IMSA Petit Le Mans: MSR Acura wins dramatic race, snatches title

With around 2hr15m to go, the #01 Cadillac of Chip Ganassi Racing of Sebastien Bourdais appeared to improve its chances, with the sister car of Alex Lynn falling off the track briefly just ahead before it pitted and Lynn gave up his ride to Earl Bamber. Bourdais then pitted, and CGR got his replacement Renger van der Zande out ahead of Meyer Shank Racing’s #60 Acura, in which Tom Blomqvist had replaced Helio Castroneves.

Olivier Pla also had a brief off in the #31 Action Express Cadillac but he had second place in his hands, 13sec behind Filipe Albuquerque in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura, but being pressured heavily by Bamber.

AXR called Pla in with 1hr59m to go and installed Mike Conway. Although that moved Blomqvist up to fourth, it was very clearly not going well for MSR, since its Acura ran 26sec behind the similar car of WTR. This gap reduced to 21sec with 90mins to go, the point at which Bamber and van der Zande pitted the two Ganassi Cadillacs.

By the time Blomqvist pitted with 1hr25m to go, he had sliced his deficit to Albuquerque down to 16sec before WTR brought the #10 car in.

That elevated Bamber into the lead with 80mins to go, 7.2sec ahead of Albuquerque, with van der Zande third, 1.5 seconds behind and pressuring the black-and-blue Acura, but running 15sec ahead of the MSR Acura.

The AXR challenge appeared to have faded, with Derani, who took over the #31 from Conway, and Mike Rockenfeller in the Ally Racing-branded #48 both running a lap down.

With 70mins to go, van der Zande made it a Ganassi Cadillac 1-2 with a move on Albuquerque at Turn 6, and now Blomqvist would have a straighter shot at his championship rival, 14sec behind the WTR car. They looked evenly matched, though, and Albuquerque inched away over the next couple of laps, then the gap came down to 14sec again…

Bamber pitted from his 10sec lead with an hour to go, and van der Zande stopped next time by. This briefly promoted the Acuras to 1-2, and now Blomqvist was only 9.5sec behind, but two laps later it was 11sec.

With 50mins to go, the two Ganassi Cadillacs collided. Bamber got held up by the Korthoff Mercedes GTD car, allowing van der Zande to get a run on him on the outside approaching Turn 1, and the pair made side-by-side contact that sent them both into the gravel on the outside and into the tire wall.

That of course brought out the full course yellow, and when the Acuras pitted, Meyer Shank Racing got Blomqvist out ahead of Albuquerque, who then pitted for a second time to top up fuel without losing position.

At the restart with little more than half an hour to go, Blomqvist retained the lead from Albuquerque, and they were now being pursued by Derani. Even 5mins after the restart, only 1.4sec covered this trio. But with 22mins to go, Blomqvist had pulled out a four-second lead, while Derani had fallen four seconds off the back of the WTR Acura.

With 14mins to go, Blomqvist came under intense pressure from Albuquerque as they encountered GT traffic, but it was that very traffic that also proved the WTR car’s undoing, Albuquerque making contact with the Winward Racing Mercedes.

The car trickled slowly to the pits with a dozen minutes to go, leaving the MSR Acura with a five-second lead over Derani. Kamui Kobayashi came home third in the second AXR Cadillac, one lap down.

GTD Pro: Risi heartbreak hands win to VSR Lexus

With under two hours to go, Vasser Sullivan’s Lexus RC F led in Ben Barnicoat’s hands, keeping Matt Campbell’s Pfaff Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R at arm’s length before pitting and Jack Hawksworth hopped aboard to take the race to the end.

James Calado in the Risi Competizione Ferrari had knocked Antonio Garcia’s Corvette C8.R into a spin at Turn 10B but escaped any penalty and handed over to Daniel Serra who rejoined the track behind Hawksworth, Connor De Phillippi’s RLL BMW M4 and Garcia.

With 75mins to go, Hawksworth’s lead was 5.5 over De Phillippi, with Mathieu Jaminet’s Pfaff Porsche in third ahead of Serra and Garcia.

Following the last scheduled stops for the final half hour Hawksworth remained in front of Jaminet, De Phillippi, Serra and Garcia, and from the drop of the green with 32mins to go, the Lexus couldn’t shake the Porsche or the BMW.

Then with 20mins to go, De Phillippi got past the Pfaff Porsche and tried to make a move around the outside of the Lexus out of Turn 10, and Serra snuck his Risi Ferrari down the inside of both and edged the BMW into the dirt, allowing Jaminet to get past the BMW and reclaim third.

Next time by, Serra was into the lead and edging away from Hawksworth’s Lexus. That’s how the top two finished, but De Phillippi managed to pass Jaminet before the yellows ended the race.

However, the drama wasn’t over: Serra had driven 4hr11m in the last six hours, a violation of IMSA’s drive-time rules, meaning Risi Competizione was moved to the back of the lead lap.

Thus Hawskworth, Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood clinched victory for Vasser Sullivan Lexus, ahead of the RLL BMW and the Pfaff Porsche, as Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet took the class title by virtue of simply starting the race.

GTD: Gradient makes it double delight for Acura

With two hours to go, Sebastian Priaulx in the Inception Racing McLaren 720S held a 10sec margin over Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsport BMW M4 which was under intense pressure from Madison Snow’s similar BMW of Paul Miller Racing, Kyffin Simpson's Gradient Acura, and Marvin Dienst in the Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3.

