Just go win. That’s the way the teams fighting for the GTP championship in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship are framing the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans. The title comes down to a 10-hour race into darkness on one of America’s toughest tracks, 54 cars battling on the 2.54-mile Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, with four teams representing four manufacturers having a realistic shot at the championship.
“It’s going to be an interesting race for everyone,” said Pipo Derani, going into this weekend leading the championship with Alexander Sims by the slimmest of margins. “Obviously it’s going to be a dogfight at the end because being so close it only means that you gotta be ahead. There’s no playing games. There’s no math. There’s nothing. It’s very simple: you’ve got to be ahead.”
That’s it. Barring anything unusual in qualifying, whichever team among Derani and Sims’ No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06, and the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 finishes in front, will be the champion. Only five points separate the three teams. Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque are three points back of the Cadillac crew for WTRAndretti. Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy are another two points back. And should all three teams have not-so-good races, the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL squad could scoop up the championship; Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly being only 38 points behind Sims and Derani. For that to happen, the No. 25 would have to be at least two positions ahead of all the other three – an unlikely, but not impossible, scenario.
“At the end of the day, it will be whoever finishes in front,” said Jaminet. “So that’s pretty easy. There is not much to think about – try to do the best race you can. And in an ideal world, try to win the race. That will make your life much easier. And then you’re champions.”
All three drivers have been in similar situations before. Taylor has come into the season finale fighting for the championship in the last three seasons. In 2021, it was he and Albuquerque just falling short of Derani and Felipe Nasr – then, also, whichever team finished in front would be champion. Last year it was Taylor and Albuquerque fighting Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis. And now they’re in a three-, or four-, way fight for the title.
“I can’t believe it’s, again, coming down to the last race,” said Taylor. “It seems like every year, it just couldn’t be more dramatic in terms of the championship. It’s kind of refreshing to be entering with so many cars going for it instead of just sort of watching one car and focusing on them, and [thinking about] what do we have to do to beat that car. I think the approach is just to go out and try and win the race, because whoever wins is going to most likely win the championship.”
The first season of the new era of Grand Touring Prototype has certainly been interesting, and the balance of power has shifted constantly as cars are developed and teams have come together as a unit. The result of everybody dealing with something new has been a few problems, and a few errors. It’s been a winding, bumpy road to get to this point.
“It has been a crazy season for everyone. I think, quite honestly, it’s inconsistency that has led to every one of us being within five points of each other,” said Derani. “I think everyone feels like they left a lot on the table at times. We won a race that we shouldn’t have won. But we feel like we gave up two or three other possible race wins with mistakes and errors. And I think the other two cars could potentially say the same thing. Which is amazing in a way, because we know the level of the championship, we know the level of the teams that are involved, and the manufacturers. So to think that we come to the last race with five points from each other, it’s incredible.”
Petit Le Mans is a notoriously difficult race. Plus, each team has a third driver whom they may not have worked with since Sebring. For the No. 31, it’s Jack Aitken. Louis Deletraz will be in the No. 10, and Laurens Vanthoor will join Jaminet and Tandy, jumping in the No. 6 for the first time all season. But it goes beyond the third driver, and on to the darkness combined with the Road Atlanta track with its elevation changes and 12 turns, and lots of traffic. It’s a tough race, and the drivers wouldn’t have the season end any other way.
“I think I think it’s fantastic,” said Taylor. “Whoever is the champion after Petit Le Mans has deserved it. And this year more than ever, it’s going to be a very fitting champion. Whoever earns it will have will have worked very hard for it. IMSA competition is about how demanding it is for the cars and the drivers and the teams. No single race does that like Petit Le Mans. The amount of commitment and risk that happens towards the end of that race, and traffic as it goes to dark, and the amount of trust that you have in everybody else around you, is definitely not matched in any other endurance race throughout the year, or any other race for that matter. The championship has come down to these thrilling finishes in the past and I don’t think there could be a better race than Petit to give that finish.”
Motul Petit Le Mans kicks off at 11:40 a.m. ET on Saturday. The race will be streamed in its entirety on Peacock, and the finish will be broadcast on the USA Network beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET.