In a storybook ending for Chip Ganassi Racing, the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon came back from a miserable early race to win Petit Le Mans. With a dramatic dive to the inside of Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 in Turn 1 with 15m left in the 10-hour race, Renger van der Zande turned around what had looked like a hopeless day to win the last race before CGR exits the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the time being.
To add a bit of last-second drama, the Cadillac, which had run much of the evening with only one headlight, lost it’s headlights completely with under 5m to go. That would have surely earned a mechanical black flag, but the lights came back on shortly thereafter. They continued to go off intermittently, but were on enough to finish the race.
Porsche Penske Motorsports finished second and third, the No. 6 963 finishing ahead of the No. 7. The third-place finish earned the No. 7 squad of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr, aided by Matt Campbell in the endurance races, the GTP championship and the Michelin Endurance Cup. Cadillac Racing closed the gap to the No. 6 team, but in the end fell short of breaking up the PPM one-two in the championship.
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The No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA and drivers Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea dominated LMP2 after the polesitting No. 2 United Autosports ORECA exited the fight in an early-race crash. TDS denying the Riley Motorsports squad their first victory, as the No. 74 of Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon finished second, also preserved the championship lead for Nick Boulle, Tom Dillmann and Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.
Jordan Pepper in the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 held off a charge by Daniel Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 to take the GTD PRO victory for himself, Frank Perera and Mirko Bortolotti. The No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis finished third, which wasn’t enough to wrest the title from Laurin Heinrich and AO Racing.
The No. 77 AO Racing Porche 911 GT3R had a rough race, encountering an electrical issue that affected shifting. Fixing the problem put the car down six laps and Heinrich, with Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer, finished 11th. Had Gunn been able to take second in the race, the championship would have been his. In the end, the points from Saturday’s qualifying where Heinrich scored pole made the difference.
Conquest Racing was a surprise winner in GTD, Albert Costa Balboa taking advantage of a late caution to get the No. 34 Ferrari 296 into position to attack Loris Spinelli in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan and earn victory for himself, Manny Franco and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli. Winward Racing took the championship with Russell Ward and Philip Ellis and, along with Indy Dontje, the Michelin Endurance Cup, with a ninth-place finish.
Full reports to follow