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JULY 9, 2023
By Mark Robinson
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – Dan Goldburg learned his lesson in Saturday’s first IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race of the weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park when he was balked in traffic at the start. He wasn’t about to let it happen again in Sunday’s finale.
Goldburg got the jump on polesitter and chief championship rival Bijoy Garg at the drop of the green flag in Race 2, then held Garg at bay the rest of the way to claim his third win of the season in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class. Meanwhile in the GSX class for GT4 cars, Gregory Liefooghe drove away from the pack to a comfortable victory.
Goldburg pushed the No. 73 JDC MotorSports Duqueine D08 into the early race lead on the 2.459-mile road course as Garg was slow getting up to speed in the No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 and slipped to fourth position. While Goldburg remained up front, Garg worked his way back to second place just past halfway through the 45-minute race and set his sights on the leader.
When Goldburg drifted wide in Turn 5 (CTMP’s historic Moss Corner) with 15 minutes remaining, it allowed Garg to close up tight behind. The Californian made several takeover attempts the rest of the way – none successful – and Goldburg won by 1.347 seconds.
“I knew the start was super important so I was really on edge for that,” Goldburg said. “After that, it was run clean laps. The team was calling out the gap. I knew Garg was a little faster but I had a feeling where that would be and it would be pretty tough to pass, so I just stuck to my plan and focused on the traffic.
“Everything was just solid,” he added. “We were really strong for Race 1 but got held up at the start and all kinds of stuff, so happy to pull it out today.”
With the win, Goldburg unofficially leaves CTMP with a 50-point lead over Garg at the halfway point of the six-event, 12-race season.
JULY 8, 2023
By Mark Robinson
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario – Down 20 seconds halfway through, Mikey Taylor wasn’t sure he could claw back and win the Touring Car (TCR) portion of Saturday’s race. But cagey strategy coupled with a bump-and-run pass for the lead on the penultimate lap took Taylor and co-driver Chris Miller to victory in the No. 17 Unitronic/JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi RS3 LMS TCR.
Miller started from pole in the No. 17 and led the bulk of his stint, with Harry Gottsacker in the No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR hot on his heels the entire time. Gottsacker pitted from second position with an hour and 7 minutes to go, turning the No. 33 Hyundai over to Robert Wickens – the latter seeking a second straight win at his home track.
Miller stopped five minutes later but Taylor was staring at a 20-second deficit when he returned to the track in the No. 17 Audi. From there, the South African put on a calculated comeback as Wickens tried to conserve fuel in a gambit to make it to the finish.
“The team was just telling me what numbers to hit and what to do, and we were closing down on those guys,” Taylor said. “Save fuel, go fast, it’s a bit of a balance. It was just a management game the whole race.”
The leaders ran nose-to-tail late until Taylor dove inside Wickens into Moss Corner with under two minutes to go. The cars made contact, forcing Wickens wide and allowing Taylor to take the lead. Sensing damage to his Hyundai, Wickens made another pit stop for a splash of fuel and a quick check of the car. He returned nearly a lap down but still came home second, ahead of the sister No. 98 Hyundai shared by Mark Wilkins and Mason Filippi.
“There was a little bit of contact but we were both saving fuel and he was saving a little bit more than me,” Taylor explained. “I went down the inside and he turned in and I was there. That’s racing.”
Wickens said his car was challenging to drive on top of the need to conserve fuel.
“That was the only pace I had and I knew he was catching me,” he said. “My only plan was hopefully to have enough tire left to make a run at the end. Unfortunately, he hit me in (Turn) 5B to take the lead and then we had to pit the next lap. It is what it is.”
The win was the first for Miller and Taylor since Lime Rock Park last season and the first in the updated version of the Audi RS3 LMS.
“We’re learning more about this new Audi every race,” Miller said, “and it’s been a great job by the team to continue to develop it, get better with our pit stops. I think we’re in great shape for the rest of the season now.”
Despite losing out on the victory, Wickens and Gottsacker unofficially took sole possession of the TCR class lead after five races by 20 points over Wilkins and Filippi and 30 up on Miller and Taylor.
“Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out for us today, but it’s coming,” Gottsacker said. “It’s good points for us but we want that win pretty badly.”
The Lime Rock Park 100, a TCR-only race at the Connecticut road course, is next on the schedule on Saturday, July 22.
JULY 5, 2023
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Weekend Will Conclude a Nearly Four-Month Break for the Sprint Series
By Mark Robinson
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s no wonder Dan Goldburg is itching to get back into IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge competition again.
When the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) and GT4 (GSX class) cars take to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for practice on Friday, it will have been nearly four months since the new sprint series conducted a race. On top of that, it’s been a decade since Goldburg – the LMP3 points leader heading into the weekend – has raced on the track he adores.
“CTMP is a rippin’ track,” said Goldburg, who drives the No. 73 JDC MotorSports Duqueine D08. “High speed, full commitment, blind corners – I love CTMP! It’s probably our highest average speed of any track we’ll visit this year.
