Today is the big one. It is championship day here in the red clay hills in northern Georgia, about 50 some odd miles outside of Atlanta, as the 26th running of the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, is set for blastoff. The IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship has had a banner year this year, mostly thanks to the introduction of the brand-new hybrid powered Grand Touring Prototypes reviving a name from IMSA's past, in looking to the future, that had not been used for 30 years. It has been a resounding success! However, there is a seven-way fight for championship honors in the class alone amid all four manufacturers and a number of their representative teams. Porsche Penske Motorsports and the factory 963 models with two private cars from JDC-Miller Motorsports and Proton Competition (only the factory Penske entries are vying for the title), two Cadillac V Series R's with their roaring, thundering 5.5 liter naturally aspirated V8 motors, for Action Express Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing.
Honda/Acura have two contenders, the pole sitting #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 and the similar car for Meyer Shank Racing, car #60, in their farewell appearance in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship before focusing on their two-car IndyCar effort for the foreseeable future. We could see MSR back, but that remains to be seen. BMW are in the fight as well, a one-time race winner this year due to extenuating circumstances. The two-car BMW M Hybrid V8 camp spearheaded by BMW Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, they also have a shot at the title in a mathematical sense.
So, it is wide open, and anyone can claim the trophy, but not before they conquer ten hours of racing at the shortest, and one of the most challenging circuits on the schedule, here at Road Atlanta, measuring 2.54 miles around, with ten corners. As we have seen, one of the critical turns on this course is turn three. Featured a video on that corner, and how crucial it is, earlier in the week, with BMW veteran Bill Auberlen who is racing today in the GT Daytona class.
We have 52 cars in total, set to start this race. Two of the original entries dropped off the list/withdrew for certain logical reasons. We have a full roster of talent at NBC Sports if you are watching via Peacock, to call the action today. 52 cars starting the race, and 156 drivers. We are at the home of Petit Le Mans. High speed, high risk, and the fans love it. Jenson Button, former F1 champion, and IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden, are a part of this. This race is small in duration, but colossal in scope and importance, live from the Peach State.
No rain in the forecast today. We have had sprinkles, particularly in qualifying. This season has been bananas in the GTP class prior to yesterday's qualifying session. The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura leads the Action Express Cadillac, the two Penske Porsche's, the two RLL BMWs among others. It is deja vu for Wayne Taylor Racing and Acura. They want the championship, putting their endurance driver, Louis Deletraz in the car. The closest competition is Action Express and the #31 Whelen Cadillac. AXR are very relaxed, purposefully simulating everything.
Success is muscle memory. Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, and Jack Aitken, are ready to go for it. Porsche Penske Motorsports, they feel like they have less pressure than anyone else, for the #6 Porsche 963 with Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet, and Laurens Vanthoor in car #6 and in car #7, Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell, and Josef Newgarden. The engines have fired up. BMW Team RLL have two cars in the fight as well. #24 with Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus, and Marco Wittmann, and the sister car #25 of Connor De Philippi, Nick Yellolu, and Sheldon van der Linde.
The craziness is coming. This is the toughest race to win. Le Mans is the biggest. Daytona and Sebring are massive. Petit Le Mans is massive, but with 52 cars on a two-and-a-half-mile track, look out. Trouble for Rasmus Lindh in the #85 JDC-Milelr Motorsports Duqueine D08 Nissan. Rasmus Lindh starting sharing with Dan Goldburg and Till Bechtolsheimer. The keys to victory, survive the traffic, cage the rage, don't get angry, and be comfortable with the uncomfortable. Focus, strategy, it is all in play today. Don't freak out. Cage the rage.
The field is up 20%, the crowd is up 20%. Oh boy. The #8 Tower Motorsports Oreca of Ari Balogh has spun on cold tires. Bang. Right into the barrier. Ugh. That car won in class last year, and they are going for four. Scott McLaughlin, IndyCar champ is on the lineup. Green flag as Louis Deletraz is going for it and Sebastien Bourdais sends the #01 Cadillac to the lead and Tom Blomqvist in the #60 Acura. Here come the GTD cars, pro and regular. Ian James leads and the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3's are pushing hard already, look.
