Whelen Engineering – Syndication Server

Derani pips BMW to Long Beach IMSA pole, Thompson top in GTD

Two drivers that have already proven their mettle in qualifying this season will be sitting on pole for Saturday’s 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach. Pipo Derani scored his third consecutive pole of 2024 to head GTP, while Parker …

Derani ended qualifying for the third round of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season with a slightly rearranged nose on the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R after setting his 1m11.388s (99.24mph) time early in the session before the crew slapped on a new set of tires. But while going for another flyer, he nosed it into the Turn 9 tire wall. Fortunately he was able to reverse quickly – something he and his engineers had discussed during the track walk – and avoided causing a red flag that would also cost him his fast lap.

Nick Yelloly and Sebastien Bourdais were on different qualifying strategies, both waiting until late in the session to emerge from the pits and attempt to put in a lap. Yelloly fell a mere 0.009s short of grabbing the pole for the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, which will start on the outside of the second row.

The late-session strategy nearly bit Bourdais, who had a fast lap balked by Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963, which has struggled for pace all day. He started his next lap with only seconds left in the session, and posted a 1m11.411s time in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, 0.023s off pole, to start on the inside of the second row.

“It’s it’s a street track and it’s a very difficult one to pass on, so I’m happy with the lap,” said Derani. “I did it early in the session, and some guys left it to try towards the end, but the lap seemed to be enough – just enough – for pole, which was good. But yeah, on a street track like this in 100 minute race it’s always important to start off on pole.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

Nick Tandy, the defending Long Beach winner with Mathieu Jaminet in the No, 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, will start outside the second row.

Tandy’s teammate Dane Cameron put the No. 7 PPM 963 on the inside of the third row, and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti finally found enough pace for Jordan Taylor to qualify the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 in sixth. The GTP field, minus the No. 5 Porsche, was separated by only 0.611s.

Despite good conditions that led to a new track record in GTD, as well as a softer Michelin tire, Derani’s time was nearly 1.5s off Filipe Albuquerque’s pole time from last year, which Derani put down to track conditions.

“I don’t know … We had the same at Sebring,” Derani said. “We were slower than last year, but I believe it’s mostly down to track conditions, and at Sebring we had a short qualifying session due to the red flags. But here it could be down to just the rubber that’s been laid down by the Indy cars and the other categories as well. I quite honestly didn’t feel like the track evolved as much as it did last year.”

Vasser Sullivan Racing and Lexus’s plan to split its drivers and run a second GTD car paid off as it was a Lexus 1-2 in qualifying. Parker Thompson got the better of his usual co-driver Frankie Montecalvo, putting the No. 89 Lexus RC F GT3 on pole with a 1m17.357s (91.59mph) lap, a new GTD record. It was Thompson’s second pole of the season, and Lexus’s first at Long Beach.

“There was a lot of pressure today,” declared Thompson. “Practice two, we did a qualifying sim and I thought that we were going to have to work really hard for that pole. We still had to work hard for it, but to be 1-2, really proud. That just shows how good our Lexus is around Long Beach. Awesome to get Frankie up there too. He’s obviously my full-time teammate, so it’s a little bittersweet because I love to take a pole but he’s been working really hard this year with me, and now with Jack Hawksworth, to make sure that he’s up at the front. Great to sweep the front row, but it’s only half the job.”

Montecalvo was 0.262s off Thompson’s best in the all-Lexus front row in the No. 12. The two drivers are teamed with last year’s long Beach winners in GTD PRO, Ben Barnicoat in the No. 12 and Jack Hawksworth in the No. 89.

Albert Costa Balboa had a 1m17.679s in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 to claim the inside of the second row, and Roman De Angelis will start the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to his right. Row three as the GTDs roll to the green will be the No. 45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 (Danny Formal) and the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG (Mikael Grenier), freshly repaired from its shunt in the first practice. The team reports that most of the left side of the car was replaced, as well as some major parts like the splitter.

