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Petit Le Mans – Up For Grabs

Corvette currently leads GTLM. [Photo by Jack Webster]

Corvette currently leads GTLM. [Photo by Jack Webster]

By Jack Webster & Eddie LePine

The long IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season is about to come to a close at Petit Le Mans this weekend at Road Atlanta. In a season that started in January at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and which has featured outstanding racing all across the country, all of the championship battles will finally be resolved.

Just to emphasize how close the racing has been this year, not a single championship for drivers, teams or manufacturers has been decided prior to the 1000-mile endurance contest at Petit Le Mans. If you stop to think about it, that is pretty amazing. Petit Le Mans will decide the Prototype, LMPC, GTLM and GTD champions. In addition, it will decide the championships in the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Championship as well.

Going into the final race, everything is still up for grabs.

In the Prototype class, Action Express drivers Dane Cameron, Eric Curran, Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi hold a slight lead over Austin winners Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor in the driver’s championship battle. In the team battle, Action Express maintains a slight lead over Wayne Taylor Racing. In the manufacturers battle, Chevrolet holds a decent lead over Honda. Still, anything could happen at Road Atlanta and it is likely that the Prototype championships will not be decided until the final lap of the race.

In LMPC Alex Popow and Renger van der Zande hold a 10-point lead over Robert Alon and Tom Kimber-Smith. The teams championship is just as close, with Starworks holding onto a lead over PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. Again, this class battle will not be settled until the conclusion of Petit Le Mans.

It GTLM it has been a Corvette-Ford battle all season and going into the final race the Corvette team and drivers are holding onto a slight lead over the Ford group, but it is still anyone’s championship to win or lose.

In GTD, Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan hold the driver’s points lead over Jerome Bleekemolen and Ben Keating, but the margin is slim and this driver’s championship is still undecided as well. We are sure that Jerome and Ben would love to take the Viper out a winner so look for them to be pushing hard all race long. In the manufacturer’s championship chase in GTD it is still Audi on top, but Porsche, Ferrari and Dodge are all within striking distance.

Finally, the final round of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Championship will be held at Petit Le Mans, with all the manufacturer and driver titles up for grabs. This is a series of four endurance races, which include the Rolex 24 at Daytona, The Mobil One 12 Hours of Sebring, the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen and Petit Le Mans. Of note, in the LMPC class of the TPNAEC, driver’s points leader Kenton Koch managed to get a ride for Petit with Performance Tech Motorsports so he will have a shot at this 5th championship in a row.

Petit Le Mans marks the end of an era for IMSA as well, for it will be the last race of the Daytona Prototypes. Next year the new DPi cars will be on the grid alongside European P2 prototypes as the top class in IMSA. The Daytona Prototypes have had a good run and we are sure you will still be able to see them again as they are sure to fill grids in vintage races.

For a change, the weather looks to be great in Atlanta for the week and we are looking forward to seeing how the season long battles for all the championships will play out.

It has been a great year of IMSA competition and Petit Le Mans will be a fitting end to an outstanding season.

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