The #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 leads the 27th Motul Petit Le Mans, heading into the last hour of the race after some inspired driving from Road Atlanta maestro Nick Tandy.
He leads the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 of Ricky Taylor in second place, with the #7 Penske Porsche in third, an hour away from its GTP Championship coronation.
The #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R was fourth, followed by the #24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 in fifth.
In LMP2, it’s the #11 TDS Racing ORECA 07 which leads after a mistake-free race so far, from the #74 Riley car and the #88 Richard Mille AF Corse car.
Tom Dillmann is sixth aboard the #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen ORECA, enough for the team to win the LMP2 titles as they run.
Iron Lynx’s #19 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 leads GTD Pro from the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 in second, and the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in third.
The #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R is still 11th in class after its gear selection problems earlier in the day, but unless the #23 can improve by one position, AO Racing and Laurin Heinrich will still hold on to win the GTD Pro Championships by four points.
And in GTD, Forte Racing’s #78 Lamborghini leads from the #32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 in second and the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari, which has quietly worked its way into podium contention at the end.
Five and a half hours into the race, Tandy was leading in the #6 Penske Porsche, when he made contact with the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Roberto Lacorte at the top of the hill in turn three. The Stewards found Tandy at fault and gave him a drive-through penalty which gave the lead to the sister #7 car of Dane Cameron.
Tandy only slipped to third behind the #10 WTRAndretti Acura of Brendon Hartley, but the advantage the #6 Porsche gained from pitting just before Ben Keating’s second accident was negated.
This came just minutes after the #4 Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg turned the #027 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Mario Farnbacher around just past the turn 11 bridge.
It didn’t take long for Tandy to erase a 15 second gap to Cameron and Hartley – and just before the completion of hour six, Hartley passed Cameron for the lead into turn 10, then Tandy followed Hartley through into second place at turn 11.
Colton Herta and the #40 WTRAndretti Acura’s charge for the podium was blunted when Herta ran off course and picked up a left-rear puncture, causing him to make an unscheduled stop.
The #22 United Autosports USA ORECA went behind the wall with a broken left-front upright at just past half-distance. The car returned to the race, only to go back behind the wall and become the sixth official retirement of the race – putting both United cars out before sunset.
After the sun went down, Renger van der Zande took over the #01 Cadillac that was running third – on his outlap and on cold tyres, Van der Zande got spun by the #83 Iron Dames Lamborghini of Rahel Frey in turn seven. That hurt the #01’s progress as it dropped to sixth.
With two hours left, the #10 WTRA Acura of Ricky Taylor and the #6 Penske Porsche of Nick Tandy were separated by just three seconds. Tandy chipped away at Taylor’s advantage, and with one hour and 45 minutes to go, Tandy went up the inside of the Acura to take the lead.
Fifteen minutes ago, the top two in GTP made routine pit stops for fuel and four new tyres – and the #10 Acura of Taylor just edged ahead of the #6 Porsche of Tandy at pit exit, but Taylor, with cold tyres and brakes and trying to give way to faster cars behind him, slid off at the top of the esses and let Tandy through just as quickly as he’d gone ahead!
Meanwhile the #20 MDK by High Class Racing ORECA, which was on the fringes of podium contention earlier on, was pushed behind the wall for 15 minutes – taking it out of contention.
The final 60 minutes of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season are upon us!
