In the team’s last race before going on a planned hiatus, Meyer Shank Racing recorded its 18th win in IMSA competition, third overall win at Petit Le Mans, and second in a row for the team at this event. MSR’s three wins this season (Daytona, Mosport, and Road Atlanta) led all GTP teams in 2023.
For Tom Blomqvist, this is his fifth overall win in 19 starts with MSR, third of the 2023 season, and second in a row at Petit Le Mans. Blomqvist will be headed to a full-time ride in the IndyCar Series with MSR next year.
Colin Braun became the 25th driver to reach 25 wins in all classes of IMSA competition, tying João Barbosa, Irv Hoerr, and Parker Johnstone. It was his seventh career overall win, and his first Petit Le Mans win in 11 previous starts.
Helio Castroneves captured his 11th career win, and second win in three starts for MSR this season. Castroneves became a minority stakeholder at MSR and will be moving into an ownership role and Indianapolis 500 one-off drive in IndyCar next year.
This was Acura’s second overall win (in back-to-back years) at Petit Le Mans. Honda Performance Development (soon to be known as Honda Racing Corporation USA) can claim this as a third win for Honda, between the two wins for the Japanese manufacturer’s luxury label, and in 2016 when a Honda engine powered Michael Shank Racing’s Ligier JS P2 to the overall win!
Had MSR not received a 200-point deduction for tyre pressure data manipulation at Daytona, Blomqvist and Braun would have won the GTP championship by 178 points. They finished third in the standings, 22 points back of series champions Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims.
On that note…
Action Express Racing (Whelen Engineering Racing) won its sixth set of IMSA Drivers’ and Teams’ championships, all in the premier class, and its seventh set of Michelin Endurance Cup Drivers’ and Teams’ championships.
Luis Felipe “Pipo” Derani won his second IMSA premier class Drivers’ championship in three years, both with Action Express Racing.
Alexander Sims won his first IMSA championship in his first season of racing in the premier class.
Jack Aitken won his first Michelin Endurance Cup title in his first season of American sportscar racing. This is his first championship on American soil since he won the Pro Mazda (now USF Pro 2000) Winterfest.
For Cadillac, this is its fourth set of IMSA Drivers’, Teams’, and Manufacturers’ championships since entering IMSA’s top category in 2017.
Cadillac also won its third Michelin Endurance Cup team title, and fifth MEC drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles.
The Acura ARX-06 and Porsche 963 tied for the most victories in the first season of the new GTP category, with three wins each: MSR recorded all of Acura’s victories in 2023, while Porsche Penske Motorsports’ two cars won at Long Beach, Road America, and Indianapolis. Cadillac won two races with the V-Series.R, while BMW’s first win with the M Hybrid V8 came at Watkins Glen after the #6 Porsche was disqualified for a skid block violation.
With thanks to The B Pillar – Scott Dixon recorded the fastest average of each driver’s fastest 50 per cent of all racing laps (1:12.416). Sebastien Bourdais posted the fastest average of each driver’s 20 best racing laps (1:11.614) and also set the fastest single lap of the race (1:10.917).
It was indicative of the outright pace of the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R which led 223 out of 397 laps in its class but finished a close second.
Speaking of close second places…this is the fourth consecutive runner-up finish in the championship for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport (WTRAndretti), dating back to 2020.
Proton Competition became the first Porsche 963 customer team to record an overall podium finish in either IMSA or the FIA World Endurance Championship this season, in just the third IMSA race for the team.
CrowdStrike Racing and Algarve Pro Racing (APR) won its second race in IMSA, following a maiden victory at the Watkins Glen 6h.
George Kurtz’s third career IMSA victory clinched the Jim Trueman Award and an automatic entry into the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. He also won the LMP2 Pro-Am category at this year’s Le Mans 24h with Colin Braun and Ben Hanley, and the GT World Challenge America Pro-Am championship with Braun.
Kurtz and Ben Hanley also won the Michelin Endurance Cup in LMP2. This is Hanley’s fourth career IMSA win, all of them in LMP2. Hanley will move to United Autosports USA next season to partner 2022 Trueman Award winner Ben Keating.
This is Nolan Siegel’s second IMSA victory in his last two LMP2 appearances, wrapping up a season that included a win in the Asian Le Mans Series 4h of Dubai, and Indy NXT Rookie of the Year honours.
PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports won its fourth set of IMSA LMP2 Teams’ and Drivers’ championships in the five years since LMP2 was spun off from the premier prototype class in 2019.
Ben Keating won his second full-season IMSA LMP2 Drivers’ championship in three years. Keating already clinched the final FIA World Endurance Championship LMGTE Am class championship earlier this year at Fuji.
Paul-Loup Chatin, previously a two-time European Le Mans Series LMP2 champion and one-time LMPC champion, won his first IMSA LMP2 Drivers’ championship in his first full-time campaign.
Jr III Racing scored its first IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship win, in its final race before taking on a behind-the-scenes role supporting the new United Autosports USA team in LMP2 next year.
This was Garett Grist’s first IMSA victory since he won the final Prototype Challenge race at the 2017 Petit Le Mans – meaning that Grist has now helped to send off two different prototype categories with victories in each!
