Story and Photos by Tim Adams
The 23rd Annual Motul Petit Le Mans
Petit Le Mans this year had a decidedly different feel. In normal times, Petit would be the season ending event with all the hype and buzz of impending champions to be crowned. As we all know this has been anything but a normal year. Instead of Petit being the season ending race, there will be two more races. A sprint race at Laguna Seca, and the 12 Hours of Sebring will now cap off the season.
The weather was almost perfect for four days of racing at Road Atlanta. The only thing that spoiled it was some lingering cloud cover for most of the day Thursday. Joining the headlining WeatherTech Sportscar Championship series were the Michelin Pilot Challenge series, IMSA Prototype Challenge, and the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Challenge.
The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge racers had a busy weekend. They ran three races in the four days. As it has been for most of the races this year it was between Riley Dickinson in the 53 car, and Jeff Kingsley in the 16 car. Kingsley would take 2 of 3 this busy weekend with Dickinson taking the first race, and Kingsley capturing the next two. So far that gives Kingsley nine wins, finishing first or second in every race contested so far this season. Not bad!
One season that concluded at Road Atlanta was the Prototype Challenge class. The three-hour finale to the season was dominated by the 64 K2R Motorsports Norma M30. Drivers Matt Bell and Naveen Rao lapped the field and were dominating the race. Some late yellow flag periods and wave arounds closed the gap during a late race restart, but they were able to take the win with almost three seconds to spare over the second-place finisher. Next season the Prototype Challenge cars will be getting a boost in horsepower from their Nissan V-8’s and a little more downforce as they become a new and separate class running with the big boys in the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.
In Michelin Pilot Challenge the 39 CarBahn Audi R8 started on the pole and dominated the race until a caution flag flew with just under an hour to go in the race. According to IMSA rules, each driver must complete at least 40 minutes in the car. When the caution came out there was more than 40 minutes left in the races. You cannot just dive into the pits under caution though. Once the pits were open there were less than 40 minutes left, and they could not meet the minimum drive time. If a team does not meet the drive times the car is disqualified. Horrible luck. This opened the door for the Turner Motorsport 96 BMW M4 to take the victory in Grand Sport. In Touring Car, it was once again a battle of the Hyundai Veloster’s. Coming down to the last lap in an extremely close finish, the 98 from Bryan Herta Autosport took the victory. This race was painful to watch. A two-hour race, with over one hour run under yellow flags. Mind numbing yellow flag laps, but some great action at the end thankfully.
The headline of course was Saturday’s 10 hour Petit Le Mans. Some changes were made this year with the start time being pushed to 12:40PM. This meant that almost four hours of the race would be ran in the dark. Fantastic. If you have never watched sportscars race at night you owe yourself a favor to make it to a night race. It is amazing to watch.
At the end in the prototype class it looked like it was going to come down to an epic battle between Pipo Derani in the Whelen Engineering Cadillac Dpi, and Ricky Taylor in the Team Penske Acura Dpi. Lap after lap in the closing hours of the race they would come by nose to tail again and again. With just over 10 minutes to go Ricky Taylor decided to make a move in turn 6 diving inside of Derani. It did not end well. Derani ended up in the tire barrier and stuck in the gravel. From leading to finishing fifth. Ricky Taylor spun, recovered, and while recovering almost drove right into the side of the Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi that inherited the lead when Derani and Taylor hit each other. The race restarted but did not even make it one lap under green when the factory Porsche GTLM 912 hit one of the AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus GTD cars. The race finished under caution with the Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Cadillac taking the Dpi victory.
LMP2 was again only contested by four entries with the 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA taking the victory. Hopefully, the class will see some more entries next year, but I am doubtful with COVID influencing the economy. At the next race, Laguna Seca, there in only one LMP2 entry.
In GTLM Porsche finally won a race. Its first of the season. They were helped by the 24 BMW that had been leading going for a little off-track excursion. At the end of the race the 3 Corvette was trying to chase the Porsche down, but the yellow flag ending put a stop to that. It has not been a good season for the factory Porsche team. Even though they won, the sister car caused the race to end under caution when it wrecked and took out one of the AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus GTD’s.
In GTD the WeatherTech Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 would take the victory, their first of the season.
Even though this was not the last race of the year, it was my last race. Looking forward to next year when the schedule is back to normal. Hopefully, it stays that way. At the time of writing this report COVID cases are continuing to get worse and worse. Time will tell, keep those travel plans to the races flexible!
There will be several changes next year. Penske is gone. Acura will be back with Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing each running one car. There should be two or three Cadillacs, only one Mazda though. In LPM2, who knows, with COVID and the class continuing to struggle, we will just have to play a waiting game. GTLM will continue for at least one more season. Corvette Racing will be back, BMW is a maybe, they are hopeful, but Porsche is gone. GTD will continue to see multiple manufacturers and entries, and next year LMP3’s will join the grid. I would not look forward to the traditional paddock fan access at all next year. This country has screwed up the COVID response so badly we need to keep the teams safe. Fan access just cannot be allowed in the paddock.
Once again, this coverage was provided from the spectator areas as I was unable to obtain media credentials.
I remain positive though that we will see some great sportscar racing action in 2021. Here is to next year.
