This is the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, one of the marquee events in the inaugural Tudor United Sports Car Championship, and the season finale. Get ready for all the race highlights, right here, right now on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog. Ten hours, or 1,000 miles, whichever comes first. This event has been a fixture, and a premier race, on the sports car racing calendar, since it was first run back in 1998.
We've had ten months of racing, and now, one final race decides multiple titles. This is road Atlanta and Petit Le Mans. Champions will be crowned. Let's race! Fall is surely in the air. This is the 17th annual Petit Le Mans from Road Atlanta. Not only is it championship time, but it's also the finale for the North American Endurance Cup. All championships are up for grabs. 50+ cars will start this race. 51 cars are in the field. A win at Petit Le Mans would be big.
Here are the championship scenarios. In Prototype, Action Express Racing has a real chance, but, so do Wayne Taylor Racing, Oak Racing, Visit Florida Racing, and possibly, Chip Ganassi Racing. Core Autosport has clinched Prototype Challenge. In GT Le Mans it's SRT Viper vs. Corvette. They drive separate cars today. Antonio Garcia wants his first PLM win while team mate Jan Magnussen has won this event several times. In GT Daytona, it's a battle between Turner Motorsports, Alex Job Racing, and Level 5 Motorsports.
Stand by, folks. We're almost ready to go racing. The command is given by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, to start engines. We have ten hours of racing, coming. $100,000 for the pro classes and $50,000 in prize money for amateur classes. Joao Barbosa has pole, sharing with Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais. Nick Tandy has pole in GT Le Mans. Porsche won the other enduros at Daytona and Sebring.
In Prototype Challenge, we have Jack Hawksworth on pole. In GT Daytona, we have Turner Motorsports on pole in GT Daytona. Traffic management will be big. 20 cars per mile. Don't make it a demolition derby. It will be very cool in the evening before the finish. Here we go. We are green at Road Atlanta! Barbosa leads the race. It is a very controlled start. Oswaldo Negri Jr. moves up from sixth spot in the #60 Michael Shank Racing Riley Ford. He's ahead of the #90 Corvette Prototype in the hands of Mike Rockenfeller.
Rockenfeller shares with Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante. The track is green, with no rubber laid down. Barbosa leads Ricky Taylor over Oswaldo Negri Jr. as they fly into turn one, blind, at 145 miles per hour. Road Atlanta is a roller coaster of a track. Taylor is finding his stride, going after Barbosa. Downhill into turn ten, it's really right. Hhre comes the downhill as we complete the first couple laps.
The esses require lots of downforce. On the back straight, you want terminal velocity. The Deltawing was fastest in the warmup. Oh! Rockenfeller slides by Negri after Negri locks up. Also involved was the #49 Ferrari 458 Italia of Eddie Cheever III., Marco Cioci, and Piergiuseppe Perrazini. The #17 Falken Tire Porsche is running well. It's their home track. Bryan Sellers starting the car, with Germans Wolf Henzler and Marco Holzer. We go onboard the #42 Oak Racing Ligier Honda. Alex Brundle shares with Gustavo Yacaman and Ho Pin Tung. He's eighth in class after an engine change.
Jonathan Bomarito runs fifth in GT Le Mans. Bomarito is sharing the #93 factory SRT Viper in GT Le Mans with Kuno Wittmer and Rob Bell. In GT Daytona, the #73 Porsche leads in the hands of Norbert Siedler. By tagging the curbs, you can run quicker, but it will hurt you in reliability. The #94 Turner Motorsports BMW Z4 GT is running well in the hands of Markus Palttala. The GT Daytona cars are faster down the straights than people assume. The #33 ViperExchange.com SRT Viper is running well with Jeroen Bleekemolen at the wheel.
In Prototype Challenge, Jack Hawksworth leads, as we see the #25 8Star Motorsports car spin, with Eric Lux at the controls. It's easy to loop the car in turn seven. Wait to see if the car gets going to avoid a yellow flag. Colin Braun and Jon Bennett run second in class. They are Prototype Challenge champions. We have our first full course yellow flag. Now, Diaz is sharing the #25 car with Brits Sean Rayhall and Tom Kimber-Smith. Sharing with Bennett and Braun at PLM this weekend for Core Autosport is James Gue.
