This weekend, the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship comes to an end at Road Atlanta in Georgia. 39 cars in four classes will battle for glory.
In the Prototype class, the biggest story of the race is the appearance of Team Penske. They’ll run an ORECA 07-Gibson with big names behind the wheel. Juan Pablo Montoya, who will drive an Acura ARX-05 for the team full-time in 2018, will be joined by INDYCAR veterans Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud. The entry is nothing more than a dry run for the team before going full-time.
REBELLION Racing is back for their third appearance of the season. However, they have a revised driver lineup for this weekend. Porsche factory racer Neel Jani is not in the car so that he can focus on the upcoming 6 Hours of Fuji. Driving in his place is American racer Gustavo Menezes.
Additional endurance drivers in the fold include Filipe Albuquerque in Action Express Racing’s No. 5 (soon to be a full-time driver), Mike Conway in Action Express Racing’s No. 31, Brendon Hartley in Tequila Patron ESM’s No. 2 and Bruno Senna in the No. 22.
Julien Canal, who drives full-time in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Valliante REBELLION, will serve as PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ third driver this weekend. It will be his first start outside of the WEC in the United States since 2012.
For Prototype Challenge, Saturday will be the final race for the ORECA FLM09-Chevrolets in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Three teams have posted entries. Performance Tech Motorsports is going for the season sweep, but BAR1 Motorsports will do everything in their power to prevent that.
GT Le Mans has the normal nine entries, but everyone has brought their endurance third drivers into the fold. For the Porsche GT Team, that means the return of Nick Tandy (No. 911) and Earl Bamber (No. 912) to competition. Both drivers were full-time with the team last year before being tapped to drive Porsche’s 919 Hybrid in the WEC.
For Risi Competizione, there is a change in their lineup. James Calado, who drove for the team at Daytona and Sebring, has been replaced by Alessandro Pier Guidi.
INDYCAR veterans Sébastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon are back with Ford Chip Ganassi Racing. Additionally, former Audi factory racers Marcel Fässler and Mike Rockenfeller return to Corvette Racing.
A batch of part-time drivers are in play in GT Daytona. Austin Cindric takes a break from the Camping World Truck Series playoffs to race for 3GT Racing in their No. 15 Lexus. Trent Hindman, who made his GT Daytona debut at VIR for Riley Motorsports, will drive the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini. Justin Marks is also back in the Turner Motorsport BMW.
Finally, there are a couple of extra teams in the fold in GT Daytona. Montaplast by Land-Motorsport, which finished second in class at Daytona earlier this year, is back for their third start of the year. Connor De Phillippi and Christopher Mies are back for another go-round along with a driver to be announced. Alex Job Racing is also back for the last of the endurance rounds.
FULL ENTRY LIST BELOW
Entry List: Motul Petit Le Mans
| Class | Team | Drivers | Car |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype | 2 - Tequila Patron ESM | Ryan Dalziel Brendon Hartley Scott Sharp | Nissan DPi |
| GT Le Mans | 3 - Corvette Racing | Antonio Garcia Jan Magnussen Mike Rockenfeller | Chevrolet Corvette C7.R |
| GT Le Mans | 4 - Corvette Racing | Marcel Fässler Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner | Chevrolet Corvette C7.R |
| Prototype | 5 - Action Express Racing | Filipe Albuquerque Joao Barbosa Christian Fittipaldi | Cadillac DPi-V.R. |
| Prototype | 6 - Team Penske | Helio Castroneves Juan Pablo Montoya Simon Pagenaud | ORECA 07-Gibson |
