A week after finishing second in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio in the No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP car, Simon Pagenaud co-drove the P2 class-winning Level 5 Motorsports car in the American Le Mans Series race on the 4-mile Road America course.
Pagenaud was among several IZOD IndyCar Series drivers who competed in several series during an INDYCAR off weekend.
Pagenaud was filling in for Ryan Briscoe, who is recovering from a fractured wrist suffered in Race 1 of the Honda Indy Toronto in mid-July while driving the National Guard Panther Racing car. Scott Tucker joined Pagenaud in securing the fourth class victory for the team.
“It has been awhile since I’ve driven one of these cars (the 12 Hours of Sebring in March with Level 5 Motorsports), and you don’t just jump in and go quickly straight away," Pagenaud said. "It was really fast; I just had to push. I was just here to replace Ryan, but I was very happy to assist Scott in his championship effort.”
Lucas Luhr and co-driver Klaus Graf rolled to the P1 and overall victory -- their fifth in a row -- in the Muscle Milk Pickett Racing entry. Luhr will test an IZOD IndyCar Series car for the first time Aug. 13 at Sonoma Raceway in advance of competing in the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma on Aug. 25 in the No. 97 Honda-powered car prepared by Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing.
Both class victors were powered by Honda Performance Development engines.
Longtime Indy car competitor Bruno Junqueira, who last competed in an IZOD IndyCar Series race last September in Baltimore, co-drove to victory in the Prototype Challenge class on the circuit where he recorded his first Indy car victory in 2001.
Townsend Bell, NBC Sports Network analyst and Indianapolis 500 competitor (Panther Racing), placed 11the in the GT class and 32nd overall. Katherine Legge, who competed in the Indianapolis 500 in May with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports) co-drove the DeltaWing to fifth place overall (its best showing and first race running at the finish this season).
A day earlier at Road America, Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing) teamed with Firestone Indy Lights race winner Gustavo Yacaman to finish sixth in a Michael Shank Racing Daytona Prototype in the Grand-Am race. Sebastien Bourdais (Dragon Racing) co-drove an 8 Star Motorsports Daytona Prototype with Emilio DiGuida to ninth place.
In Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Alex Tagliani (Barracuda Racing) started from the pole and finished fifth in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race.
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The Stock Car Brasil race in Ribeirao-Preto, Brazil, was won by Thiago Camilo. Former IZOD IndyCar Series drivers Rubens Barrichello finished fifth and Raphael Matos was sixth.
IZOD IndyCar points leader Helio Castroneves (Team Penske) was not cleared doctors in Brazil to compete in the race following a crash in practice Aug. 9. Castroneves suffered cuts on his legs and reported neck and back pain after his Shell Racing car made driver's side contact with a concrete barrier on the street course and then slammed into a tire barrier.
The three-time Indianapolis 500 champion walked from the wreckage under his own power. He was taken to a local hospital for evaluation and released a short time later.
"The good news (is) I didn't break anything," he said.