After a dominating day that saw Pipo Dernai and Felipe Nasr each blitz the field in different phases of the race, the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. won the 2019 running of Petit Le Mans in convincing fashion from Road Atlanta.
Nasr and Derani, joined by Eric Curran this weekend, were a constant force at the front of the field. But their win was not without moments of drama and worry. An offtrack excursion from Derani led to damage on the floor of the car which was causing drag and hurting the top speed.
Without a way to repair the damage, the team had to hope it would resolve itself. In his post-race interview with IMSA radio, Nasr explained that that moment presented a genuine concern for their chances at victory. The problem seemed to resolve itself, however, and the #31 Cadillac began to reclaim the ground it had lost in a four and a half hour green flag period that made up much of the race’s second half.
There were still questions that needed to be answered for the #31 Cadillac, predominately the fact that as the race entered the final hour it seemed likely they would need to make a splash-and-dash that others would not. With half-an-hour to run the Full Course Yellow flew for just the fourth time giving the #31 Cadillac the opportunity to make their splash-and-dash alongside others who were taking on more fuel in a final stop.
Nasr took the final restart in second, behind his teammate Filipe Albuquerque in the #5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R. A brake failure on the #5 Cadillac into Turn 10a would cost Albuquerque as Nasr drove past to take the lead and eventually the win.
“This is amazing, hats off to all the guys from the Whelen Engineering crew. Felipe [Nasr] and Pipo [Dernai] just killed it today,” said Curran.
A race like Petit Le Mans presents the opportunity for different cars to come into their own at different points as the race ebbs and flows from afternoon to evening and eventually to full darkness. For the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R., they spent the first two-thirds of the race miffed at their lack of speed, especially when compared to the #31 Cadillac.
When nightfall, though, the 2018 winners of Petit Le Mans started to show the pace they had been looking for. Jordan Taylor and Rengar Van Der Zande played a large part in helping the #10 Cadillac scythe through the field. Eventually moving into second after the brake failure suffered by the aforementioned #5 Cadillac.
Taylor and Van Der Zande, with Matthieu Vaxiviere, would have to settle for second at the chequered flag. They finished 1.896 seconds behind the #31 Cadillac.
Rounding out the podium was the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05c of Helio Castroneves, Ricky Taylor, and Graham Rahal. Their teammates in the #6 Acura Team Penske, Juan Pablo-Montoya and Dane Cameron claimed the driver’s championship by a five-point margin ahead of Derani and Nasr in the #31 Cadillac.
The DPi class saw one retirement in the race, that being the #55 Mazda RT-24P. Their day came to an end after the team was unable to find a solution to mechanical problems with the car. The #50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. also struggled with mechanical gremlins. A power-steering failure sent them to the garage for an extended period of time. They finished 10th in class, 48 laps behind the winning #31 Cadillac.
Risi wins GTLM on IMSA return
In GT Le Mans, the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Daniel Serra took home the win and completed the weekend sweep with pole position and the top step of the podium.
The #62 Ferrari and the #67 Ford GT traded blows all race and their heavyweight bout went all the way to the checkered flag as a Full Course Yellow crunched the field.
Calado threw purple lap times onto the timing sheets but Briscoe matched, trying to score Ford a final win at a track they never claimed victory at in the four years of the program. Calado’s late-race heroics were enough, though, as the #62 Ferrari scored a sweep of the weekend with pole position and the win.
“I’ve had a tough time back at home, I lost a great friend and this is for him,” said an emotional James Calado after stepping out of the car. “The team did an amazing job I drove my heart out something came out of me that never did before,” Calado added.
Scott Dixon in the #67 Ford led much of the middle portion of the race but as the sunset, the #62 Ferrari regained control of the lead. That left Dixon, Ryan Briscoe, and Richard Westbrook to have to settle for second in the final race for the Ford GT. That finish will leave the Ford GT winless at Road America in the four years of the programme.
Ending the day in third was the #25 BMW M8 of Tom Blomqvist, Connor De Phillippi, and Colton Herta. The #25 BMW was one beneficiary of the changing conditions in the ten hours, it had factored into the conversation very little in the first half of the race but still managed a podium finish.