With the exception of Costa, De Angelis, and Grenier, it was the Am drivers qualifying in GTD, creating the greatest range in lap times of any session so far.

Stevan McAleer set the quickest GTD lap in the second practice, but it was all the car had – Sheena Monk didn’t get to qualify the No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 because the Gradient Racing crew was changing the engine. With no warmup prior to the race, the first time that new engine will run is on the recon lap prior to Saturday’s green flag.

Next: The 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, with green scheduled for 1:35 p.m. local time, 4:35 p.m. ET.

RESULTS

Rolex 24, Hour 14: Class by class, still anyone’s game

With more than half the 24 hours now gone in the 2024 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, regular full course yellows have played into the hands of nearly every team in every class. At the close of hour 14, the overall battle for the lead in GTP sees the top …

Perhaps the most miraculous standout is P4 — the No. 40 WTR Acura, having rebounded solidly from electrical gremlins not long ago. Colton Herta currently sits just 2.9s behind Blomqvist, still solidly in contention so long as the car stays solid.

In LMP2, the top five has gone through a major shakeup through the hour, with Colin Braun leading in the No. 04 as the hour closes in the midst of another pit cycle. The No. 52, having previously held a commanding class lead in the double digits of seconds, has slipped completely out of the top five — now down to P7 in class at the hands of Jakub Smiechowski.

Risi Competizione is back at the head of GTD PRO with Alessandro Pier Guidi still behind the wheel of the Ferrari 296. The No. 3 Corvette of Daniel Juncadella had powered into the class lead prior to this pit cycle, and based on the math should be battling once again with the No. 62 Risi car once the cycle is complete.

The GTD top five are separated by only 12s as the hour draws to a close, still led by the No. 57 Winward Mercedes. For hours now, the class has been remarkably trouble-free, even as the prototype leaders fly past in near-constant wheel-to-wheel infighting.

HOUR 14 STANDINGS

Derani wheels Cadillac to top of second Roar session at Daytona

The second test session for IMSA’s Roar Before the 24 produced four different marques in the top four GTP cars, led by Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R as WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers set their cars up for the Rolex 24 at Daytona next weekend. Derani’s 1m35.217s lap (134.6mph) in the Cadillac he’s sharing with Jack Aitken and Tom Blomqvist was the quickest of both sessions, topping Nick Tandy’s time Friday morning in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.

“It’s just getting back to the rhythm,” said Derani. “Everyone has been on holidays, but not really on holidays — everyone was trying to prepare for the comeback. You’ve got to be on your toes; it was a good day, but you’ve got to keep digging. It’s great to be back. I think the three of us are running fairly similar and we want the same thing from the car. Still, we’ve got our program to go through and we are ticking those boxes and hopefully we’ll be as ready as we can for race week.”

Connor De Phillippi was 0.377s off Derani’s best time in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, with Tandy next at 1m35.721s – about 0.1s off the time he ran earlier. Filipe Albuquerque was the top Acura runner for WTRAndretti, turning a 1m35.945s lap. Jesse Krohn competed the top five, posting the fast time for he No. 24 BMW M Team RLL squad on his final flying lap.

Christian Rasmussen was quickest in LMP2 for Era Motorsport, posting a 1m39.674s in the No. 18 ORECA. He was followed by Nolan Siegel in the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier, 0.253s slower. Nicklas Nielsen ran the third-fast time at 1m40.027s in the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA.

Rasmussen’s time in the No. 18 was the quickest of any LMP2 runner in the two sessions.

“We were struggling a little bit in the first session as we knew we had a few things to work on,” explained Rasmussen. “It seemed like it worked when we tried it, so we were happy to start off the week like this. That’s always what you want, so yeah, I think we have a good team. I think we have a good car. We’ll just keep on working at it and see what we can do for the race.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

Christopher Mies put the new Ford Mustang on top of the GT charts with a 1m46.494s (120.34mph) in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 to lead GTD PRO, besting the time Matteo Cressoni posted earlier in the day in the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini. From there, the time sheet alternated between GTD and GTD PRO, with Jan Heylen leading GTD in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with a 1m46.741s lap. His lap wasn’t quick enough to top Katherine Legge’s morning time in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura, a fact that she put down to conditions being perfect for the twin-turbo machine.

