IMSA Petit Le Mans: MSR Acura wins dramatic race, snatches title
Meyer Shank Racing Acura won the final IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race of the DPi era, and claimed the 2022 championship after the Ganassi Cadillacs collided and the WTR Acura hit a GT car.
With around 2hr15m to go, the #01 Cadillac of Chip Ganassi Racing of Sebastien Bourdais appeared to improve its chances, with the sister car of Alex Lynn falling off the track briefly just ahead before it pitted and Lynn gave up his ride to Earl Bamber. Bourdais then pitted, and CGR got his replacement Renger van der Zande out ahead of Meyer Shank Racing’s #60 Acura, in which Tom Blomqvist had replaced Helio Castroneves.
Olivier Pla also had a brief off in the #31 Action Express Cadillac but he had second place in his hands, 13sec behind Filipe Albuquerque in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura, but being pressured heavily by Bamber.
AXR called Pla in with 1hr59m to go and installed Mike Conway. Although that moved Blomqvist up to fourth, it was very clearly not going well for MSR, since its Acura ran 26sec behind the similar car of WTR. This gap reduced to 21sec with 90mins to go, the point at which Bamber and van der Zande pitted the two Ganassi Cadillacs.
By the time Blomqvist pitted with 1hr25m to go, he had sliced his deficit to Albuquerque down to 16sec before WTR brought the #10 car in.
That elevated Bamber into the lead with 80mins to go, 7.2sec ahead of Albuquerque, with van der Zande third, 1.5 seconds behind and pressuring the black-and-blue Acura, but running 15sec ahead of the MSR Acura.
The AXR challenge appeared to have faded, with Derani, who took over the #31 from Conway, and Mike Rockenfeller in the Ally Racing-branded #48 both running a lap down.
With 70mins to go, van der Zande made it a Ganassi Cadillac 1-2 with a move on Albuquerque at Turn 6, and now Blomqvist would have a straighter shot at his championship rival, 14sec behind the WTR car. They looked evenly matched, though, and Albuquerque inched away over the next couple of laps, then the gap came down to 14sec again…
Bamber pitted from his 10sec lead with an hour to go, and van der Zande stopped next time by. This briefly promoted the Acuras to 1-2, and now Blomqvist was only 9.5sec behind, but two laps later it was 11sec.
With 50mins to go, the two Ganassi Cadillacs collided. Bamber got held up by the Korthoff Mercedes GTD car, allowing van der Zande to get a run on him on the outside approaching Turn 1, and the pair made side-by-side contact that sent them both into the gravel on the outside and into the tire wall.
That of course brought out the full course yellow, and when the Acuras pitted, Meyer Shank Racing got Blomqvist out ahead of Albuquerque, who then pitted for a second time to top up fuel without losing position.
At the restart with little more than half an hour to go, Blomqvist retained the lead from Albuquerque, and they were now being pursued by Derani. Even 5mins after the restart, only 1.4sec covered this trio. But with 22mins to go, Blomqvist had pulled out a four-second lead, while Derani had fallen four seconds off the back of the WTR Acura.
With 14mins to go, Blomqvist came under intense pressure from Albuquerque as they encountered GT traffic, but it was that very traffic that also proved the WTR car’s undoing, Albuquerque making contact with the Winward Racing Mercedes.
The car trickled slowly to the pits with a dozen minutes to go, leaving the MSR Acura with a five-second lead over Derani. Kamui Kobayashi came home third in the second AXR Cadillac, one lap down.
GTD Pro: Risi heartbreak hands win to VSR Lexus
With under two hours to go, Vasser Sullivan’s Lexus RC F led in Ben Barnicoat’s hands, keeping Matt Campbell’s Pfaff Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R at arm’s length before pitting and Jack Hawksworth hopped aboard to take the race to the end.
James Calado in the Risi Competizione Ferrari had knocked Antonio Garcia’s Corvette C8.R into a spin at Turn 10B but escaped any penalty and handed over to Daniel Serra who rejoined the track behind Hawksworth, Connor De Phillippi’s RLL BMW M4 and Garcia.
With 75mins to go, Hawksworth’s lead was 5.5 over De Phillippi, with Mathieu Jaminet’s Pfaff Porsche in third ahead of Serra and Garcia.
Following the last scheduled stops for the final half hour Hawksworth remained in front of Jaminet, De Phillippi, Serra and Garcia, and from the drop of the green with 32mins to go, the Lexus couldn’t shake the Porsche or the BMW.
