It finally happened: Cadillac’s season of DPi perfection came to an end at Road America as Tequila Patron ESM’s Pipo Derani charged away from Jordan Taylor at the final restart to score a convincing win with the No. 22 Nissan Onroak DPi.

It wasn’t a gift, nor was it a fluke; the young Brazilian put the hammer down and motored away from the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R in a 16-minute sprint to the checkered flag to cross the finish line with a comfortable 2.3-second lead over the championship leaders.

The sister No. 2 Nissan Onroak DPi driven by Ryan Dalziel gave the Japanese brand a 1-3 finish as Action Express Racing’s Dane Cameron claimed fourth in his Cadillac and Renger van der Zande, in the first of the WEC LMP2 cars, completed the top five for Visit Florida Racing in its maiden outing with the Ligier JS P217. With the Ligier-built Nissans added in, the French constructor owned an impressive 1-3-5 on Sunday.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Derani’s teammate Johannes van Overbeek, who starred in the opening stints. “The ESM Patron team never give up. Just wish [team co-owner/co-driver] Ed Brown [who is recovering from back surgery] was here to celebrate with us.”

The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase was a tribute to WTR for the opening two hours of the event as Ricky Taylor held a lead that hovered in the eight-second range. Thankfully, the final 40 minutes of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship contest set fire to the predictable script that has read “Cadillac Wins” since January.

The upset began to form when JDC-Miller Motorsports’ Stephen Simpson stayed out during the penultimate caution to take the lead and, during that restart, Derani went around Taylor – whose Cadillac took longer to build temperature and pressure into its tires – to hold second. Simpson would surrender the lead under the final yellow as his ORECA 07’s fuel tank needed filling, giving Derani a clean track to use to his advantage.

Using the big power produced by NISMO’s twin-turbo V6 engine, Derani pushed out to five seconds over the black Cadillac and only dialed his effort back in the final two laps. The WTR DPi-V.R, which cruised to an easy lead for most of the race, had no answer for Derani or the Nissan when it counted.

While Nissan’s toppling of Cadillac was the major news of the day in Prototype, the struggles by AXR rank as a close second. Off the pace all weekend, the No. 5 Cadillac and its drivers Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi entered Road America holding second in the Prototype standings with a 19-point deficit to the Taylor brothers. From lapping slowly in the beginning to being hit by the No. 90 VFR Ligier, which necessitated a stop to replace rear bodywork, the No. 5 came home a distant sixth, which increased its gap to 26 points behind WTR.

With two races left to run for the Prototype class, drastic problems for WTR would be required to keep AXR in the title hunt.

Ford’s 1-2 in GT Le Mans qualifying became a memory by the end of the first lap as the No. 24 BMW Team RLL M6 and both Porsche GT Team 911 RSRs moved ahead of the second Ford GT. Polesitter Dirk Muller was in firm command up front, but a serious battle was waged for the remaining podium positions just behind the No. 66 Ford.

The No. 66 was almost dealt a WTR-like blow when its extended command of the GTLM race was ruined by Porsche’s Laurens Vanthoor, who used advantageous pit stop timing – just prior to the penultimate caution – to take the lead when both Fords came in under yellow to make their final stops.

With Muller handing over to teammate Joey Hand, the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing driver was able to catch the Porsche and produce a narrow 0.621-second win over the Belgian’s No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR. Ford’s Richard Westbrook completed the podium in his No. 67 GT as the Blue Oval earned its second win of the year following its victory at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

“It’s a big relief,” said Muller, whose No. 66 team improved to second in the GTLM standings. “Big thanks to the Chip Ganassi team; it rocks. Joey did an awesome job. My nerves are killing me. It’s a big, big points swing. We needed that win.”

Behind them, a messy day for Corvette Racing’s C7.Rs, which included everything from knocking cars off track to drive-through penalties, saw the No. 3 finish fourth and the No. 4 take fifth. Alexander Sims, whose No. 25 BMW Team RLL M6 GTLM had its own problems and Corvette-related tangles, trailed the yellow cars to take sixth.

Whatever dramas took place in Prototype and GTLM were nowhere to be found in GT Daytona as Turner Motorsport delivered one of the most convincing performances the Pro-Am class has witnessed.

Drivers Jesse Krohn and Jens Klingmann were credited with a 3.163-second margin of victory over Park Place Motorsports Jorg Bergmeister, but that number belied the fact that the No. 96 BMW M6 GT3 drew out leads in the 15-18-second range with ease throughout the race. Untouchable in every way, the BMW aftermarket tuning experts absolutely throttled their opposition on Sunday.

“Little bit surprised to be up here,” said team owner Will Turner. “Coming into the weekend we didn’t know what kind of car we’d have, but it came our way. It was our day today.”

Behind Bergmeister’s Porsche 911 GT3 R, Lawson Aschenbach completed the podium sweep for German cars with his Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS GT3.

Although Cadillac’s steak came to an end in Prototype, Performance Tech Motorsports maintained its grip on the PC class as local driver James French and Mexican sensation Pato O’Ward handed team owner Brett O’Neil his seventh consecutive win dating back to Daytona. With one more win at the season finale, the No. 38 ORECA FLM09-Chevy can achieve something that has never been done in the WeatherTech Championship.

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