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 10, 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]
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, as the race was scheduled for the length of the Detroit and Long Beach rounds that had been cancelled because of the pandemic as two-hour races (1 hour, 40 minutes) in length, and was one of two events that included only entries from the GTLM and GTD classes (as it was moved from Lime Rock).[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] The event was the eighth of eleven sports car races of 2020 by IMSA, and the event was the sixth of seven races on the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.[6] The race was held at the 2.28miles Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval on October 10, 2020.[7]
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.[8]
Before the race, Antonio García and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 226 points, ahead of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner with 209 points, and Connor De Phillippi and Bruno Spengler with 204 points.[9] With 176 points, Mario Farnbacher and Matt McMurry led the GTD Drivers' Championship, ahead of Aaron Telitz. Chevrolet and Lexus were leading their respective Manufactures' Championships while Corvette Racing and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian each led their own Teams' Championships.
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.[10] Despite the BoP break, Scuderia Corsa missed their second consecutive event, with driver Cooper MacNeil focusing on a championship in the Ferrari Challenge.[8] 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).[11]
There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted one hour on Friday while the second session on Saturday lasted 75 minutes.[12]
The first practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Friday and ended with Jesse Krohn topping the charts for BMW Team RLL, with a lap time of 1:15.482.[13] Mario Farnbacher set the fastest time in GTD.[14] The session was red flagged for 13 minutes after Michael De Quesada in the #12 Lexus crashed at turn 8.[15] IMSA extended the session by ten minutes as compensation.
| Class | Team | Driver | Time | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GTLM | 24 | BMW Team RLL | Jesse Krohn | 1:15.482 | _ | |
| 2 | GTLM | 25 | BMW Team RLL | Bruno Spengler | 1:15.551 | +0.069 | |
| 3 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche GT Team | Nick Tandy | 1:15.606 | +0.124 | |
| Sources:[16] [17] | |||||||
The second and final practice session took place at 9:45 am ET on Saturday and ended with Tommy Milner topping the charts for Corvette Racing, with a lap time of 1:14.935.[18] The GTD class was topped by the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Bill Auberlen with a time of 1:19.475. Lawson Aschenbach was second in the Riley Motorsports entry and Jack Hawksworth rounded out the top 3.[19] The session was red flagged with 22 minutes remaining after the #22 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Marc Miller suffered a loose wheel after crashing at turn 7 and stopped on the track.[20]
| Class | Team | Driver | Time | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Tommy Milner | 1:14.935 | _ | |
| 2 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche GT Team | Frédéric Makowieck | 1:15.103 | +0.168 | |
| 3 | GTLM | 24 | BMW Team RLL | Jesse Krohn | 1:15.125 | +0.190 | |
| Sources:[21] [22] | |||||||
Saturday's afternoon qualifying was broken into two sessions, with one session for the GTLM and GTD classes, which lasted for 15 minutes each, and a ten minute interval between the sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am (GTD) class requiring a Bronze/Silver Rated Driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put the GTLMs ahead of the GTD cars.[23]
The first was for cars in the GTD class. Aaron Telitz qualified on pole for the class driving the #14 car for AIM Vasser Sullivan, besting Robby Foley in the Turner Motorsport entry. Telitz suffered minor contact with the outside wall coming out of the final chicane while Kingsley and Rob Ferriol made contact coming into said chicane. The session ended early when, Misha Goikhberg, driving the #57 Heinricher Racing with MSR Curb-Agajanian, hit the wall at turn 7 and was unable to get his car going again. For causing the red flag, Goikhberg had his best two laps from the session deleted. Ryan Hardwick completed two flaps under the red flag and served a five-minute-stop-and-hold penalty.[24] [25]
The final session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. Jordan Taylor qualified on pole driving the #3 car for Corvette Racing, beating Frédéric Makowiecki in the #911 Porsche GT Team by less than one-tenth of a second. The session saw one incident when, Laurens Vanthoor driving the #912 Porsche GT Team entry, broke his Porsche's rear suspension in an accident at turn 7 that drew a red flag. Vanthoor had his best two laps from the session deleted for causing a red flag, effectively leaving him with no time set. As the session came to a close, Jesse Krohn knocked the mirror off his BMW in turn 1.[26]
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by .
| Class | Team | Driver | Time | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 7 |
| 7 | GTD | 96 | Turner Motorsport | Robby Foley | 1:18.077 | +3.799 | 8 |
| 8 | GTD | 86 | Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Matt McMurry | 1:18.091 | +3.813 | 9 |
| 9 | GTD | 76 | Compass Racing | Jeff Kingsley | 1:18.147 | +3.869 | 10 |
| 10 | GTD | 16 | Wright Motorsports | Ryan Hardwick | 1:18.232 | +3.954 | 11 |
| 11 | GTD | 74 | Riley Motorsports | Gar Robinson | 1:18.540 | +4.262 | 12 |
| 12 | GTD | 22 | Gradient Racing | Till Bechtolsheimer | 1:18.725 | +4.447 | 13 |
| 13 | GTD | 12 | AIM Vasser Sullivan | Michael De Quesada | 1:18.923 | +4.645 | 14 |
| 14 | GTD | 23 | Heart of Racing Team | Ian James | 1:19.299 | +5.021 | 15 |
| 15 | GTD | 44 | GRT Magnus | John Potter | 1:20.102 | +5.824 | 16 |
| 16 | GTD | 30 | Team Hardpoint | Rob Ferriol | 1:21.235 | +6.957 | 17 |
| 17 | GTD | 57 | Heinricher Racing with MSR Curb-Agajanian | Misha Goikhberg | 1:22.908 | +8.630 | 18 |
| 18 | GTLM | 912 | Porsche GT Team |  Laurens Vanthoor | no time | – | 6 |
| Sources:[27] [28] | |||||||
With a total of 261 points, García and Taylor's victory allowed them to increase their advantage over Gavin and Milner in the GTLM Drivers' Championship to 24 points.[29] The result Farnbacher and McMurry atop the GTD Drivers' Championship while Hardwick and Long advanced from fourth to third. Bell jumped from sixth to fifth. Chevrolet and Lexus continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Corvette Racing and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian kept their respective advantages in the their respective of Teams' Championships with three rounds remaining in the season.
