Under one hour left in the 2024 IMSA season and the 27th annual Petit Le Mans. Drama on the road! The action all happens and goes bonkers at night, and we were absolutely spot on this time! The #10 Wayne Taylor Andretti Global Acura ARX-06 has clobbered the #55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3! Full Course Yellow. We are under Full Course Yellow. There is a third car involved in this huge mess and it is the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche in GT Daytona as well. So, one GTP car and two GTD cars, all torn up. That had to be a massive hit for the Mustang because the entire front nose section is missing. The left front corner, destroyed. The bumper ripped off the frame rails.
The #10 Acura is comprehensively damaged in the front half. Ricky Taylor has the left front headlight completely deranged and cattywampus on that Acura. Massive damage, and a broken left front wheel. The bad luck Wayne Taylor Racing have had at Petit Le Mans over the last handful of years is simply astonishing. Corey Lewis is giving another driver a steely eyed glance. He is madder than a box of frogs and could chew up nails and spit out a barbed wire fence at this point. Lewis is perfectly fine but is very upset.
In this replay, I think we'll be able to see what happened. Turn five is the spot where this shemozzle took place. Lewis has already stopped, and this view is from one of the two factory Mustang's in GTD Pro with the onboard camera. Jan Heylen in the #120 Porsche 911 GT3R (992) is in this mess. Cars are checking up, someone slides wide. Oh, man! Look, right in the center of your picture. There is a crest of a hill there, and you can't see the headlights. It's impossible. #120 is in the lane with the front bumper cover askew. Heavy, heavy damage to the left rear. Crewman doing the slash across the throat motion meaning, we're done. Game over.
Left rear suspension damaged beyond repair. The same deal for the #10 Acura. The sidepod mangled beyond repair. The radiators completely destroyed. This Acura is headed for the scrapheap. Game over. Ricky Taylor is in absolute disbelief. I don't know if Ricky Taylor knows how bad the damage is. It is game over for the #10 Acura which made contact with the #55 Ford Mustang GT3. The mechanic is wiggling the tire and he can't even get it off after putting the air gun on the lugnut.
Going onboard with Taylor, let's see. Right in front with no warning, ker-runch! There should've been a local yellow because the #55 was sitting there for at least 20 seconds before Taylor even came on the scene. Holy cow! Good to see the drivers are OK. We saw that massive crash for Memo Gidley at the Rolex 24 a decade ago in the early hours where Gidley had severe injuries and was sidelined from racing for many years before thankfully coming back for a while. Ricky Taylor would never have been able to see that Mustang sitting there with the front end sheared off and with no headlights whatsoever.
The complexion of this race has changed. Four years in a row, of bad luck for Wayne Taylor Racing. Corey Lewis was already sitting there and there was no Full Course Yellow, and heaven knows why because of the crashed car sitting there and thinking he is racing, he clobbers the stopped Ford Mustang. This is unbelievable. The last three years, WTR has been in a wreck at the end of the Petit Le Mans. So, someone has indeed flipped the crazy switch. Now, Felipe Nasr is pitting separately from the other GTP cars that are still in the fight with less than 45 minutes to go as we are under Full Course Yellow. 44 minutes and 15 seconds left on the board.
Porsche #7 is in for scrubbed Michelin tires. Was there anything on the scanners as to why they stayed out? No. The #31 Whelen Action Express Cadillac is also in the pit lane for their last stop. They have not had the race today that they wanted, my buddies at Action Express. We'll be back next year. A tear off was taken off the windscreen of the red Cadillac. Ricky Taylor says that this accident stunned him. He cannot believe that within half a second, they were in the lead, and then, they were out. He never saw the Mustang sitting there and it was a glancing blow, not a head on crash.
He never even saw the Mustang there. Taylor blames himself. He did not want the team's relationship with Acura to end like this. An emotional situation indeed. Tandy had just gone off the road. Filipe Albuquerque consoling his teammate who is completely shellshocked. The championship chase complexions change in several classes now. With the #7 pitting after the #6, Penske has pitted one car after the other because of the tight pit boxes here at Road Atlanta. Keep the pit lane clean. That's a big compromise and the #7 squad can't be happy about it.
So, let's have another look at the GTD Pro points battle for the title with time dwindling.
