Gradient Racing Denied Top-Six Result Through Road America Contact

Gradient Racing were cruelly denied a likely top-six finish from the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship’s visit to the magnificent Road America Circuit after suffering contact from behind at a critical stage of the race.

Photo Courtesy of Josh Snider of https://operationmotorsport.org/

But a dogged fightback resulted in a top-10 result as the order was dramatically altered on the final lap, much to the advantage of the #66 JG Wentworth HPD Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22 and drivers Sheena Monk and Katherine Legge.

Coming off the back of two top six finishes from the previous three races, Sheena and Katherine showed good speed and consistency at a track that has never previously played to the strengths of their car, but which had undergone a total repaving this year.

A succession of red flags in practice led to limited track time on the new surface as the team from Austin, TX, prepared for Saturday’s 15-minute qualifying session, but Sheena responded magnificently with a career-best 10th place in GTD – second-quickest of the bronze-graded drivers taking part.

The Newtown, PA, native was even more impressive during the opening stint as she pulled the Acura up to seventh in class at the 45 minute mark before handing the reins over to her British co-driver.

Katherine, once aboard, was involved in a relentless contest; just 15 seconds separating the Atlanta-based driver from the leader with 90 minutes gone.

Unfortunately, Katherine suffered contact from behind at the difficult downhill Turn 3 just before her final pitstop. The result was a loss of several seconds and a damaged rear end as the Acura ran off the track and across the grass.

Katherine drove heroically to lap faster than more than half of the cars she was chasing for the remainder of the race and moved into 10th place on the final lap; a result that keeps her and Sheena eighth in the points.

Three races remain in the IMSA season; the next taking place at Virginia International Raceway on August 25-27.

Katherine Legge said: “It’s a disappointing result for what started out looking like a very positive race weekend. Sheena did a great stint and for the majority of my first stint we looked pretty solidly in the fight for a top-six result. Unfortunately, we got punted off and we had to scramble a bit to save fuel and finish 10th. The JG Wentworth team did an awesome job. It was just misfortune, but we had the pace and we have the hunger to come back and do better at VIR.”

Sheena Monk said: “It’s heartbreaking. It was all going well until it wasn’t, Kat set a phenomenal pace in the JG Wentworth Acura and then she was pushed off in Turn 3. There are lots of good takeaways though; this was easily my best race in a GT3, I felt connected with the car and made passes straight away from the moment the flag dropped. It’s such a shame we couldn’t put up what I’m sure would have been a top-five finish today.”

Andris Laivins, Team Manager, said: “What an up and down day! We had a really good first stint as Sheena moved forwards and the hand-off to Kat was flawless. We looked like we were on-track for a top-five finish, but unfortunately Kat had some contact at Turn 3 that put her on the grass and caused us to pit a little out of sequence, so we had to save a bit of fuel to make it to the end. I’m very proud of the team for sticking with it and of Sheena for the job she did. We have a front-running car heading into the next race.”