BRASELTON, Ga. — Chip Ganassi Racing’s Renger van der Zande was able to sweep past Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Nick Tandy entering turn 1 with just over 15 minutes to go Saturday night (Oct. 12). From there, van der Zande drove away to win the Motul Petit Le Mans with teammates Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon.
Ganassi’s margin of victory was 2.948 seconds over Tandy, Kevin Estre and Mathieu Jaminet. The No. 7 Porsche of Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell and Kevin Estre were third. BMW M Team RLL’s Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus and Jesse Krohn were a lap down in fourth, while Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken, Tom Blomqvist and Pipo Derani were fifth.
Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken started from pole in his Cadillac and ran well in the opening laps. BMW M Team RLL’s Connor de Phillippi. During an early caution, everyone chose to stop for fuel…except for Jordan Taylor.
Not stopping during the first yellow put the DEX Imaging Acura in the overall lead. Once the race restarted, Jordan ran off and hid. Having a lighter car due to fuel allowed Jordan to run off to a 10-second lead.
Eventually, Aitken was able to run Jordan back down and retake the lead 90 minutes in. By that point, the two pit strategies had effectively merged.
The third caution flew when Gradient Racing’s Sheena Monk spun in the Esses after rubbing against Pfaff Motorsports’ Oliver Jarvis. Monk’s car was undamaged, but came to a stop in the middle of a dangerous part of the course.
During this caution, Aitken made an illegal pass of a lapped car. That eventually got him a drive-through penalty that took Action Express out of contention. A second penalty later on when Tom Blomqvist hit the No. 24 BMW put them a lap down.
The penalty put Campbell in the lead in his championship-leading Porsche. A couple of long green runs thinned out the teams on the lead lap. By the fifth hour, there were only five left and two of them were on the tail end of the lead lap, waiting for a caution to come out so they could come back around that seemingly never came.
Tandy was leading until he made contact with Cetilar Racing’s Roberto Lacorte, knocking Lacorte off the road. He was given a drive-through penalty for that, giving the overall lead to Nasr.
Much of the second half of the race saw the two Penske Porsches swap the lead back and forth. Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global’s No. 10 was the main competition. Until a little after 9 p.m. ET.
Right at the beginning of the final hour, Proton Competition’s Corey Lewis spun in turn 5 and came to rest in the middle of the track. He was then hit by Wright Motorsports’ Jan Heylen and WTRAndretti’s Ricky Taylor to bring out the caution.
Ricky, who was running second at the time, was able to drive back to the pits. However, his Acura ARX-06 was thrashed. Both Ricky and Heylen ended up going behind the wall and out of the race.
The crash put Nasr up to second behind Tandy in time for the final pit stops. A move to hold Nasr’s final stop for a lap dropped him back while Tandy kept the lead.
The caution put van der Zande up to second in the Cadillac. The No. 01 had struggled for much of the race with penalties and an off-course excursion, but van der Zande was right there when it counted.
Just after van der Zande took the overall lead, Tandy got nerfed off the road exiting turn 7 by Eng while fighting for second. That hit dropped Tandy five seconds behind van der Zande. Eng cut a tire and was forced to pit. He was also given a drive-through penalty that cost him a lap.
Despite getting a decent lead, there was an issue with the headlights on van der Zande’s Cadillac. Both lights briefly went out with four minutes to go. This typically would have forced van der Zande to stop for a new nose. However, he was able to get at least one headlight back on in time to prevent the meatball from coming into play.
LMP2 saw Ben Keating start from pole in his Wynn’s-sponsored No. 2. He was able to open up a small advantage prior to the first caution.
After the stops, Keating continued to lead with TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas giving chase. Then, disaster struck.
Early in the second hour, Keating spun entering turn 6. While spinning, he was struck by Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Tommy Milner. The contact ripped the rear bodywork off of Keating’s car, while Milner spun into the tires to bring out the second yellow.
To make the situation worse, Keating tried to drive the ORECA 07 sans rear wing a little too fast while trying to get back to the pits and slid into the wall on the backstretch after clipping the grass. The team ended up repairing the car and returned 56 laps down, but a third crash at the end of the fourth hour ended the team’s day.