1. #77 Laurin Heinrich AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3R (992) 3,122 points
2. #23 Ross Gunn Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin
Vantage GT3 Evo 3,118 points -4
3. #3 Garcia/Sims Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller
Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette
Z06 GT3.R 2,934 points -188
The move by Philipp Eng in the #24 BMW to get around Ricky Taylor's crashed Acura might be a race winning move going for back-to-back wins for BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with Eng, Jesse Krohn, and Augusto Farfus. Again, the GTD Pro championship scenarios are in play still as Ross Gunn must finish second or better and the #77 AO Racing Porsche finishes 11th or worse. Now, Laurin Heinrich in the "Rexy" Porsche #77, is in 11th as we speak. Only 36 minutes to go before the race and the season are over.
Heart of Racing wants it. Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas, and other members of the team want luck to be on their side. Ross Gunn was 40 seconds down on Pepper and Serra in the Lamborghini and the Ferrari. His trouble is he has three GTD cars to get to the tail of the Ferrari. Gunn has to deal with the class leading GTD car the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini of Loris Spinelli. Spinelli won't give up without a fight. There are two more cars ahead of that. A restart at Petit Le Mans with half an hour to go in the darkness. This is going to be a mad scramble! Can everyone conquer the challenge? Only LMP2 and GTD Pro titles are still up for grabs. GTP and GTD are buttoned up.
Green flag! Racing resumes! Nick Tandy at the front with Renger van der Zande second and Philipp Eng in third. Porsche 963, Cadillac V Series.R, BMW M Hybrid V8. Four V8 powered GTP cars at the front. van der Zande dealing with a single headlight. The car is a padiddle. The right headlight not working. "We can drive it home, with one headlight", The Wallflowers. Sebastien Bourdais took his final driving stint with the Ganassi Cadillac team. Now, the LMP2 lead battle is on! Mikkel Jensen has it but Felipe Fraga is not going to be denied!
Off turn seven, Fraga is bringing the power, but he doesn't have the inside line! Three wide with the Lamborghini SC63 GTP car! The #7 Porsche 963 in a spot of bother off of turn ten! Nighttime going bonkers. Jensen keeps the place as the Lamborghini slices to the inside. t is pitch dark here in the Georgia countryside. Yup. In the helicopter shot we see that both prototypes ran wide cutting through the grass. Well, well, well. Yup. Two GTP rivals. Nasr in the Porsche and Eng in the BMW. Side by side into turn ten. Hang onto your hollyhocks here, boys! Blimey!
Salt in the wounds for Wayne Taylor Racing with a stop and hold penalty for the sister #40 Acura of Jordan Taylor sharing with Colton Herta and Louis Deletraz. This is for improper wave by procedure, a two-lap penalty. Brutal! When it rains, it pours. van der Zande is stick behind the #78 Lamborghini of Loris Spinelli and the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Albert Costa Balboa! The Spaniard takes the lead away from the Italian! Spinelli trying to proetect the line but no dice. Now the #12 Lexus of Aaron Telitz is back in the fight!
Argy bargy throigy the esses as we see contact too, for the #32 Korthoff Preston Mercedes of Kenton Koch! Leave nothing on the table. Now is the time. Throw caution to the wind! The rearview camera is a solar glare, an arc welder. Don't worry about it. Focus forward. Eyes up. Go big or go home. Spinelli trying to respond, as Costa Balboa is motoring. The time is now to answer the bell. Where is Ross Gunn in the #23 Aston Martin? Costa Balboa aboard the #34 Ferrari is scything through lapped traffic and thus, Loris Spinelli gets checked up. He's stymied for the moment.
Ross Gunn uncorks his fastest lap of the race at 1:18.9 with half an hour to go. The restart with GTD cars put him behind the eight ball. Serra and Pepper super quick, but Gunn even quicker. The points tables have not changed in GTD Pro. Still four points between Heinrich and Gunn and Garcia and Sims are out of the picture 188 points down. Pepper and Serra are going to have to create drama. Serra's Ferrari 296 GT3 is wickedly fast. Time is of the essence. The time to perform, the time to go, is now. It is now or never. Don't think. Only do. The time for talk is over.
