After an eventful IMSA Petit Le Mans season finale, Motorsport Week has selected a series of ‘Winners and Losers’ out of the 10-hour sportscar endurance event.
Chaotic. Caution-ridden. Controversial. These words summarise the action-packed narrative of the 26th Petit Le Mans, with drama right from the beginning and all through to the checkered flag.
It was a memorable IMSA race for a mixture of reasons, inevitably making way for many ‘winners and losers’ from the third-longest race on the 2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar.
An IMSA joint-record of 13 caution periods were deployed, as a concerning amount of penalties were awarded throughout the race, as driving standards were also below expectations for a major international sportscar championship event.
Winner – #60 Meyer Shank Racing (GTP): Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Helio Castroneves
Unsurprisingly, the overall race winners feature on this list. Meyer Shank took a back-to-back Petit Le Mans win, although their victory was well and truly secured from drama elsewhere in the GTP category once again.
Blomqvist took their final qualifying honours for 2023, as MSR intend to commit more attention on their IndyCar project from 2024.
His fastest lap time of 1:15.847 put him on the second row, in fourth position, after being unable to match the other #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 of Louis Deletraz. The #10 retained their championship lead post-qualifying as the #60 was situated fourth in the standings.
At the race start, the attention was on Sebastien Bourdais in the #01 Cadillac V Series.R, and Deletraz. The pole-sitter was unable to stop Bourdais from taking the lead at the first corner, with a move around the outside of Deletraz as the pair gave each other a respective level of space, and Blomqvist took third off Philipp Eng’s #24 BMW M Hybrid V8.
On Lap 9, the Frenchman asserted a fastest race lap of 1:11.31, although the front-runners were close to one another still.
Despite the fact a caution was deployed after just two minutes since the opening green flag, Blomqvist’s pace was encouraging once things got going after the second caution, as he set a 1:11.533 towards the end of the first hour. Whilst he was not able to take on the front-runners, he kept within proximity to them.
Cautions disrupted the race, and the #60 fell back discreetly at the halfway point, after they served a drive-through penalty for working on their car outside the pit box.
Jumping to the penultimate caution period in the final 30 minutes, we were teased with what did not become a battle to the finish.
Despite this, the lead fight was now between the #01 of Renger van der Zande and the #60 of Colin Braun behind him, after the earlier clash between the #10 and the #31.
On the restart, Braun made a cunning move past the #01 on the inside of Turn 1, and held it during the most crucial 52 seconds of the entire race, before it finished under caution owing to drama elsewhere in GTD.
The #60 did not win the championship, and were unlikely to do so with their deducted Daytona points deficit, but earned their final sportscar in their last race before an indefinite hiatus.
Loser – #10 Konica Minolta/Wayne Taylor Racing (GTP): Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Louis Deletraz
The #10 expanded their three-point title lead in qualifying, to 11 points, and through a turn of misfortune, they were not able to convert their pole position into a race victory and a GTP title.
One of the main talking points from the race revolved around the clash between the #31 of Derani and the #10 of Albuquerque, and so WTR are a ‘loser’ on this list, however not necessarily for sole responsibility for their incident, as that would be subjective and difficult to call.
The consequences of the incident led the surviving #31 Cadillac to ease themselves through two caution periods – intertwined with the 52-second green flag stretch – to win the championship.
The stewards needed to assert themselves over teams and drivers, though ended up implementing a great number of penalties regardless.
Some may question the decision not to penalise the #31, which aggressively edged the Acura off-track and into the barrier. Others may implement responsibility on Albuquerque, who optimistically kept his foot down on Derani’s tail, which left him only to go off the circuit, where he had already been in an earlier minor altercation with an LMP2 car albeit at a different corner.
Nevertheless, IMSA concluded it as a racing incident, and the #31 simply had to make it through two cautions to win the championship title.
The top-two teams in the championship were ones who had clashed during the final hour, prosing whether either one of them earned the right to be classed as champions after the #60 ran a smoother race. But even this would showcase the flawed penalty of only a ‘points deduction’ from the #60’s Daytona win.
Without any doubt, if the #10 kept running, then it would have secured the championship. Above all, they did not, and lost a second consecutive chance at Petit Le Mans race victory.
Winner – #52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports (LMP2): Ben Keating, Paul-Loup Chatin, Alex Quinn
Keating and Chatin have ran an exceptional 2023 campaign together, and maintained their consistency right to the season finale.
Their close championship rivals were the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07, whose full-season drivers were Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen.
Virtually speaking, both of these teams were side-by-side in the performance they had put on this year, and a rare mistake from Jensen, who was showing great pace, ended the show, in the seventh hour. He dropped the car into the wall at Turn 5, damaging the front-right suspension in the process.
As mentioned in our preview, the #04 Crowdstrike Racing by Algarve Pro Racing could have made ground if the #11 and #52 faced issues.
Whilst they did win their second race this season, and gave George Kurtz an invitation to next year’s Le Mans, and won the Endurance Cup title in LMP2, they were just 37 points away by the end.
The #52 won the team’s fifth championship, even though Quinn made some mistakes throughout.
At the race start, Thomas took the lead off Keating, who narrowly claimed pole position by two-tenths over the #11, and was soon back in the top spot after jumping the #11 during their pit stops.
Without time to waste, Keating built a comfortable 7-second lead with the soon-to-be troublesome #20 High Class Racing in second, and Thomas in third.