Then with 20mins to go, De Phillippi got past the Pfaff Porsche and tried to make a move around the outside of the Lexus out of Turn 10, and Serra snuck his Risi Ferrari down the inside of both and edged the BMW into the dirt, allowing Jaminet to get past the BMW and reclaim third.
Next time by, Serra was into the lead and edging away from Hawksworth’s Lexus. That’s how the top two finished, but De Phillippi managed to pass Jaminet before the yellows ended the race.
However, the drama wasn’t over: Serra had driven 4hr11m in the last six hours, a violation of IMSA’s drive-time rules, meaning Risi Competizione was moved to the back of the lead lap.
Thus Hawskworth, Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood clinched victory for Vasser Sullivan Lexus, ahead of the RLL BMW and the Pfaff Porsche, as Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet took the class title by virtue of simply starting the race.
GTD: Gradient makes it double delight for Acura
With two hours to go, Sebastian Priaulx in the Inception Racing McLaren 720S held a 10sec margin over Robby Foley’s Turner Motorsport BMW M4 which was under intense pressure from Madison Snow’s similar BMW of Paul Miller Racing, Kyffin Simpson's Gradient Acura, and Marvin Dienst in the Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3.
With 1hr51 to go, Priaulx ducked into the pits and handed off to Jordan Pepper.A couple of laps later both BMWs pitted and Snow emerged ahead, as Turner had swapped out Foley for Bill Auberlen.
Barely 10 minutes later, disaster struck as Snow got hit by an LMP3 car and gave the M4 a right-front puncture, dropping it 65sec behind the class lead and in seventh place. It was a cruel outcome for a car that had contended for at the very least a podium place from the very start of the race.
With 75mins to go, Pepper’s McLaren remained comfortably in front, 7.5sec ahead of Mario Farnbacher, now on board the Gradient Acura, Auberlen’s BMW, Phil Ellis in the Winward Mercedes and Jan Heylen in the Wright Motorsports Porsche, although the latter was a minute off the lead.
However for the restart after the final pitstops, Farnbacher led Pepper, Ellis, Foley, Bryan Sellers in the PMR BMW, and Heylen, and the leading Acura and McLaren dropped their pursuers in the hunt for victory, while Heylen demoted Sellers.
Remarkably, Farnbacher held off Pepper for lap after lap, while the Winward Mercedes, which had made contact with the Acura prototype, went off at Turn 1 with six minutes to go, and when it couldn’t rejoin, the race went under full course yellow.
Farnbacher was still in front when the yellows flew, securing victory for himself, Simpson and Till Bechtolsheimer, so Pepper and Foley had to be content with second and third ahead of Heylen and Sellers.
Seventh in class was enough for Heart of Racing Aston Martin driver Roman de Angelis to clinch the GTD drivers' title.
In LMP2, Louis Deletraz, Rui Andrade and John Farano of Tower Motorsport clinched the win ahead of rival teams DragonSpeed and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, giving Farano the drivers' crown.
In LMP3 Andretti Autosport won with Jarett Andretti, Gabby Chaves and Josh Burdon at the wheel ahead of Jr III Motorsports and Sean Creech Motorsport, but title honors went the way of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett of CORE autosport in fifth place.