In the RSR camp, Jack Hawksworth shares the teams number one car, with Chris Cumming and Rusty Mitchell. Let's pick up the action later on, folks. We are focused on the highlights. Joao Barbosa made a driver change. Barbosa is the new champion. He is the Prototype champion in the first Tudor Championship season! Congratulations, Joao Barbosa! Once Christian Fittipaldi closes his stint, the team can go for the win and try to get the North American Endurance Cup.
In Prototype Challenge, the #87 car spins. In GT Le Mans, Antonio Garcia goes side by side with Earl Bamber is the second factory Porsche. Wolf Henzler and Jorg Bergmeister wer all in it. Almost going three wide, too! Wow! An embarrassing pit incident under yellow, Pierre Kaffer crashes into Patrick Pilet. Actually it was the other way around. Pilet crashed into the Ferrari. Problems for Spencer Pumpelly with a door that won't close. Townsend Bell leads GT Daytona in the #555 Ferrari.
With that, we are back, and we've had six full course yellows in the first three hours of the race. Jordan Taylor is at the wheel of the #10 Chevrolet Corvette Prototype, leading. Gabby Chaves is third in the Deltawing. Bruno Junquiera leads Prototype Challenge. Katherine Legge is another driver on that team. Scott Dixon (three-time Indycar champion), is the third driver for Ganassi Racing in this event. The car runs fifth overall.
Patrick Dempsey and his team are out of the event in his #27 Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 GT America. The car overheated. Dempsey was to share with Joe Foster and Andrew Davis and Joe Foster. The team car #58 is still in this one. Madison Snow and Jan Heylen, driving. The battle is on in GT Le Mans between Patrick Long for Porsche and Oliver Gavin for Corvette. Manage the traffic. That's a big deal. Do your passing cleanly. The top seven GT LM cars are all on the same lap right now. We are 119 laps (302 miles), into this race.
In hour three, Christian Fittipaldi pitted, and handed the #5 car to Sebastien Bourdais. Fittipaldi and Barbosa, are champions, (inaugural champions), in Tudor United Sports Car Championship competition. We see nJon Fogarty collide with the #33 Viper. Rob Bell has a botched pit stop. Now, in hour four, the #10 car, the #52 car, the #912 Porsche, and the #555 Ferrari, pick up maximum points. Then, Bill Sweedler had contact with Scott Dixon. Richard Westbrook was tagged by an Audi.
Gustavo Yacaman was clipped by the Deltawing, and crashed the Ligier Honda. We are now under our tenth yellow in five hours. Halfway home. The #912 Porsche leads GT Le Mans and the #94 Turner Motorsports BMW leads GT Daytona. #52 of Gunnar Jeannette and Frankie Montecalvo lead Prototype Challenge. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette leads overall as we go back to green. WTR, Action Express, and Ganassi, run 1-2-3 as they plunge down through the esses. We are halfway home.
The ringers in the top three cars, want a win at Petit Le Mans. This is turning into a classic race, and is another crown jewel. Two Chevrolet V8's lead the Ford EcoBoost turbo V6. Look at this. Bourdais wants the lead of this motor race. These guys are a third of the way through their fuel stint. Headlights are on to let slower cars know where the prototypes are. The headlights will be key at night. Now, Nick Tandy has a tire rub and aerodynamic damage on his factory Porsche.
The car was patched together after the fracas in pit lane. He wants the GT Le Mans lead, despite the car porpoising all over the place. There's a Prototype Challenge car off th road. This is the #38 car that has had a litany of problems with Jerome Mee at the controls. He's a rookie third driver, sharing with David Ostella. Ooh! He had a real lurid spin. The safety car is back on track. What will the pit strategy be?