The LMP2 scrap is also incredibly hot! Nighttime at Petit Le Mans, turn the intensity level up to 11. Itis getting intense. Nick Tandy and Renger van der Zande nose to tail for the GTP win, down through the esses. Tandy ahead but barely over the #01 Cadillac. Tandy gauging the GT cars' pace backing into van der Zande. Costa Balboa and Spinelli still at it in GT Daytona. Ross Gunn, does he have the magic bullet? Gunn is 3.10ths of a second behind Daniel Serra, the Brazilian ahead of the Brit. Ferrari leading Aston Martin. He has caught Serra. However, Jordan Pepper, the South African, he is the "hot pepper" right now, because he has taken off and leads GTD Pro in the #19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 by 4.4 seconds.
Does Gunn have the magic bullet? Pun intended. Ross Gunn can see the Ferrari right ahead. He needs the one spot and does not need to win the race with the #77 deep in the pack. Poor old "Rexy" has a bad toothache tonight and he can't fight for anything. The dinosaur is ill. 24 minutes to go. De Angelis and Riberas watching on nervously as their teammate is making progress as best as possible. It is Ross Gunn's championship. He wants to lock it up in his pocket. The McLaren is running ahead of them. The #9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren gets out of the way, four laps down. Darkness ahead. No traffic.
Daniel Serra is a two-time Petit Le Mans winner in GT racing.
Ross Gunn is hungry. He needs one place to win the title. The win doesn't matter. Where the win will matter is in GTP. Nick Tandy in the Porsche has the top spot. Renger van der Zande pushing for all he is worth. Renger van der Zande flashing the single headlight. The #01 again, it is a padiddle. Just one working headlight on the car at speeds nearing 190 miles an hour in these GTP prototypes. Ross Gunn stone silent on the radio. The team giving him the lap time and the gap. He is doing his job. He is driving the car. He does not even have to pull a Kimi Raikkonen and tell the team to leave him alone and that he knows what he's doing. He is showing that right now.
A quiet driver is at their best. I got this. Laurin Heinrich's destiny is out of his hands. If Ross Gunn can win, Heinrich is finished and AO Racing and "Rexy" the dinosaur will have to come back next year and try again. "Rexy" will be pacing in his lair, roaring and snarling for the whole offseason at this rate and something will have to be found to soothe the savage, prehistoric beast. Tandy gets traffic again in turn five. He is feeling it. Tandy is clear. van der Zande has a chance to lunge. Anythijg can happen at turn ten. Only one car, Jordan Pepper in the #19 Lamborghini.
van der Zande must be nervous because the Porsche with the turbocharged 4.6-liter V8 is outpulling the 5.5 liter naturally aspirated V8 Cadillac on the straightaway. Often it is said in the car and the racing business that there is no replacement for displacement. But turbo power seems to be winning at the present moment. van der Zande has to wait for Tandy to check up and then that is when he knows he can push the bye bye button. Both Tandy and van der Zande have won Petit Le Mans before. Night time traffic in downtown Atlanta.
Traffic going around the GT Daytona leaders. Albert Costa Balboa is said to have a 4/10ths of a second gap on Loris Spinelli in the Lambo. But forget the graphics. Spinelli is right on Costa Balboa's six, believe you me. Lamborghini going for back-to-back GT Daytona wins here at Petit Le Mans. If the headlights are yellow, you know it is a GT Daytona car. But if they are white, you cannot tell if you have a GTD Pro, an LMP2, or a GTP car behind you. 18 minutes remaining. Five cars on the lead lap in GTD Pro and nine cars on the lead lap in GTD. GTD drivers are getting freight trained. The #34 gets tagged! Off turn seven, Spinelli trying to set up a pass, trying to gain a head of steam.
Costa Balboa has left rear and right-side damage. The Ferrari is pushing hard. The balance looks good. The Lamborghini is best under braking while the Ferrari has good balance and grip at the end of the stint. This race will come down to traffic not down to how cars are handling as we get to the end. Costa Balboa is an LMP2 winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. But this is racer's instinct. Resist the flashing headlights. Spinelli is trying to get inside Balboa's mind. You know something, that headlight flashing mind game won't do squat at this point.
