24h Le Mans
The winner at Petit Le Mans wasn't known until the final meters of the race this evening in Georgia! The leader going into what was to be a very animated final lap ended up finishing fourth, with the top 4 overall less than 10 seconds apart.
To win today at the Road Atlanta circuit (to be renamed Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta next year), you didn't have to start from pole position or even be the fastest! As is often the case, strategy played a huge role at Petit Le Mans, with the race up in the air until the last few meters even though the safety car was only deployed six times and very few incidents distrupted the action.
Competitors counting on a neutralization late in the race in order to refuel were quite disappointed, with three contenders for the win forced back to pit lane for a "splash & dash" in the final 10 minutes. The Mustang Sampling team, in the lead as the white flag signaled the last lap, decided to stay on the track, a gamble that didn't pay off when the #5 Cadillac DPi ran out of fuel in the next-to-last lap.
Former official Audi driver Felipe Albuquerque and his teammates Christian Fittipaldi and Tristan Vautier finished fourth, ceding the top step on the podium to the #10 Cadillac DPi fielded by Wayne Taylor's team and driven by Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor and 2012 IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay. The top 3 was rounded out by the two Mazda DPis entered by Mazda Team Joest while Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, whose teammates refueled in the final minutes, finished sixth and seventh respectively. It was not a good enough result for the teammates of Dumas, who has only competed in the four long races, to win the title that went to Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran.
The Drivers title in GTLM was clinched by Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia despite the latter's accident. Their eighth place finish was sufficient to beat Ford drivers Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe and allow Corvette Racing to snatch the Teams title, but not quite enough for Chevrolet to win the Manufacturers crown which went to Ford. Though the titles were out of its reach, Porsche can still be pleased with the win secured by Nick Tandy (overall winner at Le Mans in 2015), Patrick Pilet and Frédéric Makowiecki. The Franco-British trio sharing the #911 911 RSR finished ahead of the #4 Corvette C7.R driven by Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fässler trailed by the #25 BMW M8 GTE.
In GTD, Scuderia Corsa - LMGTE Am winner at Le Mans in 2016 - reached the top step on the class podium with the #63 Ferrari 488 ahead of the #86 Acura and the #48 Lamborghini whose drivers, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, won the title.
The 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has now come to a close. The 2019 season will kick off 26-27 January with the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
PHOTO (Copyright - Michael Levitt/IMSA): Porsche won this year's hotly contested running of Petit Le Mans in the GTLM class.
