the way the race unfolded with no yellows.
“I’ve seen it in a few Formula 1 clips. The driver hits the brakes and you see sparks fly and a wheel falls off. That’s basically what happened. Our left front suspension collapsed and I launched off the end of Turn Four and landed in the gravel at a pretty steep angle.”