Nissan power claimed victory at Road America yesterday with Pipo Derani and Johannes van Overbeek taking the No.22 ESM team machine to victory lane in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Both Nissan-powered Onroak entries finished on the podium with Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel finishing the day in third place.
The two cars were in contention throughout the day around the picturesque 4.0 mile Road America in the two hour, 40-minute race.
Derani made the key move on a restart with 37 minutes remaining when he drafted up behind championship leader Jordan Taylor and then made the pass around the outside into turn one.
The move was for second place but with the race leader out of sequence and due to pit, Derani was able to charge to victory – the first for the Nissan-powered Onroak Daytona Prototype International chassis.
“To win at Road America is amazing. Hopefully this is just the beginning,” said Derani.
“It was really important on the restart because Road America is such a high speed track. Every time we tried to get close to the guy in front we would lose the aero and it is really hard during green flag laps.
“I knew that I had to use the restart to try to get really close to him and try a pass. Fortunately I got a good exit out of the last corner and I managed to use the tow all the way down to the first corner.
“I was able to make the pass on the outside which is very nice. It was the move that got us the win today. I’m really proud that we managed to put ourselves in position to win today.”
