Whelen Engineering Finishes Fourth at Road America

Elkhart Lake, Wisc. (6 August 2017) - The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R came home fourth in Sunday’s IMSA Continental Tire Road Race Showcase with drivers Dane Cameron and Eric Curran.

The duo entered the event weekend as the defending race winners and were looking to add to their record of IMSA WeatherTech success at the 4-mile natural terrain road course in rural Wisconsin.

Curran opened the race from sixth on the grid and moved up to fifth on the opening lap.

The close-quarters racing saw an aerodynamic piece on the front of the No. 31 become dislodged after contact with another car. Through an opening segment that gave the race fans a competitive show as the field ran at a flat out pace, the Whelen Engineering driver was able to race his way up to second in the order before turning the car over to Cameron on a lap 39 pit stop.

Cameron ran in podium position for much of his stint before a pair of late-race cautions added a range of strategies for the field. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac slotted into fourth for the final restart on lap 62. Despite working to get everything there was out of his car, the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech Champion wasn’t able to find a way back on to the podium as he crossed the finish line fourth at the checkers.

“Eric (Curran) did a great job at the beginning, he had a little front damage there at the start, but held on to run second,” said Cameron. “It is hard to say what that was costing (losing the front dive plane) but it was definitely not helping! We are lacking straight line speed, if we got held up in a pack it was tough to move. We are getting closer but we need to find a little more. We need a little back on the straight-line speed to race these guys. We will go from here to Mazda Raceway.”

“The guys gave us a great Whelen Cadillac today and I think we gave it our all,” Curran said. “I had a good first couple of stints and ran second at the beginning of the race. The car ran well all race long, but we just didn’t have the speed of the front runners. Maybe we can get a realignment after this weekend for the next two races. We will go back to work and be ready to race at Laguna.”

Whelen Engineering Racing will return to IMSA competition September 22-24 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.