Nick Boulle and Tom Dillman recorded the Inter Europol by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports first win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park earlier this month.
It was a dominant performance, with Boulle moving quickly to the front of the field, pulling a margin and putting Dillmann in the best possible position to capitalize on the position and pace from the #52 Oreca.
The victory, by less than a second, followed up from the team’s first podium position, secured a few weeks earlier at Watkins Glen. The team is second in the standings with 1296 points, just 12 shy of the title leaders.
Recognizing the massive contribution that Bronze-graded drivers make to the series, IMSA runs the Jim Trueman Award. The Jim Trueman Award, named after the legendary gentleman driver and team owner, is awarded annually to the top-placed Bronze-rated driver in the LMP2 class, which takes into account race results but excludes qualifying points. As well as the accolade itself, the winning driver also earns the team a place on the grid for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, so for Nick to be second, 20 points away from the leader, is very special. Boulle has had an impressive season with his championship position with teammates Dillmann and Kuba Smiechowski
“What a special result—especially to win an IMSA race overall” exclaims Boulle. “I’m still excited about it, and I hope we can take that momentum to Road America. It felt really good to ‘get the monkey off our back’, if you will, and finally score a win with the crew.”
“The season has progressed really well so far, and I think we are all getting more and more comfortable working together and hopefully we can continue to get stronger. The team has been working so hard to make it come together over the past few races and it seems we have made a step in those crucial pressure race decisions.”
Boulle will be going all out again this week in the #52 with Dilmann to compete in the the IMSA SportsCar Weekend from August 2-4 at Road America. The high-speed 4.048-mile track in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, known as “America’s National Park of Speed,” is a favorite of drivers and fans alike. A total of 47 cars are on the pre-event entry list, with 10 listed in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class, 12 in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), 10 in GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and 15 in GT Daytona (GTD).
Despite Boulle’s and Dillman’s combined wealth of experience, Road America is a new circuit to both. “Road America will be new! I have to say this is an area where having such a strong teammate in Tom Dillmann has been a massive help. I don’t get to drive very often due to work commitments between our jewelery stores and work events, so being able to lean on him for advice and some help has been massive. I can work on the sim in my free time and get a lot out of it that way so that I don’t show up completely blind. Hopefully, this hard work pays off, and we are fast out of the box for Road America.”
“My goal has always been to be able to go to Le Mans and fight for a class victory. My hope is we can have a strong result this year in IMSA and show up next year at Le Mans with a chance at victory!”
“It won’t be easy; I need to juggle my first priority, which is always our family business. I am still staying fit and race-ready throughout the year, but hopefully, we are all pushing hard enough for a few more results on the top step of the podium soon.”
“The field is stacked, but all we can do is control our own performance. We need to hit our marks and keep doing what we are doing so that we have the best chance possible to end up on top!”
Race coverage will start with qualifying on Saturday, August 3, at 4:15 pm CT on Peacock (in the U.S.) and IMSA.tv (globally). The two-hour, 40-minute race streams live on Peacock beginning at 2:00 pm CT Sunday, Aug. 4 (available outside the U.S. on IMSA.tv and youtube.com/IMSAOfficial).