Dakota Dickerson and Bijoy Garg recorded their first IMSA wins.
Garg clinched the IMSA VP Racing Sportscar Challenge LMP3 title and swept both races on Thursday and Friday before the main event, making him a perfect three-for-three on the weekend.
Riley Motorsports won the final LMP3 Drivers’ and Teams’ championships before the category is removed from the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship next season. It is their second set of Drivers’ and Teams’ titles, and third straight set of Michelin Endurance Cup titles in three years.
Gar Robinson won his second LMP2 Drivers’ title in three seasons, matching his two Trans-Am TA2 championships from 2015 and 2017. This is his third straight Michelin Endurance Cup championship.
Robinson recorded 12 LMP3 class wins in 21 races from 2021 to 2023, the most of any driver.
Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon won their first Michelin Endurance Cup titles. Fraga and Burdon split time alongside Robinson this season due to Fraga’s ongoing commitments in Stock Car Brasil.
The Ligier JS P320 won 19 out of 21 races in LMP3 from 2021 to 2023, with the Duquiene D08 recording its first victories this year at Daytona and at Indianapolis.
WeatherTech Racing won its GTD Pro class-leading fourth win of 2023, and eighth win in IMSA, in what is expected to be the last race for the Proton Competition-run team’s Mercedes-AMG GT3. WeatherTech Racing also won the Michelin Endurance Cup Drivers’ and Teams’ championships with victories at Daytona and Road America.
Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella each won their fourth career races this season, starting with the season-opening Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. Gounon can add a second major endurance title to his name as he leads the Intercontinental GT Challenge standings with only the Gulf 12 Hours left to run.
Maro Engel got his third career IMSA win, and second of the season. Engel finished on the podium in each of his three starts.
Mercedes-AMG won its first set of Michelin Endurance Cup Drivers’, Teams’, and Manufacturers’ championships in GTD Pro.
Meanwhile, Vasser Sullivan Racing won its first set of Drivers’ and Teams’ championships in IMSA, after taking over as Lexus’ representative in the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship beginning in 2019.
In its seventh year of competition, the Lexus RC F GT3 won its first IMSA championship, as Lexus secured the GTD Pro Manufacturers’ championship in 2023.
Jack Hawksworth, who was part of Lexus’ inaugural GTD programme in 2017, and his co-driver Ben Barnicoat each won their first IMSA Drivers’ championships.
An engine failure ensured that Corvette Racing would finish its 25-year run as a singular, factory-run team with 115 wins in IMSA – by far, the most of any entrant in the history of American sportscar racing across all classes.
The Corvette C8.R and C8.R GTD combined for 18 of those wins from the C8.R’s original introduction in 2020.
Forte Racing powered by USRT took its first IMSA victory in its first season in the GTD class.
It was the first American victory for the new Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 which debuted at this year’s 24 Hours of Daytona, and Lamborghini’s first win in IMSA since the 2021 Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Loris Spinelli and Patrick Liddy each took their first career IMSA victories. For Liddy, it was just his second race in the main series.
As for Misha Goikhberg, it was his fourth career win and first since he took the overall win at the 2018 Watkins Glen 6H, driving an Oreca LMP2 07 as part of a pro-am driver line-up at JDC-Miller MotorSports!
Paul Miller Racing already clinched the 2023 GTD Drivers’ and Teams’ championships at Indianapolis – the second set of titles for the team, and for drivers Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers.
BMW had also clinched its second consecutive GTD Manufacturers’ championship in two years since the introduction of the new M4 GT3.
PMR, Snow, Sellers, and BMW also swept the WeatherTech Sprint Cup titles in 2023.
Korthoff Preston Motorsports (formerly Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports, then Team Korthoff Motorsports) won its first IMSA titles of any kind by taking the Michelin Endurance Cup Drivers’ and Teams’ titles in GTD.
It was the first Michelin Endurance Cup Drivers’ title for the entire trio of Mike Skeen, Mikaël Grenier, and Kenton Koch.
Mercedes-AMG won the Michelin Endurance Manufacturers’ Cup in both GTD classes this year. This is the German marque’s fourth MEC title in the GTD class, and the first since the 2020 Evo version was introduced.
Inception Motorsports’ Brendan Iribe had his race ended in a four-car crash early on, but he clinched the Bob Akin Award by starting the race on Saturday, giving him an automatic entry into next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Winward Racing led 142 out of 370 laps, the most of any GTD car, but suffered contact with a lapped car late in the race and finished ninth in class.
Friend of the programme Andy Blackmore designed the liveries for all three GTD podium finishers, as well as the LMP2 class winner and third-place finisher in GTP – in total, Andy’s works made up over 20 per cent of the 52-car grid this weekend.
With thanks to The B Pillar – Iron Dames’ Doriane Pin posted the fastest averages of the best 20 laps and best 50 per cent of laps in the GTD class despite the team finishing three laps down due to mechanical issues. Pin’s best 20-lap average (1:20.686) was only bettered by GTD Pro drivers Kevin Estre, Mirko Bortolotti, Daniel Juncadella, and Jordan Pepper, and her best 50% average (1:21.371) was only beaten by those four GTD Pro drivers plus Antonio Garcia.
In total, there were 13 full-course yellows that combined for three hours and 35 minutes.