Corvette Racing, in their final race as a factory team before the new GT3 Corvette's come next year for privateer teams. Sebastien Bourdais is flying, and Ari Balogh has crashed again! Tower Motorsports, it could be game over! Heavy damage already! Ari Balogh, the whole car is destroyed! Ari Balogh sharing with Scott McLaughlin and Kyffin Simpson. He lost the rear end on cold tires. Maybe they can repair the car and they collected the tire barrier. This will be our first, and a short, Full Course Yellow. Oy yoy yoy! There was a massive accident earlier in the week for TDS Racing, leaving a mark of the car on the wall in the hands of Giedo van der Garde.
That is live art because that is the outline of the car. Tower Motorsports know they are in big trouble. Kyffin Simpson and Scott McLaughlin cannot believe it! McLaughlin is so new to sports car racing. He wants expeirence. You are caffeinated, hydrated, geared up, and Ari Balogh can only shake his head. They won the 12 Hours of Sebring earlier in the year. In replay, he got steering input when the car got light and there is no tire temperature. The track is damp.
At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers have won GT Daytona and by simply starting the race, Vasser Sullivan Lexus, with Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, along with Kyle Kirkwood, they have won the GTD Pro title! Congratulations to Lexus. Ari Balogh's accident, in replay, we can see the rear wing element is busted which will affect your rear downforce, disconnecting from the end plates. It looked light in the first crunch but broke a mounting point on the left rear. It is shuddering between the side plates. He is catching up in his sterring, before... boom! He's into the barriers.
Road Atlanta is so tough. Unforgiving track, concrete barriers everywhere. We've talked time and time again about track limits and Road Atlanta has zero space for that. In LMP2, the title fight is wide open just like GTP. Mikkel Jensen and Stephen Thomas at TDS, Paul Loup Chatin and Ben Keating at PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, and George Kurtz and Ben Hanley, at CrowdStrike Racing with APR are the three contenders. At TDS, they want to stay on track and then begin fighting. Stay out of trouble. That is the key deal. The champions will get a guaranteed space at Le Mans, in LMP2 I believe, for the Jim Trueman Award. Let's go back to green. Sebastien Bourdais punches it and we're off and running again. The sun is out now.
Bourdais is putting tremendous daylight between himself and the two Acura's. The Ganassi Cadillac #01 has come alive sharing with Renger van der Zande and IndyCar legend Scott Dixon. Augusto Farfus for BMW and Nick Tandy for Porsche have been penalized for changing columns on the start. Farfus has not had the best season with teammate Phillip Eng and endurance co-driver Marco Wittman. OK. So, the Porsche and the BMW take the pain. Ian James, Bronze rated driver in GT Daytona, leads the class in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin being harried by the two Vasser Sullivan Lexus cars. The #14 in GTD Pro and #12 in GTD and here comes Doriane Pin in the Lamborghini!
That is the #83 Iron Lynx car. Doriane Pin is 19 years old, nearing the end of her teenage years but she is showing her talent, massively! Pin sharing with Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey, challengine for the lead. Aston Martin, Lexus, Lamborghini, Corvette, and more. Pin right on Hawkworth's six. The Lamborghini is smaller than the front-engine GT3 cars. The Lamborghini's are the most unsteady cars to drive as well. Doriane Pin is impressing all of sports car racing and we have trouble for the Cetilar Racing #47 Ferrari 296 GT3. Antonio Fuoco has a cut down left rear tire. In Free Practice 1 on Thursday they had to repair the car after a wreck.