Class winners are denoted in bold and .
| Pos | Class | 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 DNF | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner | Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | 54 | Accident | |
| Chevrolet 5.5L V8 | ||||||||
| 15 DNF | GTD | 44 | GRT Magnus | John Potter Andy Lally | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 25 | Tire Failures | |
| Lamborghini 5.2L V10 | ||||||||
| 16 DNF | GTD | 22 | Gradient Racing | Till Bechtolsheimer Marc Miller | Acura NSX GT3 Evo | 22 | Accident | |
| Acura 3.5L Turbo V6 | ||||||||
| 17 DNF | GTLM | 911 | Porsche GT Team | Frédéric Makowiecki Nick Tandy | Porsche 911 RSR-19 | 8 | Accident | |
| Porsche 4.2L Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 18 DNF | GTLM | 912 | Porsche GT Team |  Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor | Porsche 911 RSR-19 | 4 | Accident | |
| Porsche 4.2L Flat-6 | ||||||||
| Sources:[30] [31] | ||||||||
| +DPi Drivers' Championship standings | +/– | Driver | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ryan Briscoe Renger van der Zande | 180 | ||
| 2 |  Pipo Derani | 177 | ||
| 3 | Helio Castroneves Ricky Taylor | 175 | ||
| 4 | Jonathan Bomarito Harry Tincknell | 172 | ||
| 5 | Sébastien Bourdais João Barbosa | 171 |
| +LMP2 Drivers' Championship standings | +/– | Driver | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Kelly | 98 | ||
| 2 | Dwight Merriman Kyle Tilley | 92 | ||
| 3 | Cameron Cassels | 64 | ||
| 4 | Simon Trummer | 63 | ||
| 5 |  Henrik Hedman | 61 |
| +GTLM Drivers' Championship standings | +/– | Driver | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Antonio García Jordan Taylor | 261 | ||
| 2 | Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner | 237 | ||
| 3 | Connor De Phillippi Bruno Spengler | 234 | ||
| 4 | John Edwards Jesse Krohn | 231 | ||
| 5 | 1 | Frédéric Makowiecki Nick Tandy | 197 |
| +GTD Drivers' Championship standings | +/– | Driver | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Mario Farnbacher Matt McMurry | 200 | ||
| 2 | Aaron Telitz | 196 | ||
| 3 | 1 | Ryan Hardwick Patrick Long | 196 | |
| 4 | 1 | Jack Hawksworth | 194 | |
| 5 | 1 | Townsend Bell | 183 |
| +DPi Teams' Championship standings | +/– | Team | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R | 180 | ||
| 2 | #31 Whelen Engineering Racing | 177 | ||
| 3 | #7 Acura Team Penske | 175 | ||
| 4 | #55 Mazda Motorsports | 172 | ||
| 5 | #5 Mustang Sampling Racing / JDC-Miller MotorSports | 171 | ||
| +LMP2 Teams' Championship standings | +/– | Team | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | 98 | ||
| 2 | #18 Era Motorsport | 92 | ||
| 3 | #38 Performance Tech Motorsports | 64 | ||
| 4 | #81 DragonSpeed USA | 61 | ||
| 5 | #8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks | 28 |
| +GTLM Teams' Championship standings | +/– | Team | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #3 Corvette Racing | 261 | ||
| 2 | #4 Corvette Racing | 237 | ||
| 3 | #25 BMW Team RLL | 234 | ||
| 4 | #24 BMW Team RLL | 231 | ||
| 5 | 1 | #911 Porsche GT Team | 197 | |
| +GTD Teams' Championship standings | +/– | Team | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | 200 | ||
| 2 | 1 | #16 Wright Motorsports | 196 | |
| 3 | 1 | #14 AIM Vasser Sullivan | 194 | |
| 4 | 1 | #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan | 183 | |
| 5 | 1 | #96 Turner Motorsport | 182 | |
| +DPi Manufacturers' Championship standings | +/– | Manufacturer | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cadillac | 196 | ||
| 2 | Acura | 195 | ||
| 3 |  Mazda | 191 | ||
| +GTLM Manufacturers' Championship standings | +/– | Manufacturer | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevrolet | 272 | ||
| 2 | BMW | 258 | ||
| 3 | Porsche | 216 | ||
| 4 | Ferrari | 28 |
| +GTD Manufacturers' Championship standings | +/– | Manufacturer | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lexus | 211 | ||
| 2 | Acura | 208 | ||
| 3 | Porsche | 202 | ||
| 4 | 2 | BMW | 194 | |
| 5 | 1 | Mercedes-AMG | 190 | |