Starting P12 didn’t stop Marcelli and Stacy from getting their second straight victory in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Round 3 @ Mid-Ohio.

Marcelli took over the No. 60 Roush Performance / KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 from co-driver Nate Stacy and found himself over 10 seconds behind leader Patrick Gallagher in the No. 8 Multimatic Motorsports car. Marcelli stormed through the pack making up the deficit with just over three minutes remaining in the race. Eventually passing Gallagher, taking the inside corner and driving door to door until Gallagher ran out of room behind a slower car.

On the final lap, Gallagher – competing in his hometown – appeared to make significant gains back towards Marcelli, who said over the radio something broke in his car. Gallagher pulled alongside Marcelli in the final set of turns, but the No. 60 regained its strength when it mattered and pulled away towards the checkered flag.

“It was one of those never give up races,” Marcelli said. “I just kept telling myself that anything can happen, to keep pushing, and our Ford Mustang GT4 was just really solid today. Really consistent. The tires held up great, the car just didn’t go off on me. I knew if I just didn’t make a mistake, that we had the pace.

“Finally, with just a few minutes to go it looked like I could make the pass and I knew when I finally caught him, I had to make it right away. We went door-to-door in Turn 2 and it was just really good racing. It was a lot of fun. Two-for-two for Ford and Roush Performance and KohR. Our strategy was awesome as well. It was a bit risky. We came in early to make our final stop shorter and it paid off with track position.”

Also recording its second podium finish this year was the No. 84 BimmerWorld Racing BMW M4 GT4 of James Clay and Tyler Cooke, finishing third after running well within the top 10 all day.

Re-write from IMSA.com/news