“I was last at CTMP in 2013 in the IMSA Lites days,” he added. “The track is a bit different (now) – bumpier, some new asphalt patches and some runoff areas that didn’t used to be paved – but the essence is still the same. The LMP3 car really rips here. It should make for some great racing.”
Goldburg was the overall and LMP3 class winner in both 45-minute sprint races when the VP Racing Challenge debuted at Daytona International Speedway in January. He added a pair of podium results at Sebring International Raceway in March and holds a 60-point advantage on Bijoy Garg (No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320). They head up a dozen LMP3 entries for CTMP, the largest LMP3 field to date in the new series.
Goldburg has worked to remain sharp during the long layoff between events. He’s raced a shifter kart at his local track whenever possible, gone testing in the LMP3 and was part of the JDC-Miller LMP3 lineup in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Watkins Glen International on June 25. Goldburg turned 52 race laps over two full stints as the No. 85 Duqueine finished ninth in class.
“It’s been some time since Sebring, but I’ve kept pretty active to be ready,” Goldburg said. “… I’m ‘primed and ready’ and looking forward to getting back on track with a solid field of 12 competitors in LMP3 for the CTMP races.”
Sixteen cars are entered in GSX at CTMP. Sebastian Carazo (No. 27 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport) is the class leader despite not winning a race yet. He’s on a streak of three straight podium finishes and leads Moisey Uretsky (No. 44 Accelerating Performance Aston Martin Vantage GT4) by 40 points atop the standings.
Two practice sessions and qualifying are scheduled for Friday at CTMP. Race 1 starts at 11:40 a.m. ET Saturday, with Race 2 at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Both races will stream live on Peacock in the U.S. and on IMSA.com/TVLive outside the U.S.
Rasmus Lindh joins Dan Goldburg and Till Bechtolsheimer in JDC-Miller MotorSports LMP3 No. 85 entry at Watkins Glen.
Savage, Minnesota (June 20, 2023). JDC-Miller MotorSports confirmed today that 21 year-old Rasmus Lindh from Gothenburg, Sweden will join season regulars Dan Goldburg and Till Bechtolsheimer in their JDC-Miller MotorSports Duqueine D08 LMP3 class No. 85 entry for this weekend’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen International.
Lindh has considerable open-wheel experience in the Road to Indy program. He was series runner up in USF2000 in 2018 and Indy Pro 2000 the following year. In 2020 he made his IMSA debut in a Prototype Challenge car and has competed in LMP3 since 2021, while also competing in the Road to Indy program. Currently, he competes in the Indy NXT championship with a full season campaign. Indy NXT is the final step to the NTT Indycar series.
The JDC-Miller MotorSports No. 85 currently sits 3rd in the LMP3 class of the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship.
Quotes:
Rasmus Lindh, No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Duqueine D08 LMP3
“I am really looking forward to being with JDC-Miller and back in LMP3 again. I have a really good feeling after the test we had a few weeks ago, and look to keep working on the good result that the team had in Sebring.”
Dan Goldburg, No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Duqueine D08 LMP3
“I am pumped for this weekend at Watkins! Till and I worked together quite well at Sebring, and I have many years working with Rasmus. He’s a rocket in these LMP3 machines and based on our speed in testing, we should be in the fight for the win!”
Till Bechtolsheimer, No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Duqueine D08 LMP3
“I’m looking forward to improving on our strong 3rd place performance at Sebring. Rasmus is a great addition to the driver line-up.”
John Church, Managing Partner, JDC-Miller MotorSports
“We are very happy that Rasmus can join us this weekend at Watkins Glen and team up with Dan and Till in our LMP3 class entry. We have tested with him at the Glen and were impressed with his speed and consistency. He will be a great addition to our line-up and will allow us to compete for the win this weekend.”
Minnesota-based JDC-Miller MotorSports began making its mark on the IMSA record books with a PC class win at the 2016 Rolex 24 Hours At Daytona. The John Miller and John Church led operation quickly transitioned to the top ranks of sports car racing in 2017, scoring two second place finishes and fourth in the final class championship.
The team’s success and growth continued in 2018, when they introduced a two-car effort and scored a victory at Watkins Glen and a pole position at Road America. Once again, JDC-Miller MotorSports finished fourth in the series championship despite racing an even larger and more competitive IMSA WeatherTech Championship field.
For the 2019 season, the team entered into a partnership with Cadillac to field a two car Cadillac DPi-V.R effort. The program had a number of podium finishes and added the prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring crown to its growing list of accolades.
JDC-Miller MotorSports entered into an agreement with Porsche for the 2023 season, making it the first customer team selected to campaign the German sports car manufacturer’s Porsche 963 customer program. The Porsche 963 will compete in the new GTP category, which competes as the top class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The GTP Class introduces technically sophisticated hybrid power to IMSA matching it for the first time to efficient and bespoke internal combustion engines. For more information, please visit: www.jdcmotorsports.com.
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MAY 30, 2023
The No. 5 Porsche Customer Team Looks to Build off a Competitive Showing at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
By John Oreovicz for IMSA.com
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s neither simple nor inexpensive to field a Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The cars are complex and costly – if you can even get one.