Thomas inherited the lead as a result of the crash. Once he gave way to Hunter McAlrea, Richard Mille AF Corse’s Lilou Wadoux was able to drive up into the lead. Cautions, pace and pit strategy ultimately slimmed down the lead lap to just a couple of cars.
Wadoux eventually gave way to her teammates, but they simply couldn’t hold on to the advantage. Riley Motorsports’ Felipe Fraga eventually took the lead away just before halfway.
The race became a two-team duel between Riley Motorsports and TDS Racing. The two teams were the only ones on the lead lap for much of the second half of the race. However, the big wreck at the beginning of the final hour allowed a series of wavearounds.
Mikkel Jensen was leading for TDS Racing, but Fraga was right there, along with Nicklas Nielsen, Connor Zilisch and Frederik Vesti. Fraga tried to go for the lead on the first lap after the restart headed into the chicane. It was unsuccessful.
That ended up being the only chance that Fraga got. Jensen was in the zone and drove away from the rest of the LMP2 leaders over the final 30 minutes to take the victory with teammates McAlrea and Thomas.
TDS Racing’s margin of victory was 17.097 seconds over Riley Motorsports’ Fraga, Josh Burdon and Gar Robinson. Era Motorsport’s Zilisch, Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman were third, then Inter Europol Competition’s Nick Boulle, Tom Dillmann and Jakub Smiechowski. Tower Motorsports’ Vesti, Sebastian Alvarez and John Farano were fifth.
AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich started from the class pole in GT and maintained his advantage over the rest of the pack. The first caution changed things significantly.
Not only did Heinrich get beat out of the pits, but Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Frederic Vervisch chose not to stop, resulting in the No. 65 taking the class lead.
After the second caution, trouble struck AO Racing’s Julien Andlauer. The Porsche developed a gear selection issue, resulting in Andlauer dropping back and putting Heinrich’s championship chances in jeopardy.
Eventually, it was determined that the corded wire that the steering wheel plugs into was not connecting properly. That resulted in the car getting stuck in first gear. Andlauer eventually pitted to get the wire replaced, but the fix cost them five laps. They were never able to get those laps back and finished 11th in class.
Iron Lynx’s Jordan Pepper got himself to the class lead late and pulled away to take the win for himself, Mirko Bortolotti and Franck Perera. Further back, the battle for second would deterimine the GTD Pro championship.
Risi Competizione’s Daniel Serra was second, but The Heart of Racing’s Ross Gunn was hot on his tail. If Gunn could run down Serra and take over second, he would win the championship.
Gunn got to within a half-second of the Ferrari, but never got a run on Serra. When Serra finished second, Heinrich claimed the GTD Pro championship by four points.
Iron Lynx’s margin of victory was 2.361 seconds over Serra, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Davide Rigon. Gunn, Roman DeAngelis and Alex Riberas were third, while teammates Mario Farnbacher, Zacharie Robichon and Marco Sorensen were fourth. Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio Garcia, Daniel Juncadella and Alexander Sims rounded out the top-five.
In GTD, Lone Star Racing’s Scott Andrews started from pole and led early. However, he ran in trouble less than 20 minutes in.
Andrews spun his Mercedes and got stuck in the gravel in turn 5, bringing out the race’s first full course caution. That gave the class lead to Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley. Andrews was able to continue, but lost a couple of laps getting out of the trap.
The race came down to a battle between Conquest Racing’s Albert Costa and Loris Spinelli. Costa had the advantage and Spinelli managed to run him down. While dealing with quicker prototypes coming through, the two battled for the final 30 minutes.
Costa was able to barely hold off Spinelli to win the GTD class with teammates Manny Franco and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli. It is the team’s first GTD win.
Conquest Racing won by .718 seconds over Forte Racing’s Spinelli, Misha Goikhberg and Devlin DeFrancesco. Vasser Sullivan’s Frankie Montecalvo, Aaron Telitz and Parker Thompson were a lap down in third, then Korthoff/Preston Motorsports’ Mike Skeen, Mikael Grenier and Kenton Koch. The Ferrari of Triarsi Competizione’s Alessio Rovera, Charlie Scardina and Onofrio Triarsi was fifth.
Championship-wise, the battle was over in the first 30 minutes. Magnus Racing’s John Potter suffered a gearbox failure and retired from the race. That was enough to clinch the championship for Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis and Russell Ward.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul Petit Le Mans Unofficial Results
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.