Out of 53 starters, 44 have reached the final hour of the 28th Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
With one hour left in the last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race of the year, the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R leads the race, while the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 is closing in, trying to secure the GTP Championship with a victory at Petit Le Mans.
A long green flag run was interrupted with four hours and 10 minutes left after contact between the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Miguel Molina and the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Jake Walker damaged the left rear of the BMW, and brought out a full course yellow for debris.
The #31 Whelen Cadillac took the lead after pit stops under that Safety Car period. When the race restarted, Frederik Vesti peeled off a string of outright fastest laps of the race and eventually broke away from the Vanthoor brothers, Dries and Laurens, in the #24 RLL BMW and #6 Penske Porsche.
Since the last restart, the race has remained under green flag conditions. Vesti handed the car back to Jack Aitken, who held the lead, then Earl Bamber took over to get to the flag. Matt Campbell, back behind the wheel of the #6, closed in on Bamber with about 90 minutes left, and remarkably, Ross Gunn in the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie was catching them both!
Both leaders have made what may be their final stops. Bamber leads in the #31 Cadillac, Mathieu Jaminet has taken over the #6 Porsche in second, and Roman de Angelis is now aboard the #23 Aston Martin in third.
The LMP2 Championship was decided with just over two hours to go after the #22 United Autosports USA ORECA dropped out of second place, and was pushed behind the wall with a right front suspension failure.
Daniel Goldburg needed a fourth-place finish or better to have any chance at becoming LMP2 Champion, but even after a swift 15-minute repair, the #22 car has now fallen more than a dozen laps behind the LMP2 leader and is now out of contention. Adding further injury, the #2 United Autosports car went behind the wall 23 minutes ago while running third.
Over the last few hours, the #99 AO Racing ORECA 07-Gibson has completed its comeback from a puncture mid-way through the race to second place. Dane Cameron recently relieved Jonny Edgar and can cruise home towards the championship alongside co-driver PJ Hyett.
The #18 Era Motorsport ORECA has quietly moved into the lead thanks to some superb driving from Oliver Jarvis. Behind Cameron, Tom Dillmann is now third in the #43 Inter Europol Competition car, followed by the #11 TDS Racing ORECA now driven by Mikkel Jensen.
In GTD PRO, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims is bearing down on a championship for him and senior driver Antonio García, while DragonSpeed’s underdog story has completely unravelled in the closing hours.
With three hours and 45 minutes left, it looked so good for the #81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3. Kyle Kirkwood in the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus overtook Daniel Juncadella in the #3 Corvette, up the inside of turn one. As he left the door ajar for Kirkwood, Juncadella also allowed Giacomo Altoè in the #81 Ferrari to slip past him into third.
Co-driver Albert Costa took over the #81 Ferrari after a driver change, but then had to serve a drive-through penalty for an unattended tyre in its pit stall. Making matters worse, Costa served the penalty, but only after tangling with the #21 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, the GTD class leader, at the turn 10 chicane.
And in the last hour, contact between Costa and the #64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 of Sebastian Priaulx resulted in the Spaniard serving another drive-through penalty.
The #81 Ferrari of Costa has now fallen to sixth in class, Sims is now third in the #3 Corvette, and all the while, the #48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, the dominant car in GTD PRO today, currently leads.
Dan Harper picked up right where Max Hesse left off and is cruising towards victory, helped by overtaking the #4 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg on track before Catsburg made his next pit stop.
The two Ford Multimatic Mustangs run fourth and fifth in class.
Despite the collision, the #21 AF Corse Ferrari was still leading GTD. But after a driver change from Pier Guidi to Simon Mann, and after James Calado relieved Kenton Koch in the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari, Calado took the lead.
But Mann is hanging tough with Calado in second place, and the #21 AF Corse Ferrari is still well clear of the third-place #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus (Jack Hawksworth), which currently has its hands full trying to defend third from the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 (Tom Gamble).
Feature image © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