Petit Le Mans - race results:
Cla | Class | Num | Driver | Chassis | Laps | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | DPi | 60 |
Oliver Jarvis
Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves |
Acura DPi | 423 | |
2 | DPi | 31 |
Olivier Pla
Pipo Derani Mike Conway |
Cadillac DPi | 423 | 4.369 |
3 | DPi | 48 |
Mike Rockenfeller
Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson |
Cadillac DPi | 422 | 1 lap |
4 | DPi | 01 |
Renger van der Zande
Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon |
Cadillac DPi | 419 | 4 laps |
5 | LMP2 | 8 |
John Farano
Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade |
ORECA LMP2 07 | 418 | 5 laps |
6 | LMP2 | 81 |
Henrik Hedman
Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya |
ORECA LMP2 07 | 418 | 5 laps |
7 | LMP2 | 11 |
Steven Thomas
Josh Pierson Tristan Nunez |
ORECA LMP2 07 | 418 | 5 laps |
8 | DPi | 02 |
Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn Ryan Hunter-Reay |
Cadillac DPi | 418 | 5 laps |
9 | DPi | 10 |
Ricky Taylor
Filipe Albuquerque Brendon Hartley |
Acura DPi | 414 | 9 laps |
10 | LMP2 | 20 |
Dennis Andersen
Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer |
ORECA LMP2 07 | 414 | 9 laps |
11 | LMP3 | 36 |
Jarett Andretti
Gabby Chaves Josh Burdon |
Ligier JS P320 | 401 | 22 laps |
12 | LMP3 | 30 |
Ari Balogh
Garett Grist Nolan Siegel |
Ligier JS P320 | 401 | 22 laps |
13 | LMP3 | 33 |
Joao Barbosa
Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Pino |
Ligier JS P320 | 401 | 22 laps |
14 | LMP3 | 74 |
Gar Robinson
Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo |
Ligier JS P320 | 400 | 23 laps |
15 | LMP3 | 54 |
Jon Bennett
Colin Braun George Kurtz |
Ligier JS P320 | 399 | 24 laps |
16 | LMP3 | 76 |
Anthony Mantella
Kyle Marcelli Josh Sarchet |
Duqueine D08 | 397 | 26 laps |
17 | LMP3 | 13 |
Orey Fidani
Matthew Bell Lars Kern |
Duqueine D08 | 395 | 28 laps |
18 | GTD | 66 |
Kyffin Simpson
Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher |
Acura NSX GT3 | 387 | 36 laps |
19 | GTD | 70 |
Brendan Iribe
Jordan Lee Pepper Sebastian Priaulx |
McLaren 720S GT3 | 387 | 36 laps |
20 | GTD | 96 |
Robby Foley
Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan |
BMW M4 GT3 | 386 | 37 laps |
21 | GTD | 16 |
Ryan Hardwick
Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 386 | 37 laps |
22 | GTD | 1 |
Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow Erik Johansson |
BMW M4 GT3 | 386 | 37 laps |
23 | GTD PRO | 62 |
Daniel Serra
Davide Rigon James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GT3 | 386 | 37 laps |
24 | GTD PRO | 14 |
Jack Hawksworth
Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood |
Lexus RC F GT3 | 386 | 37 laps |
25 | GTD PRO | 25 |
Connor de Phillippi
John Edwards Jesse Krohn |
BMW M4 GT3 | 386 | 37 laps |
26 | GTD PRO | 9 |
Matt Campbell
Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 386 | 37 laps |
27 | GTD PRO | 23 |
Ross Gunn
Alex Riberas Tom Gamble |
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 386 | 37 laps |
28 | GTD PRO | 3 |
Antonio Garcia
Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg |
Corvette C8.R GTD | 386 | 37 laps |
29 | GTD | 32 |
Mike Skeen
Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller |
Mercedes AMG GT3 | 385 | 38 laps |
30 | GTD | 27 |
Roman De Angelis
Maxime Martin Ian James |
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 385 | 38 laps |
31 | GTD | 21 |
Simon Mann
Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander |
Ferrari 488 GT3 | 385 | 38 laps |
32 | GTD PRO | 79 |
Maximilian Buhk
Mikael Grenier Maximillian Goetz |
Mercedes AMG GT3 | 385 | 38 laps |
33 | GTD | 42 |
Jaden Conwright
Marco Holzer Don Yount |
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 385 | 38 laps |
34 | GTD | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto Ulysse De |
Ferrari 488 GT3 | 384 | 39 laps |
35 | GTD | 57 |
Russell Ward
Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst |
Mercedes AMG GT3 | 383 | 40 laps |
36 | LMP3 | 38 |
Daniel Goldburg
Cameron Shields Tyler Maxson |
Ligier JS P320 | 355 | 68 laps |
37 | GTD | 99 |
Rob Ferriol
Katherine Legge Nicholas Boulle |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 264 | 159 laps |
38 | LMP2 | 18 |
Dwight Merriman
Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen |
ORECA LMP2 07 | 249 | 174 laps |
39 | DPi | 5 |
Tristan Vautier
Richard Westbrook Loic Duval |
Cadillac DPi | 170 | 253 laps |
40 | GTD | 12 |
Frankie Montecalvo
Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand |
Lexus RC F GT3 | 158 | 265 laps |
41 | LMP2 | 52 |
Ben Keating
Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker |
ORECA LMP2 07 | 102 | 321 laps |
42 | GTD | 44 |
John Potter
Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly |
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 | 62 | 361 laps |
43 | GTD | 39 |
Robert Megennis
Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal |
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | 22 | 401 laps |
View full results |
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