Sebastian Bourdais and Cadillac Racing led an eventful first hour of the 26th annual Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Bourdais ripped his black and gold #01 Cadillac V-Series.R around the outside of polesitter Louis Deletraz in the first corner of the race and has held the lead through two Safety Car interventions.
Deletraz still runs second in the #10 WTRAndretti/Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, ahead of WTRAndretti’s principal championship rivals in GTP. Tom Blomqvist runs third in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura after an early pit stop, followed by Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, and Connor de Phillippi in the #25 BMW Team RLL M Hybrid V8.
Nick Tandy and Augusto Farfus had to serve early drive-through penalties for jumping out of line at the start, the #6 Porsche and #24 BMW have begun the process of coming back through the field.
Ben Keating leads LMP2 in the #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca 07, even after a rare spin out of turn seven he still leads the TDS Racing duo of Steven Thomas and John Falb in second and third in class.
The #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P320 is out front in LMP3, as Cameron Shields stayed out while the rest of the LMP3 field pitted under the most recent full-course yellow.
A pleasant surprise out of the GTD ranks in the first hour: Doriane Pin in the #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini has surged to the class lead and ahead of the GTD Pro leader, Jack Hawksworth in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus.
The #3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Daniel Serra run second and third in GTD Pro, while the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Aaron Telitz and #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes of Mike Skeen likewise round out the GTD ‘classic’ podium with much, more still to come over the remaining nine hours!
By taking the green flag, the #74 Riley Ligier and Gar Robinson have officially clinched the final LMP3 title in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship. Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat have clinched the GTD Pro championship in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
Trouble began before the green flag even waved to start today’s ten-hour endurance classic, when the race began with a cold track and some damp patches still present.
JDC Miller Motorsports’ hopes of winning the final LMP3 race in IMSA’s premier series were dashed when Rasmus Lindh spun and crashed at the tricky turn three. The right rear suspension of the #85 Duquiene D08 “Banana Boat Jnr” was damaged and the car spent 35 minutes behind the pit wall for repairs, leaving the #85 crew 19 laps down.
Ari Balogh’s first race in an LMP2 Oreca 07 meanwhile couldn’t have gone worse. Just seconds after he spun trying to warm up the tyres on the formation lap, he spun off and crashed on the opening lap to bring out the first Safety Car of the race – a crash which knocked the blue #8 Tower Motorsport car, its brand new sponsor, and star co-driver Scott McLaughlin out of contention in just three corners.
The #8 Tower Motorsport Oreca returned to the race after 40 minutes of repair work, it is now more than 20 laps off the class lead.
The Safety Car came out again after 20 minutes for debris at the turn ten chicane. Antonio Fuoco tried to defend his position in the GTD class – quite robustly – from Mike Skeen. A split-second later, the #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 clipped the left rear of the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 into the braking zone.
The Ferrari got a cut tyre for its trouble and the carcass of the Michelin tyre was stranded just off the racing line at turn ten.
Even during that second Safety Car intervention, there was still more carnage: Brendan Iribe picked up a drive-through penalty for Inception Racing after he collided with AF Corse’s Miguel Molina in the pit lane, and David Brule spun the #92 KellyMoss with Riley Porsche before the race went green again.
Not part of that action was the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3, which picked up a power steering issue early into Kyle Marcelli’s opening stint.
