BRASELTON, Ga. — The outcome of the GT Le Mans class competition at the 24th annual Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta wasn’t determined until the final 10 minutes of the 10-hour endurance classic.
Mathieu Jaminet, in the No. 79 WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19 he shared with Cooper MacNeil and Matt Campbell, edged the team’s No. 97 entry (Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and Fred Makowiecki) by 0.318 seconds at the checkered flag after ceding the lead on the final lap of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale.
WeatherTech Racing orchestrated the 1-2 finish when the No. 4 Corvette Racing C8.R came into contact with the overall race-leading No. 55 Mazda Motorsports DPi with just under 15 minutes remaining. The Corvette sustained damage when it speared off course, requiring driver Nick Tandy to retire the car.
Estre in the No. 97 had stretched his lead to more than 10 seconds over Tandy when the Corvette encountered trouble, with Jaminet in the No. 79 running a close third at the time. The WeatherTech cars swapped positions in the late stages to maximize championship points for the No. 79, which is a full-season WeatherTech Championship entry.
It marked the third race win of the season for MacNeil and Jaminet, who were joined by Campbell for their victory earlier this year at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. Jaminet and MacNeil also triumphed at Road America.
“To finish off the season and win the last GTLM race ever with a 1-2 finish for the WeatherTech Porsches is amazing,” said MacNeil. “There couldn’t be a better way to end the season. There was a lot of hard work involved, so big thanks to the team for everything this season that led up to this.”
The race was slowed by 10 full-course cautions until the last two hours and 10 minutes ran clean.
“Just staying out of trouble was the key,” MacNeil observed. “With as many cautions as we saw today, it was just a matter of time until you were caught up in one yourself. There’s not a scratch on our Porsche.”
Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia clinched the 2021 GTLM championship for Corvette Racing by starting Saturday’s race. While they won the championship by simply taking the green flag, the No. 3 Corvette C8.R wasn’t around to see the checkered flag.
Taylor was at the wheel when he was swept into an eight-car accident on a restart at the start of the fifth hour. After cresting the hump that precedes the downhill braking zone for Turn 10, Taylor found the track blocked by a group of slower cars and slammed into the back of a GT Daytona entry.
Taylor said it was the biggest accident of his career and estimated the impact speed at 110 mph.
“Definitely a scary moment when you come over the crest in fifth gear and everyone is stopped,” he remarked. “The stack-up effect is always there in (Turns) 10A and 10B; it was just way more extreme today.
“At first I thought I broke my back – that’s how hard the impact was,” he added. “My lower back is a little sore with some muscle spasms, but I’ll be fine in a couple days. Thankfully, Corvette and Pratt & Miller built a race car that kept me safe.”
Taylor’s fourth IMSA championship was almost forgotten in the aftermath of the accident drama. Garcia’s title was his fifth in IMSA competition. The Corvette duo repeated their championship-winning performance from 2020.
“Amazing to get another championship for Antonio and I,” Taylor said. “Two in a row, and it was great to finish off the GTLM era with two championships like that.”
This was the final WeatherTech Championship race for the GTLM category, which is being replaced by the GTD PRO class in 2022.
While just short of the race win, the No. 9 Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3R – with drivers Laurens Vanthoor, Zacharie Robichon and Lars Kern – did everything it needed to earn the team’s first championship. Saturday certainly marked a triumphant comeback for the Porsche, which only qualified eighth fastest in class on Friday but pushed the Aston Martin for the victory all the way to the end.
“We were like, at this point, we might as well try and win the race, too,’’ an emotional Robichon said. “I think I just got something stuck in my eye, I don’t know what’s going on here.
“It’s been pretty special. For Laurens, Lars and myself, it’s the last race as a team so it’s a little bittersweet. But I couldn’t be more proud. It’s super special. We’ve worked together as a team and Laurens came in and this whole team – every guy and girl – it’s what they deserve.’’
There were no assumptions going into this class battle. Three cars – the No. 9, No. 23 and the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 – came into the race with a mathematical shot at the title.