Surpassing the halfway point however, the #11 and the #04 got themselves ahead of the #52 through the various chaotic moments elsewhere which interrupted the race with caution periods.
It was Jensen who built a commanding lead over Nolan Siegel, until his accident ruled out the #11 making it to the end, let alone winning. That said, it was Scott Huffaker who got the fastest LMP2 lap in the #11 with a 1:13.071 on Lap 110.
The #52’s work was not done yet as the #04 proved to be an encouraging rival, and had asserted great pace during the latter part of the race.
By the end, the #04 crew did all they could and won in the LMP2 class, whilst the #52 finished third just over 7 seconds away and secured their title.
PR1 Mathiasen added to their impressive record of IMSA championship titles at Petit Le Mans, and now await their new partnership with Inter Europol Competition next year.
Loser – #83 Iron Dames (GTD): Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Doriane Pin
It was a tough pill to swallow for the resilient all-female Iron Dames team, after a single issue threw ‘a spanner in the works’ for a potential first IMSA win in their maiden (Endurance Cup) season.
Doriane Pin had put on a stunning performance in qualifying their #83 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 for second in the GTD class, and third in the entire GTD/GTD Pro field, with a 1:23.795.
She started behind the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Ben Barnicoat, and her start showcased her potential to extract the pace out of a car.
Amidst the tightly contested scrap for positions at the front of GTD, she passed both Lexus RC Fs and charged to a 10-second lead, marking a memorable opening stint on a circuit she thoroughly enjoyed driving for the first time.
Caution periods brought down the gap, but her momentum kept going after a prolonged pit stop at the end of the opening hour, which lost them 5-6 positions in the pitlane.
The major moment for them was at the end of the second hour – which was fairly early in a 10-hour race – when an LMP3 car hit their rear-right corner, causing an immediate puncture.
However, when the rear-right wheel refused to go back on, it emerged that suspension damage had been inflicted during the contact, and the Iron Dames mechanics performed a near-10 minute repair job on that corner before heading back out.
They are not a ‘loser’ by the definition of their own doing, especially to persevere and push through the challenges they faced, but rather down to the potential they could have reached in 10-hours.
With the performance the Dames showcased, it may not be too long until we see their pink Lamborghini win in GTD. Unfortunately, that day was never to be on their maiden Petit Le Mans.
Winner – #79 WeatherTech Racing (GTD Pro): Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, Maro Engel
Whilst the #14 Vasser Sullivan team dominated the GTD Pro championship standings, the Endurance Cup was still up for the taking at Petit Le Mans.
Juncadella and Gounon found redemption last time out at Indianapolis, after the previous Lime Rock race was compromised by contact with the #9.
This weekend, the trio of drivers for the #79 Mercedes-AMG GT3 took on both the race win and Endurance Cup title, after their closest rivals – the #3 Corvette and the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus – faced their own calamities which made them score limited ‘endurance’ points at the eight and 10-hour intervals.
Gounon qualified third in the GTD Pro class, but eighth in the entire GTD classification as his lap time was over a second away from the fastest GTD.
Starting and finishing in third (in GTD Pro) was most important for their Endurance Cup title.
After the first two hours, the pit cycles and pass-around procedure during the cautions gave chance for the #79 to lead the GTD field.
By the fourth hour, however, they were sixth in GTD Pro and far down from the front, where the attention was between the #14 and the #3.
So at the first Endurance Cup points interval of four hours, the #14 received 5 points, the #3 with 4 points, and the #79 with 2 points.
Their success was short-lived, when the #14 had run into a sponsor banner and Ben Barnicoat ended up having to park his Lexus on the back-straight.
One hour later, the #3 ground to a halt on track with Tommy Milner behind the wheel as the Corvette C8.R succumbed to transmission issues.
Towards the end, the #79 did receive some pressure from Kevin Estre in the #9 for the GTD Pro win, but Juncadella managed to keep him at bay before building gap through well-executed tyre management, prior to the race ending under caution.
Whilst the #9 did earn some useful Endurance Cup points, they were nowhere near able to challenge the #79 in the Endurance Cup standings.
At the start of the year, the #79 WeatherTech Racing crew grabbed a prestigious win at the Daytona 24 Hours, and finished off the season with a Petit Le Mans victory having survived the chaos and demonstrated good reliability with the Mercedes-AMG.
Loser – #14 Vasser Sullivan (GTD Pro): Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, Kyle Kirkwood
At first glance, it may appear unusual to situate the dominantly-run GTD Pro champions as losers, seeing as they ran a sterling campaign throughout the year so to become champions once the race had begun.
More specifically, their race was undone in the strongest case of misfortune at Petit Le Mans, when an off-track moment for Barnicoat at Turn 4 became a race-ending shocker.
He had run into a sponsorship banner, which was weighed down with sandbags, thus dragging with the front of the #14 Lexus RC F GT3 and clung onto the bodywork after a minor dropped curb, consequently tearing off the whole front end of the car.
A small off-track excursion had unexpected ramifications, costing them out of their GTD Pro race lead which was undoubtedly desired after they won the title.
Barnicoat had little choice but to stop on the back straight, and they did not continue any further.
This moment of misfortune should not overshadow their momentous IMSA campaign this year, and Barnicoat and Hawksworth deserve credit for being able to walk away with the championship in hand at the start of Petit Le Mans, but a potential Petit Le Mans victory left their grasp after their off-track incident.
