IMSA: Recovery drive to Heartbreak from the ‘National Park of Motorsport’

What more could a race car fanatic ask for than an IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Road America? Set in the Wisconsin countryside amidst the state’s lakes, sits America’s “National Park of Speed” which has been praised as one of the countries leading circuits since its inaugural race in 1955. Road America’s 14 turns and four miles have long been a fixture on the calendar and a firm favourite amongst IMSA racing fans.

In Friday practice, Paul Di Resta turned an early lap of 1:54.166 in the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA LMP2 07 who entered the weekend with co-drivers Daniel Goldburg and Rasmus Lindh, to lead the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class as the top three cars were separated by a mere 0.336 seconds. Dane Cameron of AO Racing was second fastest, followed closely by the No.2 United Autosports sister entry, Mikkel Jensen. Due to weather and track conditions caused by a heavy downpour and continuous rain and wind, for FP2 on Saturday, only the No.2 took to the track with Australian, Hunter McElrea completing a short stint. The No.22 didn’t take to the track at all in preparation for what the team believed to be a dry qualifying and race on the unforgiving track.

Come Saturday afternoon, the rain had cleared and the track was damp with cool conditions, ideal for a qualifying lap. The weekend began with absolute dominance. Daniel Goldburg secured a staggering pole position with a 1:54.212 ahead of teammate, Phil Fayer who crossed the line in P7 for Sunday’s race. Goldburg who also won the LMP2 Motul Pole Award in the Oreca 07 looked unstoppable heading into Sunday’s six-hour race. This was Goldburg’s second pole position at the infamous track, having secured a start from the front row of the grid in 2021 when competing in LMP3, also in damp conditions.

10:40 Sunday morning, the lights go out and we’re racing for Round 5 of the Michelin Endurance Cup at Road America. Pole sitter Goldburg didn’t have the best of race starts dropped down to P4, whist Fayer in the No.2 propelled two places putting him in P5. The first of many Full Course Yellows (FCY) was triggered by an incident involving the Myers Riley Motorsport GTD and TDS Racing LMP2 entries. On the ensuing restart, disaster struck the No. 22. Goldburg lost the rear coming out of the final corner, spinning across the track, narrowly missing the tyre wall and the oncoming pack, but his recovery was short-lived—the stewards handed down a drive-through penalty for an unsafe rejoin.

Misfortune quickly spread across the United Autosports garage – the No. 2 helmed by Phil Fayer was handed a costly stop-and-go penalty for a pit lane violation. Rasmus Lindh took over the No. 22 from Goldburg, only to immediately receive a heavy tap from a competitor in the GTD class. The contact sent Lindh into the gravel trap and caused a slow puncture, forcing an unscheduled pit stop for the Swede. Soon after, a multi-car collision erupted at Turn 14 which both the United Autosports entries were caught in the crossfire, forced off-track, and dropped deep into the field.

Despite the setbacks and over a third of the race being under FCY, the race itself was a masterclass in resilience and recovery. After that early-race spin and a drive-through penalty that dropped the No. 22 car down the order, the entire crew dug deep. Brilliant pit strategy and relentless stints by Rasmus Lindh and Paul Di Resta clawed United Autosports right back to the front of the LMP2 grid, setting up almost a guaranteed podium finish maintaining third position. And then, the unimaginable happened.

Following the second to last full course yellow of the race, coming out of the final corner on the restart lap, with only minutes of the six-hour race left to go, contact between the teammates Mikkel Jensen of the No.2 LMP2 and Paul Di Resta of the No.22 sent Di Resta spinning off the track losing track position. Whilst both damaged cars limped across the finish line, the podium was out of sight and the United Autosports USA team out of championship contention. To make matters worse, race control issued a post-race time penalty to Jensen for incident responsibility, dropping the No. 2 car even further down the final classification ultimately finishing the race in P9 and the No. 22 in P8.

“Motorsport should be a non-contact sport. Sometimes it happens, but it shouldn’t happen between teammates.” Says Richard Dean, CEO & Team Principal, United Autosports. “We didn’t just lose valuable podium positions & points today, we threw away our championship campaign. I feel bad for the entire team who fought hard to get back into contention and into a race winning position.  They had given the drivers a fast car as proven by our pole position and our race pace.”

The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship continues at ‘battle on the bricks’ at the Indianapolis Speedway between 18 – 20 September 2026.

For regular updates and to get all the action, follow the teams progress on social – @unitedautosports.