Laurens Vanthoor fended off rivals on a late restart to give Porsche Penske Motorsport the victory in the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
The Belgian, co-driving the #6 Porsche 963 with Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell, was forced to hold off BMW M Team WRT’s Sheldon van der Linde with a 10-minute sprint to the finish en route to the win by 1.205s on the 12-turn, 2.54-mile natural terrain road course. It marked the first time Porsche has taken a top-class victory at the Braselton, Georgia-based circuit (the 2015 victory was by a GT class machine).
Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s Louis Deletraz, Jordan Taylor and Colton Herta took the final spot on the podium after Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist was forced to pit coming to the white flag.
Alex Quinn (Crowdstrike Racing by APR) recovered from being bounced out of the lead – and damage that required a rear clip replacement – with under two hours to go to take an LMP2 class victory, alongside co-drivers George Kurtz and Toby Sowery. Quinn finished directly ahead of Tom Dillmann (Inter Europol Competition), the driver that he had earlier contact with.
Car Blanche took the win in GTD Pro, with Winward Racing sealing their third consecutive GTD title in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a win in GTD.
The run to the Petit Le Mans finish
Ricky Taylor had Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing out front as the second half of the race ran under caution, with Frederik Vesti, in the Whelen Cadillac, sitting directly behind in second.
The race restarted 15 minutes past halfway, with Vesti immediately under threat by Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Julien Andlauer in the #7 Porsche 963. Despite the pressure, Vesti held firm and maintained a 1.3s gap behind Ricky Taylor.
Vesti eventually made a brilliant outside pass on Ricky Taylor entering Turn 10 to assume the lead. Shortly after, a cycle of pit stops elevated Heart of Racing’s Roman De Angelis to the lead in the #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie. De Angelis pitted with just under four hours to go and handed off to Alex Riberas.
Moments later, Nick Yelloly, who took over Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s #93 Acura ARX-06 from five-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou, spun in Turn 5 and brought out the event’s ninth caution. Yelloly was able to get going again.
Through a cycle of pit stops, the #7 Porsche 963 vaulted to the race lead, with Laurin Heinrich taking over from Andlauer. Jack Aitken swapped with Vesti and had the #31 Cadillac in second.
During the course of the caution, trouble found GTD Pro leader Mike Rockenfeller, who ended up stopped on track in Ford Racing’s #64 Ford Mustang GT3. After a push from the tow truck, he got going again and was able to retain the lead.
Heinrich led the field to the restart with 3h36m remaining. A few minutes later, Robin Frijns charged too quickly in Turn 10 and cut across the grass in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 (BMW M Team WRT) before rejoining directly in front of Kevin Estre (Porsche Penske Motorsport) and Will Stevens, in for Ricky Taylor. The momentum put Frijns into a half spin before continuing on.
Estre, meanwhile, was able to quickly chase down and pass Aitken for second. The Frenchman continued his charge, eating out chunks of Heinrich’s lead and cutting it from 3.8s to 0.9s within two laps.
With 3h19m left, Rockenfeller came under fire for the GTD Pro lead, with Manthey’s Thomas Preining pulling off a strong pass into Turn 10. AO Racing’s Harry King followed through with an outside move to drop Rockenfeller to third. Nico Varrone (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) pushed his #4 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R by Rockenfeller shortly after to slot third.
King attempted a move on Preining for the class lead with just over three hours left, with the two banging doors at the exit of Turn 10 as King ended up on the outside curbing. The contact allowed Varrone to move to second, and then put pressure on Preining. Preining was handed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility by Race Control for the contact with King.
Meanwhile, Heinrich was able to widen his lead to 2.1s over Estre with three hours remaining; Aitken was 9.6s back.
The caution came out for the 10th time after Yelloly, appearing to have a mechanical issue, slammed into the tire barrier in Turn 12.
Following a cycle of pit stops, Aitken assumed the overall lead, followed by Frijns, with Estre and Heinrich third and fourth, respectively. While still under caution, Triarsi Competizione’s #033 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Miguel Molina was stopped on course in Turn 1.
The next restart would be brief due to yet another caution, this time after Conquest Racing’s Lorenzo Patrese (Conquest Racing) attempted to make an inside move on Antonio Fuoco (AF Corse USA) for the lead and dropped wheels on the main straight before being sent into a spin. Patrese’s #34 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo skated across the gravel trap and slammed hard into the Turn 1 tire barrier. It marked the 11th caution. Fuoco was hit with a stop-plus 60s from Race Control for incident responsibility.
Aitken brought the field to another restart, this time with 2h17m to go. While Toby Sowery (Crowdstrike Racing by APR) led in LMP2, and Antonio Garcia, in for Varrone, led in GTD Pro, the best fight on track closing to two hours to go was in GTD. Callum Ilott (Wright Motorsports) took over the class lead after Fuoco served his penalty and was immediately under threat by Philip Ellis (Winward Racing). It only took a couple more laps for Ilott to extend out to a 1.3s lead over Ellis, though.
And right cue, another caution as Tijmen van der Helm crashed in Turn 10, collecting signage along the way before his #5 JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche 963 came to a stop. It was the 12th caution.
