Max Root and Jan Heylen started from pole position in the Michelin Pilot Challenge and lead for the majority of the race. The team eventually had to settle for second place despite the leader struggling with oil problems in the last laps making it difficult for the Cayman to case due to oil and smoke on the track that was coming from the leading Camaro of the worried Liddell as the final minutes ticked away.

Starting from pole position the first driver in for for the number 16 Wright Motorsports Cayman GT4 Club Sport was Max Root who soon started to pull away from the rest of the filed while also putting in the fastest lap times, with only half hour in to the two race Root had extended his lead to 6.3 seconds ahead of Dillon Machavern. Max root brought the car in on the forty five minute mark for the first rounds of the pit stops with a comfortable ten second lead and handed the car over to Jan Heylan who exited the pits losing four seconds on the lead but with 1h12m remaining the hunt was still on.

Soon after the first rounds of the pits stops a full course yellow was issued allowing Heylan to close the gap on the leader, after the restart It did not take long for Heylan to retake the lead and looked strong to hold on at the front. The Wright Motorsports team made the call to bring in the car for the final pits stop ahead of anyone else in the field and exited in fifth place. After the pits stops Heylan was up into third and fifteen seconds behind the leader and second place, but with the leading two cars yet still having to make there second pit stop. Both leading cars decided not to pit with both teams hoping for a yellow so they don’t have to make a second stop. The second yellow did not come but both second and third gambled to make it to end. with only five minutes remaining left to race the number 71 in second place ran into trouble and was slowing allowing Heylan to close the gap and retake second place it then cam apparent why, the leading car of Liddell was smoking and losing oil all over the racing line.

Due to the oil over the track, the team ordered Haylen to stop chasing the number 71, as it’s was not worth crashing and also the leader had been given a black flag. Despite emitting smoke and oil from the rear end of Liddells car he was allowed to cross the line and take first place despite the black flag warning leaving Heylen to concede to take second place after a flawless race.

The Michelin Pilot Challenge season resumes May 15 with the Mid-Ohio 120, part of the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio weekend.