Championships being decided. Two of them are on the line. You come to Road Atlanta to win the race. You want the Petit Le Mans on your resume as a winner for a driver or a manufacturer. This is Ferrari vs. Lamborghini. The Prancing Horse vs. the Raging Bull. Maranello/Modena vs. Bologna. Will the church bells ring in Maranello? Spinelli thought about making a move on the Spaniard. We've been paying so much attention to the GTD battle, there's been a pass for the lead! The #01 Cadillac is through! He has passed the #6 Porsche!
Renger van der Zande makes the move! Tandy trying to respond! Side by side down the hill. The Cadillac with a single headlight. Cadillac to the front! van der Zande uses GT traffic just as Tandy did earlier and Tandy gets checked up behind the #80 Mercedes, the Lone Star Racing GT Daytona car! That is the Yoluc, Andrade, Andrews, driven car for the Turkish racer, the Angolan, and the Australian. Renger van der Zande can bring more power. In replay, van der Zande got a massive head of steam and tucked Tandy up like a kipper! Tandy had no idea he was even there! He did that under braking. Now, look at this!
Tandy gets shoved wide off the road by the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 with Philipp Eng at the wheel of it! Oh my! That will not stand. Rough driving alert to the stewards on that one. Renger van der Zande gets a huge break! Holy cow! 13 and a half minutes to go. van der Zande made a similar move to win a race at Laguna Seca in 2017. Remember, we talked about trance mode in a nightclub earlier in the race. Well, folks, this is the last dance of the night, and it is mosh pit mode! It is punk rock and heavy metal mode! Costa Balboa has not flinched in GTD as Spinelli is keeping him honest.
Incident under review between Porsche #6 and BMW #24. Nothing to choose in GTD between Lamborghini and Ferrari. Spinelli is a scrapper. He has kept it clean with no desperation, but time is of the essence. This is the last part of a basketball game. Five GTD cars to deal with as van der Zande has that padiddle Cadillac in front. He is five seconds ahead and Eng has dropped like a stone, 50 seconds down. The BMW is a wounded bird or he served a drive through penalty or some damage, or a cut down tire. Earlier, Sebastien Bourdais was dejected. Now he has a chance to win.
Things go from bad to worse for the #24 BMW because they have the damage and there's a drive through penalty assessed by IMSA for the contact with the #6 Porsche. Incident responsibility. BMW won and ran 1-2 at Indianapolis. But now, they are out of the game. Now, the GTD Pro scrap is tightening back up as Ross Gunn is catching traffic. Serra might be struggling for pace in the Ferrari. Gunn is closing and fast. Gunn needs this or he will be four points short in the title fight. Gunn is braking much later than Serra. Serra all over the curbs, the Ferrari off the ground.
Nine minutes to go in the race and the season. Costa Balboa and Spinelli are half a second apart for the GT Daytona victory. Risi Competizione team engineer Rick Mayer simply says of Daniel Serra that the Brazilian is a special driver. The Balance of Performance for the Ferrari can be based on his performance rather than any other Ferrari driver. The quiet Brazilian does all of his talking behind the wheel and Daniel's father Chico Serra raced in Formula 3 and in Formula 1 for a while. Chico Serra brought the late, great Formula 1 World Champion Ayrton Senna to England to go racing there.
What could be going through Ross Gunn's mind? It is not enough. He is digging in the gold mine but hitting bedrock and not finding the golden nugget. Spinelli has the pace hanging right on the tail of Costa Balboa. This is for the race win in GTD. For Ross Gunn and Daniel Serra, that is the battle for the GTD Pro title. This is hammer time, drivers cutting qualifying laps. One more lap, and Spinelli will have traffic go in his favor, but you know that Costa Balboa is going to go down swinging. Six and a half minutes to go. Costa Balboa is pushing the envelope. Spinelli is fast, consistent, and aggressive, and the main bloke for Lamborghini in GT3 cars.
Maybe Spinelli will get the run if a prototype blocks Balboa's way. They are about to catch another gaggle of GT cars with inside six minutes to go. Balboa has the pace to match Spinelli. But the slow GTD cars will really throw a spanner in the works. Spinelli has been racing Lamborghini's for almost a decade in Super Trofeo and GT3. He knows the car inside, out, backwards, and forwards. Balboa will have to deal with the traffic. Balboa does not have the same depth of experience in a GT3 car that Spinelli does.