As so happens, Porsche has maintained a longtime tradition by offering the same 963 GTP car fielded by its factory team – Porsche Penske Motorsport – to privateers or customer teams. JDC-Miller MotorSports is the first IMSA team to step up to the challenge.
Last June at Watkins Glen International, JDC-Miller managing partners John Church and John Miller announced that they had committed the necessary $2.9 million to acquire their own 963, complete with Porsche factory engineering support. Thus began what turned into an 11-month wait, exacerbated by a worldwide shortage of key electronic sensors and spare parts.
Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell gave the JDC-Miller 963 a brief shakedown at the marque’s Weissach test track in Germany on April 20, and the team finally received its shiny new toy in Chicago six days after that. By the time JDC-Miller rolled up to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca two weeks later, the 963 wore a sporty new yellow wrap and the No. 5 for drivers Mike Rockenfeller and Tijmen van der Helm.
Church admitted he and Miller asked themselves, “What have we gotten into?” more than a few times over the last year or so.
“But I’ve been doing that for years,” Church added with a chuckle. “You think that, and then at the same time, you go, ‘Who else has opportunities like this?’ You have to be thankful for the opportunity. But yeah, lately it’s been a lot of, ‘We could have gone boating.’
“This year is a complete learning year for us, and we’re trying to remind the guys of that,” Church continued. “Don’t panic about the pace, don’t panic about where we’re at. Let’s go out and learn, figure it out and understand, and it’ll come. We’ve been successful in everything we’ve ever done. It’s going to take some time with this one, a little longer than normal.”
Church and the JDC-Miller team had realistic expectations for their debut race, the Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N on May 14. They treated the three days on track as a test session, something they simply did not have time for prior to the WeatherTech Raceway weekend.
They could have gone testing and delayed their 2023 competition baptism until the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in late June, but Church saw greater value in putting the operation through the pressure and time constraints of a race weekend.
“It’s a test weekend to get a feel for things,” he said. “I keep telling the guys that we’re here to learn the stuff we don’t know, and there’s a lot of things we don’t know that we don’t know. You don’t know what to expect until you start running the car.
“Now we can go home and analyze what happened at Laguna Seca, and then we really need to go and do a two-day test somewhere and continue learning about the car. The car has a lot of really cool stuff; it’s an awesome car, and we have the goal of upgrading every weekend. It’s just going to take a little while. But that’s part of the fun. Everything is a challenge; you just have to figure it out.”
Driver Lineup Combines Top-Level Experience with Talented Youth
Miller and Church opted for a driver lineup that combines Rockenfeller’s impressive history in a variety of sports cars with the youth and potential of van der Helm, a 19-year-old Dutchman who finished fourth in class in the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) shared with rookie Formula 1 driver Nyck de Vries.
Rockenfeller believes his role is to “calm things down” and use his vast experience to help JDC-Miller get the best out of the most complex car it has ever fielded.
The team has an impressive record of punching over its weight in WeatherTech Championship competition, scoring an overall victory at Watkins Glen in 2018 with its LMP2 over all the cars in the top Prototype class which also featured Daytona Prototype international (DPi) cars. JDC-Miller ran a customer Cadillac DPi for the last four years, claiming victory in the 2021 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and 10 other podium finishes.
“It’s a big challenge to learn the car and know the team,” said Rockenfeller. “I think I’ve seen a lot, and there’s a lot of experience in the team. That’s what you need, especially when you have no testing, no preparation. We are maybe a little bit the underdog, but I think not so bad.
“At the end of the day, it’s still a car with four wheels, two pedals and a steering wheel,” he added. “We just need to understand it and get a routine.”
Although the results of JDC-Miller’s WeatherTech Raceway weekend don’t look spectacular on paper, the team came away extremely happy. As expected, van der Helm and the No. 5 car qualified ninth for last in class, 2.2 seconds off the pole-winning time set by Campbell in the No. 7 Porsche. But Rockenfeller was impressed, saying his young co-driver “did a damn good job” and “has great potential.”
“A bit nervous, I didn’t know what to expect,” van der Helm noted. “I’ve never driven Laguna Seca, and a new car.
“Of course, it’s big – this is the highest (level) car that I ever drove,” he added. “Of course, more buttons, more everything, a different type of clutch, but I think I will enjoy it a lot.”
Every goal was also achieved in the race, as van der Helm and Rockenfeller brought the JDC-Miller 963 to the finish on the lead lap and without a scratch in seventh place, besting one of the BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8s and the troubled pole-qualifying Porsche. Even more impressive, Rockenfeller’s best race lap was just 0.416 seconds slower than the fastest Porsche, Nick Tandy in the factory No. 6.
The team’s performance impressed Rockenfeller, whose vast resume includes stints with factory racing programs for Porsche, Audi and Corvette and a pair of victories at Le Mans. The 39-year-old German, who has also co-driven to wins at Sebring and the Rolex 24 At Daytona, is delighted to be back in IMSA fulltime.
“It was very tricky to find my way back,” he said. “I’m so thankful to John and his team to give me the trust and the opportunity to come back to IMSA. I’m very happy to be involved, and hopefully throughout the year, we can show the potential of this car.”
