2020 MOTUL 100% Synthetic Grand Prix

The 2020 MOTUL 100% Synthetic Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in Concord, North Carolina on October 10th, 2020. This race was the eighth round of the 2020 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the sixth round of the 2020 WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

The overall race was won by the #3 team of Jordan Taylor and Antonio García, the duo's fifth of the season. The Turner Motorsport team of Robby Foley and Bill Auberlen took victory in the GTD class, their second win of the season.^[1]

Background[]

The race replaced the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park due to travel issues regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in Connecticut, meaning the race would be run as part of a triple-header weekend and a double-header Saturday evening with the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR Xfinity Series.^[2] The race was the shortest of the 2020 season at just 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes) in length, and was one of two events that included only entries from the GTLM and GTD classes.^[3] The race also marked the first time since 2000 that an IMSA series raced at Charlotte Motor Speedway.^[4] In late September, Motul was announced as the primary sponsor of the event.^[5]

On October 2, 2020, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin regarding the Balance of Performance for the race. In the GTLM class, the Porsche 911 received a 15 kilogram weight reduction, while no other changes were made to other cars in the class. In GTD, the Ferrari 488 received a 6.7 horsepower increase, a 5 kilogram increase in minimum weight, and a one-liter increase in fuel capacity.^[6]

Entries[]

A total of 18 cars took part in the event, the lowest number of entries that season, but because the two prototype classes were not scheduled to participate in this event, there were more cars between the two participating classes for this race than the previous round at Mid-Ohio. There were six cars in the GTLM class, two more than at Mid-Ohio, when the CORE Autosport-run Porsche GT Team skipped the previous round due to novel coronavirus concerns within the Porsche factory camp following the 24 Heures du Mans, and twelve cars in the GTD class, the same as the preceding event. Jeff Kingsley made his series debut in the Compass McLaren.^[7] Despite the BoP break, Scuderia Corsa missed their second consecutive event, with driver Cooper MacNeil focusing on a championship in the Ferrari Challenge.^[6] Frankie Montecalvo was replaced in the #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan entry by Michael De Quesada, as the former was getting married (originally, this race was to have been held at Lime Rock Park on July 17-18, and later rescheduled to October 30-31 before being moved to Charlotte where promoters moved the dates to be part of the NASCAR weekend after state authorities rejected the event over travel restrictions).^[8]

Qualifying[]

Both qualifying sessions demonstrated the drivers' lack of familiarity with the circuit. Laurens Vanthoor broke his Porsche's rear suspension in an accident at turn 7 that drew a red flag. As the session came to a close, Jesse Krohn knocked the mirror off his BMW in turn 1. GTD pole-winner Aaron Telitz suffered minor contact with the outside wall coming out of the final chicane, Kingsley and Rob Ferriol made contact coming into said chicane, and the GTD session's red flag came after Mikhail Goikhberg hit the wall at turn 7 and was unable to get his car going again.^[9]

Qualifying results[]

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by .

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jordan Taylor	1:14.278	_	1
2	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Frédéric Makowiecki	1:14.334	+0.056	2
3	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Bruno Spengler	1:14.730	+0.452	3
4	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	Jesse Krohn	1:14.824	+0.546	4
5	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin	1:15.067	+0.789	5
6	GTD	14	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Aaron Telitz	1:17.954	+3.676	6
7	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Robby Foley	1:18.077	+3.799	7
8	GTD	86	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Matt McMurry	1:18.091	+3.813	8
9	GTD	76	Compass Racing	Jeff Kingsley	1:18.147	+3.869	9
10	GTD	16	Wright Motorsports	Ryan Hardwick	1:18.232	+3.954	10
11	GTD	74	Riley Motorsports	Gar Robinson	1:18.540	+4.262	11
12	GTD	22	Gradient Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer	1:18.725	+4.447	12
13	GTD	12	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Michael De Quesada	1:18.923	+4.645	13
14	GTD	23	Heart of Racing Team	Ian James	1:19.299	+5.021	14
15	GTD	44	GRT Magnus Racing Team	John Potter	1:20.102	+5.824	15
16	GTD	30	Team Hardpoint	Rob Ferriol	1:21.235	+6.957	16
17	GTD	57	Heinricher Racing with MSR Curb-Agajanian	Mikhail Goikhberg	1:22.908	+8.630	17
18	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Laurens Vanthoor			18
Source:[10]

Results[]

Class winners are denoted in bold and .

Pos	Class	No.	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Laps	Time/Retired
					Engine
1	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jordan Taylor Antonio García	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	62	1:40:08.170
					Chevrolet 5.5L V8
2	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	John Edwards Jesse Krohn	BMW M8 GTE	62	+1.474
					BMW S63 4.0L Turbo V8
3	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Connor De Phillippi Bruno Spengler	BMW M8 GTE	62	+2.059
					BMW S63 4.0L Turbo V8
4	GTD	96	Turner Motorsport	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen	BMW M6 GT3	61	+1 Lap
					BMW 4.4L Turbo V8
5	GTD	16	Wright Motorsports	Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long	Porsche 911 GT3 R	61	+1 Lap
					Porsche 4.0L Flat-6
6	GTD	23	Heart of Racing Team	Ian James Roman De Angelis	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3	61	+1 Lap
					Aston Martin 4.0L Turbo V8
7	GTD	12	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Michael De Quesada Townsend Bell	Lexus RC F GT3	61	+1 Lap
					Lexus 5.0L V8
8	GTD	57	Heinricher Racing with MSR Curb-Agajanian	Álvaro Parente Mikhail Goikhberg	Acura NSX GT3 Evo	61	+1 Lap
					Acura 3.5L Turbo V6
9	GTD	30	Team Hardpoint	Rob Ferriol Spencer Pumpelly	Audi R8 LMS Evo	61	+1 Lap
					Audi 5.2L V10
10	GTD	86	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	Mario Farnbacher Matt McMurry	Acura NSX GT3 Evo	61	+1 Lap
					Acura 3.5L Turbo V6
11	GTD	14	AIM Vasser Sullivan	Jack Hawksworth Aaron Telitz	Lexus RC F GT3	61	+1 Lap
					Lexus 5.0L V8
12	GTD	76	Compass Racing	Jeff Kingsley Paul Holton	McLaren 720S GT3	60	+2 Laps
					McLaren M840T 4.0L Turbo V8
13	GTD	74	Riley Motorsports	Lawson Aschenbach Gar Robinson	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	60	+2 Laps
					Mercedes-AMG M159 G.2L V8
14	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	54	DNF (Accident)
					Chevrolet 5.5L V8
15	GTD	44	GRT Magnus Racing Team	John Potter Andy Lally	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	25	DNF (Tire Failures)
					Lamborghini 5.2L V10
16	GTD	22	Gradient Racing	Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller	Acura NSX GT3 Evo	22	DNF (Accident)
					Acura 3.5L Turbo V6
17	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Frédéric Makowiecki Nick Tandy	Porsche 911 RSR-19	8	DNF (Accident)
					Porsche 4.2L Flat-6
18	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 RSR-19	4	DNF (Accident)
					Porsche 4.2L Flat-6
Box Score

References[]

External links[]

• IMSA Race Resource Guide