“In all honesty, I also think that it was [because most of the other teams were] out there bedding brakes and scrubbing new tires when the track was fastest, and we weren’t, so that gap is probably not realistic,” Legge explained. “I would love to think that it was realistic, and I would be very positive going into next week, but I think we were just out there going as fast as we could when everybody else was doing the procedural fundamentals, which we then did in [the second] session.”

James Calado was second as the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 maintained its form from the earlier session, posting a 1m46.76s lap that was 0.211s better than Alexander Sims could muster in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R. Earl Bamber was next in GTD Pro in the No. 4 Corvette, with Seb Priaulx in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche completing the top five.

Manny Franco put Conquest Racing’s No. 34 Ferrari 296 GT3 in second in GTD, 0.153s shy of Heylen’s best, followed by Trent Hindman in the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R. Rounding out the top five were Kei Cozzolino (No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3) and Eddie Cheever III (No. 47 Ferrari 296 GT3).

The session was interrupted by a single red flag for the for a spin by the No. 8 Tower Motorsports car.

UP NEXT: The third session begins at 11:15 a.m. Saturday for another 90-minutes of testing.

RESULTS

Derani taking on mentor role to chase another IMSA championship with Aitken

Pipo Derani is entering 2024 as a champion – a position he’s not unfamiliar with, after he and Alexander Sims took the inaugural IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title for Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing. He also finds himself with a …

Pipo Derani is entering 2024 as a champion — a position he’s not unfamiliar with, after he and Alexander Sims took the inaugural IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title for Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing. He also finds himself with a new full-time co-driver, another situation that he’s becoming used to, having come into the last three seasons with someone new. But with Jack Aitken sliding into the full-time driver role from his endurance addition position, the transition isn’t as big.

With the 28-year-old Aitken joining him, though, it means a transition of another sort. The 30-year-old Brazilian is now the senior member on the team to a less experienced co-driver. With previous teammates Mike Conway, Felipe Nasr and Alexander Sims, all of whom had a wide range of experience in sports car racing and other disciplines of the sport, Derani had little to teach and some things to learn. Now his role becomes less student and more mentor, even if his former Formula 1 reserve and test driver teammate is widely experienced.

“Jack came to the top of all the categories when we started late last year researching the various drivers who would be available for our endurance role,” says team manager Gary Nelson. “Being young, to me, for an endurance driver says you can build experience at the endurance races the first year. The opportunity came and he’ll be our full-time driver next year. They get along very well.

“What’s interesting is that Pipo will be in a different role with Jack coming on board. Before, we had Mike Conway kind of working with Pipo when he was younger and we got wins and championships with Mike as our endurance driver. I think it’s a great transformation to see him mature and grow into the top driver on our team and a young guy coming along getting the advantage of Pipo’s experience.

“I like the idea of having that small age difference because I saw how Conway and Pipo advanced through their years working together. Same with Felipe Nasr,” Nelson adds, referencing the partner with whom Derani won the 2021 DPi title.

Aitken already has enduro experience with the Whelen team, but Derani is hopeful their strengths can be meshed even more strongly in 2024. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Derani acknowledges that while he is the more experienced endurance sports car racer, he doesn’t really feel like there’s much to teach his teammate. Not only has Aitken raced with the team in the Michelin Endurance Cup races in 2023, including the victory at Sebring and at Le Mans, but Aitken was the reserve and test driver for Renault and Williams in F1. Derani, though, has been with the team for a long time, and has many more years racing in the WeatherTech Championship; that experience may prove valuable in helping Aitken integrate and perform at a high level more quickly.

“I think it’s going to be the first time that I am actually older in the team,” Derani says. “I think more than the age factor is the fact that I’ve been with a team for so long now that I can try and help here and there. But Jack was racing with us this year and doing a fantastic job. So I don’t see myself as, let’s say, a tutor or a teacher or anything, but trying to complement each other because he brings youth, talent and speed. And I would like to say I bring a little bit of experience in the series in general, because he’s also very experienced in in Europe and in other forms of racing. So it’s going to be an interesting combination, I think, with different different experiences that we’ve had. He got up to Formula 1, so he understands a lot of the high-tech cars that we are racing here, and he did a great job since the beginning of the year.”

Embarking on a season with a younger driver still a relatively fresh to sports car racing give Derani occasion to reflect on those that aided him when he was moving from single-seaters to endurance racing.

“When I first joined this sport, moving from Formula 3 and then doing European Le Mans Series races, but then I immediately went into WEC in a two-car team, and in the other car was a very experienced driver — Sam Bird, who’s currently in Formula E. I think having his reference that year was a massive help. At that time, he had already been a Formula 1 test driver, Formula 2 for several years, had already had sports car experience. And so at that time, having him as a reference made me grow a lot. Not in terms of speed, because I think speed was there from the beginning; but understanding how to approach a long race and how to approach a long stint, which was completely new to me. So I would say that 2015 was a season where I learned massively. I grew so much, but along the way, there are always situations you find yourself in that make you grow. So, for example, when I joined Whelen Engineering, Felipe, obviously being a year older than me, having just won the championship, put him in a different mindset than I was when I was joining. And so you end up learning as well from those situations.”

Having been the new guy himself with the AF Corse Ferrari team at Le Mans in 2018, Derani (middle) would like to provide the same benefits his veteran teammates gave him. Ashleigh Hartwell/Motorsport Images

Now a two-time IMSA champion himself, Derani has the opportunity to fill the role of helper and, like his younger self, realizes there may not be much to impart to Aitken regarding pace, but much to bring him up to speed on in terms of the different style of racing.

“Throughout my career, I’ve had moments where I where I’ve encountered people that were in different phases of their career that helped shape my career into what it is today. And so I think perhaps, where we’re going with Jack, it’s more or less the same thing. He’s relatively new to IMSA, to the sport here in the U.S. I would like to think that having won the championship myself and experienced that and what it takes to win the championship, that I would be able to pass along some of that experience to him. In terms of of speed and talent, there is absolutely nothing that I can do for him because he’s massively talented himself, but I think those kinds of experiences that you go through in your career might help someone else as they join a new series or a new form of the sport.”

While Aitken already has had the opportunity to gain much of that knowledge in his stint as endurance driver with the team, the British driver says Derani has been a great help to him in acclimating to WeatherTech Championship competition.

“Pipo is very established with the team, so it would have been easy for him to throw his weight around and make sure I knew I was number two,” Aitken says. “But there has been none of that. He’s shown me the ropes, given me advice on track and on the American culture. He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had. I love the circuits. I love the paddock and the team. I can’t ask for more, so I want to be there for a while and make my mark there.”

Petit Le Mans prototype breakdown – Cadillac crowned behind MSR’s final hurrah

Colin Braun, Tom Blomqvist and Helio Castroneves sent Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian out with a bang, delivering the team’s third win of the season in the 26th Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, while Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims claimed the drivers title for Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing after their chief rivals for the title were eliminated one by one.

The race and the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title turned on Filipe Albuquerque’s final attack on Pipo Derani for the championship with an hour to go in the 10-hour race. With Renger van der Zande leading in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, which had been the strongest car throughout most of the day, Derani was running second in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R. Albuquerque was right behind in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06. Those two were the last teams standing in the championship fight, and Albuquerque had to get past Derani to win the championship for he and Ricky Taylor.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

Getting a run out of Turn 12, Albuquerque went left into Turn 1 as Derani defended and was alongside as they turned in. But stuck on the outside and running out of room at the exit, Albuquerque’s fate was sealed with contact between the two cars. The Acura sailed off the track and into the tire barrier on the outside of Turn 1. The crash sent Albuquerque to the hospital for observation before he was evaluated and released, and effectively decided the title in favor of Derani and Alexander Sims.

“I think that he was a little bit too optimistic when there was still an hour to go,” said Derani. “We’ve seen that going through the outside of Turn 1 never really works. It happened last year with two Cadillacs, unfortunately. But over and over again, you try and go on the outside and just lose grip.

“He tried and he came in very aggressively trying to cut me off to the inside, obviously trying to search for grip. But I was there and we touched and he went off. That’s unfortunate for him. I hope he’s feeling OK; obviously that’s the most important.”

But as much as deciding the championship, it set up a dramatic shift in the final result of the race. During the ensuing full-course caution – one of 13 during the race and made longer by necessary wall repairs – half of the frontrunners pitted for energy.

However van der Zande – who already had more time than the others since his last pit stop – as well as Colin Braun in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, Harry Tincknell in the No. 59 Proton Competition Porsche 963 and Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports 963, all stayed out to maintain track position.

That set up the final pass for the lead on the restart. Braun swept around the outside as van der Zande was trying to save energy. A couple of additional cautions in the final 30 minutes, including one that ended the race, curtailed the racing and helped the cars that didn’t pit make it to the end. The No. 01 Cadillac prepared by Chip Ganassi Racing finished second, with Tincknell, Gianmaria Bruni and Neel Jani delivering the first podium for a privateer Porsche team as the No. 59 Proton Competition Porsche 963 finished third.

“I took it real easy on that last restart, took a long time just to save as much fuel as I can,” explained van der Zande. “That’s why we were so slow going down to the restart. I don’t know where Colin got that grip from, but he had massive grip and sent it on the inside and he made the corner, I didn’t expect that, but hats off for that move.”

“I knew it was gonna be kind of all to play for and I thought if we could get clean air, we were going to be in good shape,” added Braun. “So I just kind of put it all on the line. We didn’t have a whole lot to lose, and I think they were kind of in the same boat with the championship.

“So I knew it was going to be a big commitment. And yeah, it was awesome. It was nice to make it happen. Then, yeah, I just kind of put my head down and tried to hold on.”

The result was victory for Braun, Tom Blomqvist and Helio Castroneves in what is MSR’s last IMSA race for the foreseeable future, the second Acura next year being run by WTRAndretti and Blomqvist moving to the IndyCar Series side of the MSR operation. It was an impressive feat considering the team was two laps down at one point in the race after contact with the Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 required replacing a toe link on the MSR Acura.

“It’s incredible,” declared Blomqvist. “I think good things happen to good guys and you know, I think that’s going to be more true. We’ve won three races this year. Obviously, we don’t have a championship, but I couldn’t be more proud and, at the same time, grateful to have spent these last two seasons with this team.

“We’ve done a lot together, won some good races, and it’s just such a good team atmosphere. It’s like a family and they work hard, they never give up.”

Fifth was enough to give the No. 31 Cadillac the title. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Derani ended up bringing the No. 31 V-Series.R home in fifth, more than enough to secure the championship. It was Derani’s and the team’s second championship in three years, he and Felipe Nasr taking the 2021 DPi championship after a similar late-race battle with a WTR Acura. It was the first prototype championship for Sims, who moves back to racing a Corvette in GTD PRO next season,

“It’s so much personal sacrifice by every member of the team,” said Sims. “It’s the non-glamorous side that really is necessary, but hugely, hugely appreciated by everyone that puts effort into getting the car into a position where we’ve been competitive every single race.

“It’s been a crazy season, as always in IMSA. It’s been so many highs, a few lows – as with every team – but it’s a really, really emotional moment to tie up the championship and thanks goes to Cadillac, Action Express, Whelen, these two guys next to me that have carried me most of the year. It’s been mega.”

Four teams came into the championship with a solid shot at the championship, the top three in a virtual tie. However, one by one they were eliminated.