Let's go to some highlights as twilight falls. After that pit lane wreck, the Ferrari was out. The GT Daytona lead battle saw Mario Fanrbacher pass Bryce Miller. In hour seven, Markus Palttala, Michael Valiante, and Memo Rojas, all got caught up in athis melee. Bang! There's nowhere to go and it's a crash, bang, wallop. Spencer Pumplelly slid off the road and crashed on the front straight. We now have two hours to go. Christian Fittiplaid leads Prototype. Wolf Henzler leads GT Le Mans. Christopher Haase leads GT Daytona, and Tom Kimber-Smith leads Prototype Challenge.
Coming up on two hours to go. More NAEC points will be awarded. Christian Fittipaldi leads Ricky Taylor overall. The sun was blinding earlier. The sun is setting as we come to the finish. Porsche runs 1-2 in GT Le Mans. Patrick Long is second in the factory Porsche. Porsche would get the GT Le Mans constructor's championship. The #48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS leads GT Daytona. Bryce Miller shares with Matt Bell and Christopher Haase.
Tom Kimber-Smith still leads Prototype Challenge, looking for a win, and a championship. Scott Pruett is frustrated with their performance today, and they will just have to soldier on. They won two races earlier in the year. But, they have had a bad season, and rebounded at the previous race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Jan Magnussen is currently eighth in GT Le Mans. The #3 Corvette has had a fraught race.
They had front end damage in the earlier pit stop incident with less than two hours to go. We've got two Porsche's, a Corvette, and a Viper, vying for the GT Le Mans driver's championship. GT LM is a really, really deep field. It's amazing. It's the true factory class. The elevation change on this track is amazing. It's an adrenaline track. You nver have a chance to rest at Road Atlanta. 2.54 miles long. The racing line moves constantly, because the track is not too straight or level anyplace.
Dirk Werner is running the #56 BMW Z4 GTE. He shares with John Edwards and Dirk Muller. Werner has not seen much action, because he could not find a ride in DTM. The #94 Turner Motorsports BMW Z4 GT leads GT dAYTONA. Markus Palttala is at the controls. Alex Riberas in a Porsche is second in class. Ricky Taylor eats the GT Daytona cars up like a Pac Man. Whoa. He got squeezed in the esses.
The headlights are yellow on GT machines, and white, or amber on the prototypes. The prototype headlights are intentionally brighter to let drivers of slower cars know they are coming. More highlights from hours eight and nine. In the darkness, Action Express led with Christian Fittipaldi. Jordan Taylor passed for the lead. Joao Barbosa takes it to the finish after a pit stop. They've lost pace. Jordan Taylor also pitted, and continues to hold the lead. In GT LM, the #17 car pits. Wolf Henzler takes over.
Then, after the final stop, Barbosa stalls after getting fuel. We've got just a half hour to go. Let's take a ride around Road Atlanta in the darkness, with the sound of the Ford twin turbo V6 in the Ganassi car. Turn up the volume and enjoy. We switch from the humming of the V6 Ford to the thunderous rumble of the Chevrolet Corvette V8 in GT Le Mans. Now, to the sweet sound of a Porsche 4.0 liter flat six in the factory #911 machine. So many different engines, and engine notes. It's fun to turn your back on the track and guess who is going by by the sound of the engine.
Nick Tandy is at the controls of the Porsche with less than half an hour to go in the race, and the season. Pierre Kaffer got clouted by everyone else in that earlier pit lane crash for the GT cars. Now we move to the onboard with Christopher Haase in the #48 Audi R8 LMS. Another unique engine note. We see Andy Meyrick in the Deltawing ahead. Deltawing is turning their program around and has been doing that this year. They are developing new engines and gearboxes.
The car is lightweight, but with light weight, comes fragility. It's amazing to see how a driver pickjs their entry line in the darkness. Road Atlanta changed some things with improving sight lines for the drivers during practice, qualifying, and a race. Wayne Taylor Racing will get it's second PLM victory, 17 years after their first, when Jordan and Ricky Taylor's dad, Wayne, the team's namesake and principal, won in a Ferrari 333 SP open cockpit V12 powered prototype, with Frenchman Emmanuel Collard, and Eric van de Poele of Belgium.