Pit stops commenced shortly after, with the exception of Heart of Racing’s Ross Gunn, in for Riberas, who stopped a few laps prior and did a driver change, elevated to the race lead. The fight back for the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 came nearly full circle, with a short-fill – after getting on the lead lap a caution earlier – allowing pole-sitter Tom Blomqvist to cycle up to second. Bamber, in for Aitken, was the first with a full energy fill and ran third.
Gunn, who had 85 percent energy, led the field to the restart with 1h47m to go. Drama happened moments later as LMP2 leader Alex Quinn (Crowdstrike by APR) was hit from behind by title rival and class points leader Tom Dillmann (Inter Europol Competition), causing significant damage that led to a left-rear tire rub for Quinn, who slowed and made it to the pits for a new rear clip. And the caution waved for a 13th time after Hunter McElrea (United Autosport USA) spun in Turn 10.
Gunn led the field to the restart with 1h39m to go, with Blomqvist closely behind. Moments later, Race Control hit Dillmann with a drive-through penalty for the contact with Quinn.
With 1h30m to go, Nasr was pushing through traffic and attempted to go three-wide by teammate Laurens Vanthoor, in the #6 for Estre, and AO Racing’s King. During the move, Nasr bumped into Vanthoor and was knocked over into King, which sent him hard into the outside wall – catching air while riding the wall in the spin before settling in Turn 1. The incident brought out the event’s 14th caution – tying the record from 2017.
During the caution, Dillmann pitted and put on a new front clip for the earlier contact with Quinn. Pit stops also commenced, with Filipe Albuquerque leaning on a short-fill to cycle to the lead, with Laurens Vanthoor second and Bamber and Blomqvist third and fourth. Gunn was replaced by Roman De Angelis, with the Aston Martin Valkyrie in sixth, directly behind Sheldon van der Linde (BMW M Team WRT) in fifth.
After a brief restart, the record 15th caution came out with huge implications for GTD Pro championship leader Nicky Catsburg (and co-driver Tommy Milner) in the #4 Chevrolet Corvette GT3.R (Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports) after contact from Ford Racing’s #64 Ford Mustang GT3 of Dennis Olsen sent him off and stranded in the Turn 10 gravel trap. Catsburg was towed out but went a lap down. At a different part of the track, there was contact between LMP2 competitors as AO Racing’s #99 of Dane Cameron and Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen of Harry Tincknell, which left both stuck in Turn 1.
Blomqvist dove to pit lane for his final pit stop with 1m04s left as the restart was underway. Penalties began to get handed out for the earlier incidents, namely with Olsen getting a drive-through for incident responsibility in the clash with Catsburg.
Albuquerque came under threat shortly after the restart from Laurens Vanthoor, who managed to make an aggressive and successful lunge for the lead with an inside pass in Turn 12 with 1h2m to go. Shortly after, Albuquerque made his final pit stop, elevating van der Linde up to second, 2.4s behind.
Other GTP competitors started to make their final pit stops as well, including van der Linde, Bamber and Louis Deletraz, in the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, along with De Angelis. Laurens Vanthoor pitted – and took two left-side tires only – from the lead with 51m remaining.
Laurens Vanthoor went off twice on his out-lap, which allowed Bamber to take over the lead. It would be short-lived, however, as he managed to catch-and-pass Bamber to reclaim the top spot while battling through traffic in Turn 12. Bamber fell another spot the following lap after van der Linde squeezed by.
The fights were back on in the GT classes. Vasser Sullivan’s Barnicoat led in GTD Pro, but only by 0.563s over King. Wadoux held a 0.172s lead over Ellis in GTD. However, Ellis made the pass on Wadoux in a drag race into Turn 10, completing the move into the next corner. Wadoux made her final pit stop and swapped with Fuoco, who took over the AF Corse USA entry.
Through the final pit stops in LMP2, Quinn was able to rebound from his earlier disaster and held an 8.3s lead over Di Resta.
Barnicoat relinquished the GTD Pro lead with Mattia Drudi (Car Blanche) squeezing by, along with King, sending the Briton to third.
With 21m to go, Laurens Vanthoor’s lead was 1.2s over van der Linde, with Blomqvist a distant third at 11s back.
And two minutes later Bamber crashed at Turn 1 after contact with De Angelis while attempting an inside pass to bring out the 16th caution. De Angelis was hit with a drive-through penalty as a result of the contact.
Laurens Vanthoor led the field to the restart with just over 10m to go with van der Linde right on his rear wing. The gap widened to an 0.8s advantage over the next couple of laps.
Quinn continued to hold firm in the LMP2 lead, with a 0.8s gap over Di Resta. Both GT classes had some element of energy drama with the frontrunners extremely light, with Drudi leading in GTD Pro and Ellis in GTD.
With under three minutes to go, van der Linde caught Laurens Vanthoor with the aid of traffic. However, it was only momentarily as the #6 Porsche 963 was able to quickly put a gap. Blomqvist was forced to pit for a late energy stop, along with Di Resta in LMP2.
In the end, Laurens Vanthoor held on to give Porsche its first top-class overall victory at Road Atlanta.
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