The first was the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Nick Tandy, Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor, through no fault of Tandy who was at the wheel at the time. Dennis Andersen in the No. 20 High Class Racing ORECA LMP2 car made light contact with Charles Scardina in the No. 023 Triarsi Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, sending the Ferrari spinning across track into Brendan Iribe’s No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren, which then struck Tandy’s Porsche.

The 963 ended up stuck in the gravel. While it was fished out and returned to the paddock, by the time the car was repaired it was too many laps down to have any hope for the championship.

At one point the No. 7 PPM 963 squad of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr was leading the championship when the other contenders were mired down the order. Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly also had their brief taste of glory. While their No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 made it to the end, it was behind the No. 31 and no threat for the championship. Once Albuquerque crashed, all the No. 31 team had to do was finish sixth or better to secure the title.

Crowdstrike Racing took the LMP2 MEC title with their win. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

George Kurtz, Ben Hanley and Nolan Siegel won LMP2 in the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA over the No. 35 TDS Racing entry of Giedo van der Garde, John Falb and Josh Pierson and the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA of Ben Keating, Paul-Loup Chatin and Alex Quinn. The victory secured the Michelin Endurance Cup title for Kurtz and Hanley as well as the Trueman Award and the Le Mans entry that comes with it for Kurtz.

“We had to have a lot go right to win the overall championship, but the two things we were focused on was the endurance championship and the big one was a Le Mans entry,” said Kurtz. “So at the end of the race, just 20 minutes left, you never think there’s going to be a green flag to the end and there’s so many emotions going through your mind. I have to give so much credit to my co-drivers and the team did a fantastic job.”

Keating, Chatin and Quinn had battled all race long with the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA, whose full season drivers Steven Thomas and Mikkell Jensen were Keating and Chatin’s main rivals for the championship. Whichever team finished ahead of the other would take the title. Jensen was chasing Chatin as the sun was setting, but threw the No. 11 off track, ending their race and assuring Keating and Chatin of the championship.

Gar Robinson had already settled the final LMP3 title, but he, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon still wanted to win the race in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier. They were leading with only minutes left when Garett Grist in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier made a move for the lead resulting in contact that sent the No. 74 to the pits with a cut tire.

“I had a good run in Turn 7, I was catching up on the backstraight in his draft, and I knew it was probably going to be my best chance before we hit traffic to make the move,” explained Grist. “I think he was probably a bit surprised I sent it from that far back, but I was a long way up beside him once we got to apex. Unfortunately there was contact and he got a puncture; obviously, I don’t want that to happen, but I think it was my best opportunity so I took it.”

The result was victory for Grist, Dakota Dickerson and Bijoy Garg, the latter two getting their first victory in the WeatherTech Championship. Matthew Bell, Orey Fidani and Lars Kern were second in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine, and the Riley Motorsports squad ended up third.

RESULTS

MSR wins Petit Le Mans as Whelen Cadillac takes championship

Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian went out with a bang, taking victory in the 26th Motul Petit Le Mans in the team’s last IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race for the foreseeable future. During a late-race yellow, in a race punctuated by 13 full-course cautions, the team kept the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 out to gain track position, and Colin Braun swept around leader Renger van der Zande on a restart to take the lead and eventually the win for him, Tom Blomqvist and Helio Castroneves.

“It’s amazing with all the crap this team has been through this year. It’s too much. It’s just too much,” said team principal Mike Shank, his voice breaking.

While the victory brought MSR into spitting distance of the championship, it was Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims taking the title for Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing as their competitors took themselves out one by one. They finished sixth in the No. 31 V-Series.R with Jack Aitken, but it was enough to take the title, Derani and the team’s second in three years.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

Ben Hanley, George Kurtz and Nolan Siegel won LMP2 in the No. 04 Crowdstrike by APR ORECA, delivering the Michelin Endurance Cup title to Kurtz and Hanely, as well as the Trueman Award for Kurtz. The championship went to Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin, who finished third with Alex Quinn in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA after their chief rivals TDS Racing crashed out.