| Prototype | 10 - Wayne Taylor Racing | Ryan Hunter-Reay Jordan Taylor Ricky Taylor | Cadillac DPi-V.R. |
| Prototype | 13 - REBELLION Racing | Mathias Beche Nick Heidfeld Gustavo Menezes | ORECA 07-Gibson |
| GT Daytona | 14 - 3GT Racing | Robert Alon Ian James Sage Karam | Lexus RCF GT3 |
| GT Daytona | 15 - 3GT Racing | Austin Cindric Jack Hawksworth Scott Pruett | Lexus RCF GT3 |
| GT Daytona | 16 - Change Racing | Corey Lewis Jeroen Mul Brett Sandberg | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 |
| Prototype Challenge | 20 - BAR1 Motorsports | Daniel Burkett Buddy Rice Don Yount | ORECA FLM09-Chevrolet |
| Prototype | 22 - Tequila Patron ESM | Pipo Derani Bruno Senna Johannes van Overbeek | Nissan DPi |
| GT Daytona | 23 - Alex Job Racing | Townsend Bell Frankie Montecalvo Bill Sweedler | Audi R8 LMS GT3 |
| GT Le Mans | 24 - BMW Team RLL | Nicky Catsburg John Edwards Martin Tomczyk | BMW M6 GTLM |
| GT Le Mans | 25 - BMW Team RLL | Bill Auberlen Alexander Sims Kuno Wittmer | BMW M6 GTLM |
| Prototype Challenge | 26 - BAR1 Motorsports | Tomy Drissi John Falb Garret Grist | ORECA FLM09-Chevrolet |
| GT Daytona | 28 - Alegra Motorsports | Michael Christensen Michael de Quesada Daniel Morad | Porsche 911 GT3 R |
| GT Daytona | 29 - Montaplast by Land-Motorsport | Connor De Phillippi Christopher Mies Sheldon van der Linde | Audi R8 LMS GT3 |
| Prototype | 31 - Action Express Racing | Dane Cameron Mike Conway Eric Curran | Cadillac DPi-V.R. |
| GT Daytona | 33 - Riley Motorsports | Jeroen Bleekemolen Mario Farnbacher Ben Keating | Mercedes-AMG GT3 |
| Prototype Challenge | 38 - Performance Tech Motorsports | James French Kyle Masson Pato O'Ward | ORECA FLM09-Chevrolet |
| GT Daytona | 48 - Paul Miller Racing | Trent Hindman Bryan Sellers Madison Snow | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 |
| GT Daytona | 50 - WeatherTech Racing | Gunnar Jeannette Patrick Long Cooper MacNeil | Porsche 911 GT3 R |
| Prototype | 52 - PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | Julien Canal José Gutierrez Olivier Pla | Ligier JS P217-Gibson |
| GT Daytona | 54 - CORE autosport | Jon Bennett Colin Braun Nic Jonsson | Porsche 911 GT3 R |
| GT Daytona | 57 - Stevenson Motorsports | Lawson Aschenbach Matt Bell Andrew Davis | Audi R8 LMS GT3 |
| GT Le Mans | 62 - Risi Competizione | Giancarlo Fisichella Alessandro Pier Guidi Toni Vilander | Ferrari 488 GTE |
| GT Daytona | 63 - Scuderia Corsa | Alessandro Balzan Matteo Cressoni Christina Nielsen | Ferrari 488 GT3 |
| GT Le Mans | 66 - Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Sébastien Bourdais Joey Hand Dirk Müller | Ford GT |
| GT Le Mans | 67 - Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Ryan Briscoe Scott Dixon Richard Westbrook | Ford GT |
| GT Daytona | 73 - Park Place Motorsports | Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Matt McMurry | Porsche 911 GT3 R |
| GT Daytona | 75 - SunEnergy1 Racing | Kenny Habul Tristan Vautier Dion von Moltke | Mercedes-AMG GT3 |
| Prototype | 85 - JDC/Miller MotorSports | Misha Goikhberg Chris Miller Stephen Simpson | ORECA 07-Gibson |
| GT Daytona | 86 - Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Tom Dyer Oswaldo Negri Jr. Jeff Segal | Acura NSX GT3 |
| Prototype | 90 - Visit Florida Racing | Jonathan Bomarito Marc Goossens Renger van der Zande | Ligier JS P217-Gibson |
| GT Daytona | 93 - Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Andy Lally Katherine Legge Mark Wilkins | Acura NSX GT3 |
| GT Daytona | 96 - Turner Motorsport | Jens Klingmann Jesse Krohn Justin Marks | BMW M6 GT3 |
| GT Le Mans | 911 - Porsche GT Team | Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy Dirk Werner | Porsche 911 RSR |
| GT Le Mans | 912 - Porsche GT Team | Earl Bamber Gianmaria Bruni Laurens Vanthoor | Porsche 911 RSR |
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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