BRASELTON, Ga. – If the first four hours of Saturday’s 10-hour Motul Petit Le Mans were all about the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R team, the next four hours turned into a battle between the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac and the No. 77 Mazda Team Joest DPi.
The No. 5 Cadillac DPi shared by Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque and Mike Conway led the way at the eight-hour mark of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale by 5.964 seconds over the No. 77 Mazda co-driven by Oliver Jarvis, Tristan Nunez and Timo Bernhard. Those two cars swapped the lead for most of the middle segment, but the No. 31 wasn’t out of it by any means.
The Whelen Cadillac shared by Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran was running in third place, just 16.696 seconds behind the leader after eight hours. That position was enough to keep them atop the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings by two points, 40-38, with one more scoring segment to come at the finish. Cadillac, meanwhile, clinched the Michelin Endurance Cup manufacturer’s title.
The race in the LMP2 class is already over with the No. 52 PR1-Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA co-driven by Matt McMurry, Gabriel Aubry and Dalton Kellett getting the victory. The No. 52 retired due to mechanical problems during the middle segment, but its only competition, the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA, was forced to retire with crash damage in the first segment but did clinch the Michelin Endurance Cup.
It’s a Ford vs. Ferrari battle one more time in the GT Le Mans class. The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE co-driven by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra was 7.328 seconds ahead of the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Richard Westbrook, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon after eight hours.
As a result, the No. 67 team closed to within one point of the No. 911 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR of Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki in the Michelin Endurance Cup battle. Additionally, Porsche and Ford were tied at 38 Michelin Endurance Cup points apiece at the top of the manufacturer standings.
There could be history in the making in GTD, as the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW MG GT3 shared by Robby Foley, Dillon Machavern and Bill Auberlen were leading the race at eight hours. If he wins, Auberlen will tie Scott Pruett’s all-time IMSA record with his 60th victory.
The No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports team of Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga are still in position to take the team’s third consecutive Michelin Endurance Cup with a two-point advantage over the No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 from Scuderia Corsa co-driven by Cooper MacNeil, Toni Vilander and Jeff Westphal. Mercedes has a one-point lead over Ferrari in the Michelin Endurance Cup class manufacturer’s championship.