A late-race tangle between Garret Grist and Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier decide the LMP3 contest in favor of Grist, Dakota Dickerson and Bijoy Garg in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier. Fraga’s co-driver Gar Robinson had already claimed the championship by taking the start.

Daniel Juncadella held off Pfaff Motorsports’ Patrick Pilet to take the GTD PRO win for he and WeatherTech Racing teammates Jules Gounon and Maro Engel in the No. 79 Mercedes AMG, bookending their season with endurance race victories and delivering Juncadella and Gounon the Michelin Endurance Cup championship.

Loris Spinelli, Misha Goikhberg and Patrick Liddy took the first win for Forte Racing Powered by US RaceTronics in the No. 78 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. A late-race incident that brought out the final full-course caution upended the GTD fight, taking out the second-place runner at the time, Jan Heylen in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, with dramatic flames.

Full reports to follow.

RESULTS

Valiant effort saves Action Express’ championship hopes

It was the sort of thing that could have ended a championship – a snap spin on cold tires in the morning warmup that sent the No. 31 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R backwards into the wall driver’s left at Road America’s Turn 13. Alexander Sims, the driver who lost the car on the second lap of the warmup, was dejected, but fortunately unhurt. The car though, was loaded onto the flatbed with a hook, not rolled. That was the first sign that it was bad.

On a weekend with a typical Sunday schedule, it would be a herculean effort to get the car ready for the race. But the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America didn’t have a normal schedule. Instead of a typical start time in the early afternoon, the race was scheduled for a green flag at 10:10 a.m. – less than two hours after the car arrived back in Action Express Racing’s paddock spot at 8:22.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1406]

One thing was sure, that the car would not be starting on pole despite Pipo Derani setting the fast time in qualifying the day before. At best, it would start last in the GTP field. Worse, Derani might have to start from pit lane and then serve a drive-through penalty should the car not be ready to roll off the grid with the rest of the cars. The worst scenario? The car doesn’t make the race at all, and instead of just losing their championship lead, AXR is thrown into a points hole too deep to climb from.

The list of needs was long – it wasn’t just rear wing and bodywork, but a broken undertray, a lot of bent and broken suspension bits and a gearbox case with a big chunk missing. Plus, the hybrid components have to be replaced if they are exposed to g-forces above a certain level, and the crash exceeded that G-load.

The crew went to work. They had done a similar operation in 90 minutes at Le Mans, so they knew it was possible. Bodywork was pulled off, the broken gearbox/suspension assembly was removed as were the parts of the hybrid that aren’t contained within the gearbox housing, and installation of the new one began. In less than 30 minutes from the car arriving in the paddock, the new assembly had been mated to the car and the new hybrid components had been installed.

Then, simultaneously, bolts were being tightened in the rear, hoses reconnected and tied up with zip ties, and the brakes were being bled. Then the new undertray was going into place. At 9:42 a.m., the engine was fired, the gearbox run through the gears, and then rolled out of the paddock to the grid to cheers of spectators who had gathered to watch the odyssey.

“It was a great effort by the entire team, including Pipo handing off wrenches and being fully engaged, to get the car on the grid for the warmup laps and take the green flag with no mechanical issues,” said AXR Team Manager Gary Nelson. “The crew worked systematically and, as always, professionally. We are appreciative of the crew of the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R checking if we needed any parts or assistance. Cadillac Racing works as one team. We’ll soldier on.”

The No. 31 no longer had quite the pace it had exhibited during the weekend, and Nelson’s use of the word “soldier” is an apt description. Survive 2h40m of racing, collect some points for sixth place, and move on to Indianapolis.

“We take the positives from what the crew and team did to get the car into the race after what happened in warmup to Alex on cold tires,” said Derani. “Just to have gone into the race to score some points is great. Obviously, a difficult situation with the tires being too cold in warmup and getting Alex off-guard. We’ve being seeing that happen a lot this year. It was us today and could be someone else tomorrow.

“We leave here without the lead in the championship, but it’s one of those things that are out of your control. But the positive is we finished the race and scored points in the championship.”