Now, a new wrinkle at the top of the shop. The leading #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Renger van der Zande has no lights whatsoever. This is troubling for visibility in the darkness but also from a legality standard because you need to have at least one headlight on the car at all times especially in the top prototype class because these GTP cars are so incredibly fast. This is bananas. When he is running by humself he is in the dark. There will be a black flag for the leader because the traffic can't see him coming. That pink Cadillac is an unguided missile that the other racers on the road cannot predict.
OK. The headlights are on again. Is this a power issue? He must be flipping switches in the cockpit, trying to drive the car and also futzing with the dashboard, or with all the buttons on the steering wheel. The team told him there's a light switch under the dash. Flip that switch. He did. But now the lights are off again. So, the switch isn't working. Off, on. Off, on. Is that a secret switch? He locks the brakes and has all the lights on, now the three lights. The car is a padiddle again and the taillamps are blinking.
This pink Cadillac is flashing like a Christmas tree. It's like a kids' remote-control car, not a multimillion-dollar prototype race car. Wowzers! Tandy is closing up and now van der Zande is vacillating between one headlight and the other. Spinelli closing in on Costa Balboa and flashing the lights getting inside the Spaniard's head, driving him crazy. Two minutes to go in the race and the season. Will Costa Balboa send it through turn seven? Will Philip Ellis in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes check up the GTD leaders? Will he let them by? He is the GT Daytona champion for 2024. He is on the lead lap. A lap and a half to go for Renger van der Zande in the Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing swansong. Their final race together.
van der Zande still has one headlight. Never give up. Seconds remaining. White flag. One more time around. Tandy is closer, two and a half seconds down. You don't give up. Bourdais and Dixon must be chewing their fingernails, hopping up and down. Tandy is not done yet. Through turns six and seven. Four, five more turns to go, Chip Ganassi Racing looking for their 67th career IMSA victory. This would be the first Petit Le Mans victory for Scott Dixon, the second for Sebastien Bourdais, the fourth for Renger van der Zande. Up the hill, down,l they can coast under the bridge and Ganassi Racing and Cadillac win Petit Le Mans!
Petit Le Mans never disappoints. Mikkel Jensen, Steven Thomas, and Hunter McElrea will take TDS Racing to the win in LMP2! Lamborghini wins GTD Pro! #19, Iron Lynx, Jordan Pepper, Franck Perera, and Mirko Bortolotti get the job done! GTD will see the Ferrari able to get it home as Spinelli has dropped out of the picture and is two seconds behind. Albert Costa Balboa, Cedric Sbirrazuolli, and Manny Franco win GT Daytona! Balboa was amazing, feeling the heat, and never cracking under pressure.
Oh, my gosh. "Rexy" and AO Racing win the GTD Pro championship title! Laurin Heinrich is the GTD Pro champion in 2024! His first WeatherTech championship in his rookie season! What an effort by AO Racing, Gunnar Jeanette, and P.J. Hyett! Chip Ganassi Racing wins Petit Le Mans. Porsche Penske win the GTP championship in 2024! So, here are your class winners in the 26th running of Motul Petit Le Mans.
Overall'GTP: #01 van der Zande/Bourdais/Dixon Cadillac Racing Cadillac V Series.R
LMP2: #11 Thomas/Jensen/McElrea TDS Racing Oreca 07
GT Daytona Pro: #19 Perera/Pepper/Borotolotti Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2
GT Daytona: #34 Costa Balboa/Franco/Sbirrazzuoli Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3
Champions:
GTP: #7 Dane Cameron & Felipe Nasr Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963
LMP2: #52 Nick Boulle & Tom Dillmann Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07
GTD Pro: #77 Laurin Heinrich AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3R (992)
GTD: #57 Ellis/Ward Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3
So, the Petit Le Mans, and the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech Championship season are indeed in the bag. It won't be long, and we will be coming to you from Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, for the start of the 2025 season. Have a wonderful offseason, everyone, and we'll see you very, very soon. For now, from Road Atlanta in the red clay hills of north Georgia just outside of the capitol city of Atlanta, good night, and so long, everyone. Take care.
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