Doriane Pin trying to pass Ian James. No dice. Antonio Garcia has a birds' eye view. This is the farwell drive for the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. Jack Hawksworth and Lexus are focusing on the Michelin Endurance Cup championship as well. Jules Gounon in the #79 WeatherTech Mercedes-AMG GT3 is going for it. Ian James spearheading Heart of Racing and they will race in 2025 in Hypercar/GTP with the new V12 Valkyrie. That is in the future. This is now. Full Course Yellow again. Tire debris on the road, a whole carcass.
Be careful running over the curbs with cold temperatures ambient and track. Fuoco got tagged by Mike Skeen in the #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3. Skeen sharing with Mikael Grenier, the Canadian, and Kenton Koch. Skeen forced the issue. Well, well. A bit of Peaky Blinders there, referencing the British television show. Ari Balogh's car in the garage undergoing repairs. These prototypes are modularly built and can be repaired quickly. Very much like a Lego set. Some are like Legos or a glue together model car. Madison Snow at the wheel of the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3, Madison Snow and Paul Miller, GT Daytona champions, sharing with Corey Lewis today at Petit Le Mans and man oh man, have they had the dream season!
Six wins in a season for Paul Miller Racing thus far, plus the championship. Racing is like life, made up of moments that you want to always remember. Pfaff Motorsports sent a bottle of champagne to Paul Miller Racing but they put stickers over all their wins this year. We have pt stops in GTP. It is a long, testy day. Execute, execute, execute. Bourdais and Deletraz did not pit. Action Express, Penske Potsche, BMW, Meyer Shank Acura, they all made stops. At Action Express, it was incredibly effective and they went from seventh to third. Pipo Derani was just cruising. Their focus is on the nighttime setup and our boys at AXR are ready for it.
Scott McLaughlin is disappointed about the accident for the Tower Motorsports car. They will keep going. Now, the Paul Miller Racing BMW is in the lane. This is the last race we will see the #9 plaid Pfaff Motorsports Porsche and they are going to McLaren next year. Speaking of McLaren, the #70 Inception Racing car bogged down leaving the lane. They are back at it now. United Autosports will try running a McLaren when GT3 comes to the World Endurance Championship next year. There was a big hit to the #61 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3! Crunch!
#70 is Brendon Iribe, Fredrik Schandorff, and Ollie Milroy and a spin, look, for the #92 KellyMoss Porsche 911 GT3R with 75-year-old David Brule at the wheel! That's awesome! We need some of our boys like Paul Tracy, David Hobbs, and Calvin Fish to get back at it. Brule back in the lane, sharing with Alec Udell and Julien Andlauer. Their sister #91 car is not here. An off-track incident forced the withdrawal of that car. More champions to crown. In LMP3, it is Riley Motorsports and Gar Robinson. No LMP3 next year because of more cars and Riley Motorsports, next year, will step up to LMP2.
Green flag. Sebastien Bourdais leading and a massive shemozzle here between Derani, Deletraz, and Blomqvist. Pipo Derani was third, lost places, and now, he just has to stay in touch. Stay in the fight. A big pause rolling speed through turn seven before 185 miles an hour and plunging downhill into the braking zone. The 5.5-liter Cadillac V8 thundering. A great car with a great motor. Derani chasing former teammate Felipe Nasr in the Porsche 963 with a 4.6-liter twin turbo V8. Sebastien Bourdais in the other Cadillac, catching lapped cars. Brendon Iribe serving a drive through penalty for contact with the McLaren.
Michelin has the soft tires for the GTP cars. On soft tires, Ganassi Racing won the Laguna Seca race in the springtime. Bourdais needs to hold track position. GTP cars pretty much liner stern as we see the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R in the lane for a penalty. They were working outside the pit box. Patrick Pilet serves that penalty sharing with Klaus Bachler and Kevin Estre. Jules Gounon makes a move on Ian James in GTD Pro. Mercedes on Aston Martin, look. So much news and positive news for IMSA. President John Doonan announced WeatherTech will be the title sponsor for IMSA through 2030. Felipe Nasr vs. Pipo Derani. Porsche vs. Cadillac. Penske vs. Action Express.
