Halfway into the 27th annual Motul Petit Le Mans, the sun is starting to set in the west of Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, and the action has been hot and frenetic over the last four hours – and it is only getting hotter!
After 214 laps, there’s a three-way battle for the GTP and overall lead as it stands, between the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Kevin Estre, leading the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 of Brendon Hartley, and the #7 Porsche Penske of Dane Cameron!
Cameron is currently doing enough to win the full set of GTP Championships for driver, team, and manufacturer – and by virtue of his co-driver Felipe Nasr leading at the four-hour mark, the #7 Porsche team of Cameron and Nasr has provisionally clinched the GTP Michelin Endurance Cup title an hour ago.
The #40 WTRAndretti Acura runs fourth on the tail end of that lead lap, ahead of the lap-down #5 Proton Competition Porsche in fifth, the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, and the #24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 in sixth and seventh. The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac has fallen two laps down in eighth.
LMP2 is led by the #74 Riley ORECA LMP2 07. Gar Robinson has completed his required two-and-a-half hours of drive time, clearing the way for Felipe Fraga to build a lead.
The #88 Richard Mille AF Corse car is second as Luis Perez Companc tries to knock out his minimum drive time, while the #20 MDK by High Class Racing ORECA has emerged in third place after Dennis Andersen cleared an eventful 150 minutes of driving on his own.
Risi Competizione’s #62 Ferrari 296 GT3 leads in GTD Pro by about eight seconds over the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that is still fighting for the championship.
With Alessandro Pier Guidi leading and Roman de Angelis in second, Christopher Mies runs third in the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3, followed by Franck Perera in the #19 Iron Lynx Huracán GT3 EVO2.
And in GTD, the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini and #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R are battling for the lead, as Misha Goikhberg in the #78 has recently passed Adam Adelson in the #120.
The #32 Korhoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Kenton Koch overtook Adelson to get second, and the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 was fourth.
Hour two had a couple of notable incidents.
The #2 United Autosports USA ORECA of Ben Keating was cruising in front of the LMP2 class until he lost the rear going into turn five when trying to lap the #20 MDK/High Class Racing ORECA of Andersen.
As he spun, he collected the #4 Corvette Racing car of Tommy Milner. Keating almost crashed again down the backstretch but was able to drive the car back behind the wall to fix the left-rear suspension and rear clip, while the #4 Corvette, which suffered heavy right-side damage, stopped well off course and Milner got out of his stricken yellow ‘Vette. Race control ruled any blame between the #2 and #20 ORECAs and the #4 Corvette inconclusive.
On the subsequent restart, the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R got a slow getaway going down the hill into turn 12, reporting contact on the restart. Julien Andlauer was able to get back up to speed, but he began slowing down again the next time around and dropped well down the GT running order.
A problem with the steering wheel connection had caused a gear selection issue for Rexy, that had to be resolved with a longer pit stop. Michael Christensen is now aboard and five laps down, but trying to fight back into the top ten in class to assist the team’s title charge.
Sheena Monk’s #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 made contact with the #24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Jesse Krohn, causing both cars to pit for punctures. Monk came out of the pits but then got turned around at the bottom of the Esses by the #9 Pfaff Motorsports McLaren of Oliver Jarvis, and the stranded NSX brought out the third Full Course Yellow of the race.
Andlauer stayed on the lead lap despite his issues – and Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette only lost a lap after needing a front-left brake caliper change – and now the #3 Vette is back on the lead lap!
Things started to unravel slowly for the two Cadillac V-Series.Rs in the third hour, and it began when the #31 Whelen Cadillac of Jack Aitken – who’d recently taken the lead on track from Matt Campbell – got a drive-through for undertaking in a yellow flag zone.
Sebastien Bourdais made contact with Dennis Andersen down at turn ten and sent the #20 ORECA spinning out, and as soon as the #01 Cadillac had made its way back onto the lead lap after its drivetrain sensor problems, Renger van der Zande had to drop back after serving a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.
Half an hour later, the #31 Whelen Cadillac was involved in a similar incident, when Tom Blomqvist spun Jesse Krohn at turn ten – and received a similar drive-through penalty, the car’s second in an hour.
A power steering fluid leak put the #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 behind the wall at the three-hour and 45-minute mark of the race, the first GTP car to suffer serious mechanical drama.
The second was the #25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8. At the four-hour mark, Nick Yelloly began to run slowly out of turn seven and saw an “ICE Alarm” message on his dash. Yelloly limped back behind the wall as the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing crew worked to diagnose a potential fuel system issue.
After an hour of repair work, the #2 United Autosports USA ORECA returned to the race after Keating’s accident. But an hour ago, Keating spun off and backed into the tyre barriers again, this time at turn five, to bring out the fourth Full Course Yellow of the race. During that intervention, his team-mate, Bijoy Garg, went off at the pit entry due to a miscommunication between pit wall and driver.
Before Jakub Smiechowski could take the green flag on the restart, he spun coming through turn 10B, thankfully he was the last car on the lead lap in his class and the #52 Inter Europol/PR1 Mathiasen machine only dropped one position.
Five cars are officially retired from the race, including the GTD class #44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (John Potter/Andy Lally/Spencer Pumpelly) which was knocked out with a gearbox problem.
Magnus’ early retirement means that Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, and Winward Racing have virtually clinched the 2024 IMSA GTD Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships.
It also means that Orey Fidani of AWA has clinched the 2024 Bob Akin Award given to the top Bronze-graded driver in GTD.
The #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 was pushed behind the wall at turn seven with a very visible and terminal problem in the engine bay, lasting only three hours.
The fuel system problem for the #25 RLL BMW and the power steering issue on the #85 JDC-MIller Porsche both proved to be terminal – they became the third and fourth retirements, and most recently, the battered #2 United ORECA made it a fifth retirement, its second crash was too much to overcome.
JDC-Miller MotorSports’ retirement also brings an unceremonious end to the driving career of the legendary Richard Westbrook, who was behind the wheel when the car suffered its power steering fluid leak.
Images © Jack Webster / Dailysportscar.com