The GTLM driver’s championship was won by Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber in the #912 Porsche 911 RSR by virtue of their teammates in the #911 Porsche 911 RSR not winning the race. Earlier in the season, Porsche secured the GTLM manufacturer’s championship at Virginia International Raceway.
For Corvette, it was a fairly disappointing culminating performance for the final race with the Corvette C7.R. Neither the #3 Corvette C7.R or the #4 Corvette C7.R managed to make their presence a factor in the race.
The fourth-place finish for the #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia, and Mike Rockenfeller was inherited after the #912 Porsche was spun by the #31 Cadillac in the race’s final minutes.
All nine of the GTLM entries finished the race with the #24 BMW M8 being the only one in the class to suffer any serious mechanical miscues or gremlins. Jesse Krohn, John Edwards, and Philipp Eng ended the day last in class and 21 laps off the #62 Ferrari.
Turner triumphant in wild GTD finish
In GT Daytona, the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 of Bill Auberlen, Robby Foley, and Dillon Machavern took home the win in dramatic fashion after the #33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG ran out of fuel while in the lead on the final lap.
With so few incidents and so much green flag running, it kept the same groups of cars near the front of the field in each of the classes. In GTD that was the #96 BMW, #33 Mercedes, and a handful of others including the #29 Montaplast By Land Audi R8.
It seemed every time you would glance at the timing screens in GTD the gap between the leaders would never be more than five seconds. A stark contrast to the points in the race in which Nasr and Calado left their respective competitors in different sectors of the track.
A late-race Full Course Yellow for the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3, which had beached itself in the gravel, led to the GTD field being bunched even further closer to each other. Auberlen pressured Felipe Fraga in the #33 Mercedes all the way until the final lap when the #33 Mercedes sputtered in the Esses. Fraga pulled the car off the track, leaving Auberlen free to claim his sixtieth win in IMSA competition, tying Scott Pruett for the record.
The race in GTD, like it always seems to be, can best be summed up by Turner Motorsport’s tweet following their victory:
OMG.
Hejrlleoxujrbjwoaxjvu yugjeksockjrnfxj$388:7,6;’ja’dnjdhcucurjskcifjej€^*{!,€772&,&?$Njdjdkeelcjvikdkwucugnnsnejxjvjdjsjjejejzkcoeppepwpqk&&&&&££,*^,% ufjdksks!!!!#MotulPetitLeMans
— Turner Motorsport (@Turnermotrsport) October 13, 2019
Second in the class was the #29 Montaplast By Land Audi of Chris Mies, Ricky Feller, and Daniel Morad. The #29 Audi lost out on their top three qualifying position after the team erroneously touched the car during the qualifying session. There were no such errors for the European powerhouse that carriers the Audi banner in the endurance rounds of the IMSA season.
The only mistake from the team came from Mies, whose over-exuberant defence of track position netted the team a minor penalty.
Rounding out the podium was the #9 PFAFF Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Scott Hargrove, Zachary Robichon, and Lars Kern. It was a quietly successful round for the team as they snuck onto the podium.
The #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 of Mario Farnbacher and Trent Hindman won the team and driver championships for GTD. The #86 Acura’s day ended in retirement after a piece of debris punctured the radiator but with such a large enough points gap, Hindman and Farnbacher needed to simply start the race.
For the manufacture’s championship, it was Lamborghini that claimed the title, just edging out Acura.
No finishers in LMP2
In LMP2, neither the #52 PR1/Mathiasen ORECA 07 or the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA 07 were able to finish the event. This marks the only time in modern IMSA history that no one in a class finished the race.
The #38 ORECA was retired after a crash in the race’s second hour, much earlier in the race than when the #52 ORECA retired. A specific cause for the #52 ORECA’s retirement was not immediately known with the team simply describing it as a mechanical issue.
With the #52 ORECA completing 201 laps to the #38 ORECA’s 65, the LMP2 win for Petit Le Mans went the way of Gabriel Aubry, Dalton Kellett, Matt McMurry, and PR1/Mathiasen.
The #52 PR1/Mathiasen ORECA had previously claimed the championship at Laguna Seca. ORECA, the class’ only make won the manufacture’s title.