Porsche #6 is fighting with the #31 for the title so Nasr will play blocker for the Porsche team. Pipo Derani is hanging on, in the fight. Doriane Pin leads GT Daytona over Aaron Telitz. Lamborghini #83 vs. Lexus #12. Doriane Pin raced at Le Mans this year and is the 2022 Ferrari Challenge champion. Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey are her co-drivers. Louis Deletraz chasing Sebastien Bourdais for the overall lead. Cadillac, Acura, Acura, BMW, the top four in GTP. Bourdais, Deletraz, Blomqvist, De Philippi. Early doors, make high percentage decisions.
Pipo Derani is ahead now of the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 of Mike Rockenfeller, Jenson Button, and Tijmen van der Helm. Tower Motorsports now back on track in the #8 car. How does the car feel? Get after it. Antonio Garcia, second in GTD Pro in the #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. This is the farewell drive for this car and this program, looking for their 128th victory. Brian and Anna Hoyes, Brian is the crew chief. In 2005, they won, and they married, and both now work together at Corvette Racing. Just incredible. Anna went to her very first race with her brother.
Tom Blomqvist in third clears the Corvette. Blomqvist sharing the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 with Colin Braun and Helio Castroneves and now, the BMW wants it! h! BMW off the road with Connor De Philippi in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 as Felipe Nasr passes in the #7 Porsche 963 sharing with Matt Campbell and IndyCar champion, and Indianapolis 500 winner, Josef Newgarden. De Philippi, BMW, and company, have the most points to make up in the GTP scrap. BMW M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos is here, watching. Got in a little hot under braking.
It is so great to hear all the distinct engine notes with the GTP cars and the fly by wire throttle and braking as well as the hybrid units in the back of the cars. Heart of Racing and Paul Miller Racing, Corey Lewis giving Ian James all he can handle. Chandler Hull too, had a good look in the #97 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 he shares with Bill Auberlen and Thomas Merrill. Lewis has a head of steam but gets blocked by the Aston Martin as David Brule gives them racing room. Watch for the marbles and tire clag later in the race. It has started now but will only get worse with the spent rubber and the bodywork. With argy bargy between the classes, there will be bodywork, mirrors and so on, all over the place.
BMW Motorsports had not had a top tier prototype in 20+ years while their competitors at Acura, Cadillac, and Porsche, all had previous experience. Trouble for Ben Keating, one of the championship contenders in LMP2! Oh dear! The #11 TDS Racing car also in the fight with Steven Thomas at the wheel of it. Thomas sharing with Mikkel Jensen and Scott Huffaker. Jensen, a factory driver for Peugeot in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Bourdais leading overall. Keating leading LMP2. Cameron Shields leads LMP3. Jack Hawksworth leads GTD Pro and Doriane Pin leads GTD. TRD President David Wilson, is extremely happy. They have battled for the title for six years.
Toyota USA and Lexus can be proud of themselves. Toyota has been chasing this championship for a long time having titles in FIA WEC, NASCAR, off road, NHRA, IndyCar, and the old IMSA GTP series in the '80s and '90s. Toyota headquarter in Japan, are going for it. So is Pipo Derani, chasing the BMW of Connor De Philippi. De Philippi goes inside. Pipo Derani makes the pass, and this is controlled aggression, and now, Nick Tandy wants a bite of the cherry. Cage the rage, and don't go crazy. Look at the big picture. Nine hours to go.
De Philippi was frustrated by Derani making a move. The grass could be damp from the overnight rain. Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande, and Scott Dixon, continue to lead being chased by Louis Deletraz in the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06. Deletraz has to be nursing his tires as Doriane Pin is ten seconds ahead of Aaron Telitz in GT Daytona. Deletraz has had a consistent run thus far. The key for the GTP cars is on the second stint, where is the tire drop off. Some teams elect to change two tires rather than four. Double stinting has to be done in the early hours with one extra sticker set for the end, at crunch time.
Mike Rockenfeller is running well in the #5 Porsche 963.
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