We are now under our record 13th yellow flag. Sean Rayhall has crashed his Prototype Challenge car, while leading in class. He hit the wall, after having contact with another car. We have less than ten minutes to go in the race now. Let's hope everything will be OK. Hopefully nothing is too serious after he clipped Tracy Krohn's GT LM Ferrari 458 Italia, and spinning off the road. The Deltawing is still running. They are running fourth overall. Reliability and speed have finally come to the Deltawing.
We will go green with six and a half minutes to go. Jordan Taylor leads, and has lapped traffic separating him from new champion Joao Barbosa. He is going to put it all on the line. Throw caution to the wind and go for it, mate. Wayne Taylor Racing has dominated. Jordan Taylor will take it to the checkers. Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli have also done really well. Scott Dixon is taking the Ganassi car to the finish. But, they will not finish on the lead lap, even though they will finish. Ford will be working hard on the engine package.
They will take that technology to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That should be fun. Christopher Haase leads GT Daytona. Audi will win the race. But it looks like Porsche will win the constructors championship if Alex Riberas finishes second in class. The Turner Motorsports BMW Z4 GT has also done well. Whoa! Andy Lally is off the road riding the curb. He actually gets back on the road. Yikes!
Porsche's are 2-3-4 in GT Daytona. There's a battle for final podium spot in GT LM. Patrick Long still chases Wolf Henzler. Check that. Michael Christensen. The third place Viper is there, too. If Marc Goossens can pass the Porsche's, then SRT Viper wins the GT LM constructor's title. We have a minute left in the race, and the season. One more lap to run in 2014. The GT LM cars will do two more laps. These blokes cannot back down their pace. They are running for position.
Henzler was so close to a win at VIR. But the win was snatched by the Risi Competizione Ferrari. Jordan Taylor has one lap to go. No one coming from behind. The big battle is in GT Le Mans. Watch the slow car. Michal Christensen is in it. But, Marc Goossens drops back. Christensen is pushing. What a battle this has been. Jordan Taylor wins it! Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor, and Max Angelelli win Petit Le Mans.
In GT Le Mans, it's Wolf Henzler and Falken Tire Racing, winning PLM for the second straight year. In GT Daytona, it will be the #48 Audi R8 LMS of Chriistopher Haase and Paul Miller Racing, winning the first race of their season. Sean Rayhall is fine. He was checked and released from the medical center.; Winning Prototype Challenge is the #8 Starworks Oreca FLM Chevrolet of Renger van der Zande and company, sharing with Mirco Shultis and Alex Popow.
So, the overall and class winners from the Ptit Le Mans are:
Overall/Prototype: #10 Taylor/Taylor/Angelelli Chevrolet Corvette Prototype
Prototype
Challenge: #8 Shultis/van der Zande/Popow Oreca FLM 09 Chevrolet
GT Le Mans: #17 Sellers/Henzler/Holzer Porsche 911 RSR
GT Daytona: #48 Bell/Haase/Miller Audi R8 LMS Ultra
We look ahead to 2015 and the 53rd running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, coming up at the end of January. The Taylor brothers become the first American drivers to win overall at Petit Le Mans. Here are the champions:
Prototype: #5 Christian Fittipaldi & Joao Barbosa Action Express Racing Chevrolet Corvette Prototype
GT Le Mans: #91 Kuno Wittmer SRT Racing SRT Viper GTS-R-
Prototype Challenge: #54 Colin Braun & Jon Bennett Core Autosport Oreca FLM Chevrolet
GT Daytona: #94 Dane Cameron Turner Motorsports BMW Z4 GTE
It has been a wild season and a wild race. We brought two great racing series into one, with some great car makers and great race tracks. It all begins again in 2015, with nw cars, new drivers, and new race tracks. See you at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January of 2015. We look forward to more great racing. Go check out the races, folks. See you in 2015. So long, for now.
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