With 1hr51 to go, Priaulx ducked into the pits and handed off to Jordan Pepper.A couple of laps later both BMWs pitted and Snow emerged ahead, as Turner had swapped out Foley for Bill Auberlen.

Barely 10 minutes later, disaster struck as Snow got hit by an LMP3 car and gave the M4 a right-front puncture, dropping it 65sec behind the class lead and in seventh place. It was a cruel outcome for a car that had contended for at the very least a podium place from the very start of the race.

With 75mins to go, Pepper’s McLaren remained comfortably in front, 7.5sec ahead of Mario Farnbacher, now on board the Gradient Acura, Auberlen’s BMW, Phil Ellis in the Winward Mercedes and Jan Heylen in the Wright Motorsports Porsche, although the latter was a minute off the lead.

However for the restart after the final pitstops, Farnbacher led Pepper, Ellis, Foley, Bryan Sellers in the PMR BMW, and Heylen, and the leading Acura and McLaren dropped their pursuers in the hunt for victory, while Heylen demoted Sellers.

Remarkably, Farnbacher held off Pepper for lap after lap, while the Winward Mercedes, which had made contact with the Acura prototype, went off at Turn 1 with six minutes to go, and when it couldn’t rejoin, the race went under full course yellow.

Farnbacher was still in front when the yellows flew, securing victory for himself, Simpson and Till Bechtolsheimer, so Pepper and Foley had to be content with second and third ahead of Heylen and Sellers.

Seventh in class was enough for Heart of Racing Aston Martin driver Roman de Angelis to clinch the GTD drivers' title.

In LMP2, Louis Deletraz, Rui Andrade and John Farano of Tower Motorsport clinched the win ahead of rival teams DragonSpeed and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, giving Farano the drivers' crown.

In LMP3 Andretti Autosport won with Jarett Andretti, Gabby Chaves and Josh Burdon at the wheel ahead of Jr III Motorsports and Sean Creech Motorsport, but title honors went the way of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett of CORE autosport in fifth place.

Petit Le Mans - race results:

Cla	Class	Num	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time
1	DPi	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves	Acura DPi	423
2	DPi	31	Olivier Pla Pipo Derani Mike Conway	Cadillac DPi	423	4.369
3	DPi	48	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson	Cadillac DPi	422	1 lap
4	DPi	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon	Cadillac DPi	419	4 laps
5	LMP2	8	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade	ORECA LMP2 07	418	5 laps
6	LMP2	81	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya	ORECA LMP2 07	418	5 laps
7	LMP2	11	Steven Thomas Josh Pierson Tristan Nunez	ORECA LMP2 07	418	5 laps
8	DPi	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Ryan Hunter-Reay	Cadillac DPi	418	5 laps
9	DPi	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Brendon Hartley	Acura DPi	414	9 laps
10	LMP2	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer	ORECA LMP2 07	414	9 laps
11	LMP3	36	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Josh Burdon	Ligier JS P320	401	22 laps
12	LMP3	30	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel	Ligier JS P320	401	22 laps
13	LMP3	33	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Pino	Ligier JS P320	401	22 laps
14	LMP3	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo	Ligier JS P320	400	23 laps
15	LMP3	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz	Ligier JS P320	399	24 laps
16	LMP3	76	Anthony Mantella Kyle Marcelli Josh Sarchet	Duqueine D08	397	26 laps
17	LMP3	13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern	Duqueine D08	395	28 laps
18	GTD	66	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher	Acura NSX GT3	387	36 laps
19	GTD	70	Brendan Iribe Jordan Lee Pepper Sebastian Priaulx	McLaren 720S GT3	387	36 laps
20	GTD	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan	BMW M4 GT3	386	37 laps
21	GTD	16	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	386	37 laps
22	GTD	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson	BMW M4 GT3	386	37 laps
23	GTD PRO	62	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon James Calado	Ferrari 488 GT3	386	37 laps
24	GTD PRO	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	Lexus RC F GT3	386	37 laps
25	GTD PRO	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Jesse Krohn	BMW M4 GT3	386	37 laps
26	GTD PRO	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr	Porsche 911 GT3 R	386	37 laps
27	GTD PRO	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas Tom Gamble	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	386	37 laps
28	GTD PRO	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	Corvette C8.R GTD	386	37 laps
29	GTD	32	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller	Mercedes AMG GT3	385	38 laps
30	GTD	27	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin Ian James	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	385	38 laps
31	GTD	21	Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GT3	385	38 laps
32	GTD PRO	79	Maximilian Buhk Mikael Grenier Maximillian Goetz	Mercedes AMG GT3	385	38 laps
33	GTD	42	Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	385	38 laps
34	GTD	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Ulysse De	Ferrari 488 GT3	384	39 laps
35	GTD	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst	Mercedes AMG GT3	383	40 laps
36	LMP3	38	Daniel Goldburg Cameron Shields Tyler Maxson	Ligier JS P320	355	68 laps
37	GTD	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Nicholas Boulle	Porsche 911 GT3 R	264	159 laps
38	LMP2	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen	ORECA LMP2 07	249	174 laps
39	DPi	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval	Cadillac DPi	170	253 laps
40	GTD	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand	Lexus RC F GT3	158	265 laps
41	LMP2	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	ORECA LMP2 07	102	321 laps
42	GTD	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	62	361 laps
43	GTD	39	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	22	401 laps
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