GTD was also on pace to have its pole winners go on to win as the Michigan-based 3GT Lexus RC F outfit had the speed, led a good portion of the race, and had success in sight with Canada’s Kyle Marcelli out front at his home race. But continuing the theme of errors and cautions changing expected outcomes, a sideways moment by Marcelli on a late restart opened the door for Jeroen Bleekemolen to get by in his No. 33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3. The Dutchman held on as he and teammate Ben Keating scored their first victory of 2018 with Marcelli second and the mercurial Andy Lally in third.

“This one was pretty tough,” Riley said after using a brilliant tire strategy call to put the No. 33 in a position to win. “The Lexus’ were tough all day. This is a team deal; I’m just spoke in the wheel.”

“It feels really good,” Keating added. “We had a really good car today. Really thankful the AMG is good on tires. The Lexus’ were really quick, Kyle went wide, which gave us the opportunity we needed. First time to be on the [CTMP] podium since 2014, so we’re glad to be back.”

Considering Braun’s drive to first while wielding a prototype that was clearly faster than the opposition, Lally’s efforts to haul his Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 from the back of the field — while holding no clear performance advantage — to a podium result might have been the star drive of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event.

As mentioned, mistakes played a major part in how the Mobil 1 Sports Car Grand Prix played out on Sunday.

Wright Motorsports was responsible for the first two cautions — one with the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R off at Moss Corner, and the second with the No. 16 tipping its stablemate, the No. 58 Wright Porsche, into the wall exiting Moss. A lost wheel on the AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Ligier JS P217-Gibson caused the third caution where the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari was given a stop-plus-60 seconds penalty for leaving the pits while the exit was closed.

Unnecessarily aggressive driving inside the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR drew contact with a Ford GT that led to the Porsche blowing a tire and triggering a caution to clear the track of tire and carbon fiber debris. Acura Team Penske, running in second at the time with the No. 6 ARX-05, cut a tire on the debris, pitted to have it replaced, and repeated the No. 63’s mistake by blowing through the red light at the end of pit lane which garnered an invite to visit the pits and sit for 60 seconds.

Rough driving by the pole-sitting GT Le Mans No. 911 Porsche RSR led to a collision with the No. 24 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE that bent the BMW’s right-rear suspension. IMSA assigned no blame to the Porsche, but it seemingly inspired another Porsche-on-BMW clash a few minutes later in GTD where a highly competitive No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 was hit and suffered suspension damage from the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche. In this instance, the privateer Porsche was assessed a drive-through penalty for the transgression.

Dramas for the No. 6 Penske Acura returned with less than 30 minutes to run when Montoya was installed to finish the race. With the left-front wheel falling off at Moss Corner, the mistake in the pits created a caution to retrieve the tire. On the bright side, Montoya’s misfortune helped the Ganassi Ford team to triumph in GTLM. The ensuing restart also saw the lead change for good in GTD, making it the most influential yellow of the day.

The last bout of trouble came with Harry Tincknell ending up deep in the gravel pit with his Mazda DPi. Responsible for the last caution, the team retired the car with a front wheel bearing failure that cost it a potential top-five result.

Ignoring the messy bits, CTMP gave fans gorgeous weather, stirring performances in all three classes, and the first ever back-to-back win streak for spec P2s. Can CORE, JDC-Miller, or one of the other P2 entrants make it a Hat Trick at Road America on August 5? Will Ford extend its championship lead in GTLM? And what kind of fun is in store with GTD’s three-way battle for the Pro-Am title? IMSA’s 2018 story is far from finished.