Heavy rain and high drama hit Road Atlanta
Third hour of Petit Le Mans takes championship hopefuls out of contention
#90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP: Richard Westbrook, Michael Valiante, Mike Rockenfeller
James Holland
Michael Valiante’s error in the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP was swiftly followed by a similar mistake on the front straight by third driver Mike Rockenfeller, which has dropped the car to seventh in class, two laps behind the leaders. That strikes a hard blow to the title hopes of the regular pairing of Richard Westbrook/Valiante.
The incident brought out the full-course yellows – eventually – as did the terminal crash of the No. 88 PC car, driven by John Falb. Simultaneously the DeltaWing was punted into a spin but was able to resume. However, the field continues to circulate under full course yellows in heavy rain.
The dramas have left Dane Cameron leading an Action Express 1-3, with Jordan Taylor’s similar Corvette DP in second, ahead of Sebastien Bourdais. Scott Dixon maintains fourth in the Riley-Ford EcoBoost run by Chip Ganassi Racing.
P5 through 10 overall are GTLM cars, John Edwards’ BMW Z4 GTE heading Patrick Pilet in the Porsche 911 RSR, and Wolf Henzler in the final race for the Falken Tire 911. That’s despite an earlier front-straight spin for the talented German.
Andrew Palmer leads PC in the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsport entry ahead of Tomy Drissi.
However, there’s been a substantial change in GTD, as the Scuderia Corsa Ferraris now run 1-3, as Marc Goossens has made two extra stops in the No. 93 Viper to fix a gearshift issue.
The race went green again with 6hrs49min remaining.
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