In its final race with Cadillac, Cadillac Chip Gassansi Racing overcame headlight malfunctions in the closing minutes of the race to win the 27th Annual Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The #01 Cadilac battled back from an early issue with IMSA mandated powertrain sensors, and two pit road infractions leading to drive through penalties. This led to a two lap deficit during the early stages of the race.Â
The Final pass for the lead came with just under 15 minutes left in the season ending 10 hour race, when Ganassi driver Renger van der Zande made the pass for the lead on the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports entry of Nick Tandy going into the tricky first turn of the 2.54 mile North Georgia circuit. The #6 and #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entries had combined to lead 235 of the 443 laps until that point.
To add insult to injury, Tandy’s challenge for the race win would come to end when one lap later the #24 BMW Team RLL BMW GTP would make contact with the #6. Eng would receive a drive through penalty for Incident responsibility.
But the drama did not end with the pass for the lead. As the headlights on the #01 cadillac flickered on and off during the final moments of the 10 Hour endurance classic. The lights were off for the entirety of one lap. All cars are required to have functional headlights as the last two and half hours of the race are run in complete darkness. Calling into question if Van der Zande would be forced by IMSA to pit to make repairs. Vander Zande was able to fix the headlights by changing settings on the steering wheel of the Cadillac GTP car.
The win marks the second for the trio of Van der Zande, Sebastian Bourdais, and Indycar Champion Scott Dixon. Closing out a three year tenure with the Ganassi Cadillac program, which came to a conclusion at the end of Saturday’s race.
Finishing second was the Porsche Penske Motorsports #6 Entry of Kevin Estre, Mathew Jaminet, and Nick Tandy. Rounding out the podium was the sister Porsche Penske Motorsports #7 entry.
The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports entry driven by Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell and Dane Cameron clinched the full season IMSA GTP Team title over their sister #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports entry. And Clinched the Michelin Endurance Cup at the awarding of points at the end of the 4th hour.
The pole sitting #31 Action Express Cadillac finished 4th and the #10 Acura of Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti finished 5th. The #10 used pit strategy earlier in the race to take the lead, but contact with a crashed car during the later stages of the race ended their challenge for the win.
TDS Racing with Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea took the victory in LMP2 in a dominating manner. The win also allowed TDS to capture the LMP2 title for the Michelin Endurance Cup. After a late race full course caution TDS was able to outlast the No. 74 by running away to a 17.097s victory over Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson and Josh Burdon.
The Full season LMP 2 title was won by the PR1/Mathesion Inter Eurpol entry of Tom Dillmann, Nick Boulle, and Kuba Smiechowski.
Iron Lynx captured its first win in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition with their win in the GT Daytona Pro class saturday night at Motul Petit Le Mans. The #19 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2 driven by Jordan Pepper, Mirko Bortolotti, and Franck Perera held of a challenge from the Risi Competizione Ferrari to take the win.
The #77 AO Porsche 911 affectionately known as “Rexy” held on despite a trouble plagued race to finish high enough to win the GT Pro Title for Laurin Henirich, and Ross Gunn.
in GT Daytona the race win came down to a late race pass with just over 30 minutes left in the race from Conquest Racing’s Albert Costa, that denied Forte Racing back to back class victories at Petit Le Mans. Costa shared the #34 Ferrari 296 GT3 with Manny Fanco and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli.
Costa would then go on to hold off #78 Fore Lamborghini by a margin of a mere 0.718 seconds.
The Winward Racing duo of Russell Ward and Philp Ellis were crowned as the GTD champions by virtue of their 9th place finish.
Motul Petit Le Mans marked the end of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. the 2025 season will kick off with the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona at the famed Daytona International Speedway on January 25th.
Results
