Wayne Taylor Racing takes Petit Le Mans win after late collision between leaders

Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
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emailBy J.J. O'Malley | October 17, 2020 9:03 PM



Tristan Vautier, Loic Duval and Sebastien Bourdais finished fourth in the No. 5 JDC/Miller Motorsports Cadillac, the only other car to complete 460 laps.

Both Multimatic-prepared Mazda RT-24Ps ran in contention before going to the garage following incidents. Tristan Nunez was leading near the end of green-flag stops at the halfway point when he got together with Alessandro Balzan in the No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, sending Nunez into the tires and then to the garage.

The race was slowed by six cautions, with three hours, minutes run under the green flag prior to the two late-race incidents.
Major change up front also figured in the LMP2 class as Starworks surged to victory. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

In LMP2, the No. 8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks ORECA of John Farano, Mikkel Jensen and Job van Uitert came from two laps down to take the lead in the final hour and won when its toughest rival went to the paddock. The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07-Gibson of Patrick Kelly, Simon Trummer and Scott Huffaker dominated the event. That was the lone retirement in the class, with the two remaining LMP2 cars finishing in the top eight overall.

GTLM also saw the complexion of the race change in the final hour, with the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR-19 winning when the dominating No. 24 BMW had an extra stop due to a trip through the grass.

Fred Makowiecki, Nick Tandy and Matt Campbell went on to post their first victory of the season, winning at Porsche’s home track.
More late-night magic made winners of Nick Tandy, Fred Makowiecki and Matt Campbell. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg took second in the No. 3 Corvette C8.R, followed by Jesse Krohn, John Edwards and Augusto Farfus in the No.24 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE. Krohn put the BMW into the lead when he passed both Corvettes on a single straight shortly after the two-hour mark. The team then dominated up until Farfus’ off-track excursion with 32 minutes remaining.

In GTD, Jeff Westphal led the opening 20 laps and the final 40 in a victory for the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo co-driven by Cooper MacNeil and Alessandro Balzan. The key move was Westphal’s pass of Jack Hawksworth with 1h7m remaining. It was the team’s first victory of the season, and fourth for Ferrari at Petit Le Mans over the last five years.
Petit Le Mans continues to be a happy hunting ground for Scuderia Corsa and its Ferrari 488 GT3. Richard Dole/Motorsport Images

Jack Hawksworth finished second in the No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 co-driven by Aaron Telitz and Michael De Quesada, followed by Andy Lally, John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 44 GRT Magnus Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

RESULTS

UP NEXT: The WeatherTech Championship continues at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday, Nov. 1.

 

Wayne Taylor Racing takes Petit Le Mans win after late collision between leaders

Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
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emailBy J.J. O'Malley | October 17, 2020 9:03 PM

Renger van der Zande saw his top two rivals come together with only 11 minutes remaining, opening the door for an unlikely victory for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R in Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Van der Zande, Ryan Briscoe and IndyCar title contender Scott Dixon followed up their Rolex 24 At Daytona victory, opening an eight-point lead in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship DPi point standings.

“I saw the gap getting closer and closer,” van der Zande admitted. “We gambled with the setup. It wasn’t good at the start, but it got better later in the race.”

“This was massive,” Briscoe said. “What a finish! It shows you never give up, and fortune went our way.”


The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R was involved in a torrid battle with the No. 7 Team Penske Acura ARX-05 for the final two and a half hours of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.

Pipo Derani dove to the inside of Ricky Taylor with 33 minutes remaining, and then held off several challenges by the Acura driver. Taylor dove to the inside entering Turn 6 with 11 minutes left, with the two cars making side-by-side contact and spinning. Derani went into a barrier and was stuck in a gravel trap, while a charging van der Zande passed Taylor for the lead.

“I was in the lead, and he pushed me out on a desperate move,” Derani said.

The race was restarted with 5m21s remaining, but went back to yellow one minute later when the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Laurens Vanthoor and the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 of Townsend Bell went off. The event ended under caution.

The No. 10 Cadillac encountered electrical problems early in the race, managing to change the battery while remaining on the lead lap.
Playing catch-up after early issues, the WTR Cadillac was perfectly positioned when events turned their way. Richard Dole/Motorsport Images

Ricky Taylor finished second in the No. 7 Acura co-driven by Helio Castroneves and Alexander Rossi, with Dane Cameron taking third in the No. 6 Acura co-driven by Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud that dominated the first half of the event. Cameron was involved with an LMP2 car at the midway point that necessitated a pit stop to change the nose, with the car never quite as dominant for the remainder of the race.

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After watching the two Team Penske Acuras dominate the opening three-quarters of the 10-hour race, the Action Express Cadillac of Derani, Felipe Nasr and Filipe Albuquerque went to the front. Nasr passed Rossi going into Turn 3 for the overall lead with 2:24 remaining. Rossi returned the favor with 1h51m remaining in Turn 10. Six minutes later, Nasr passed Rossi, but the IndyCar veteran returned the favor on a crossover move.

The two drivers pitted with 1h15m remaining, with Derani and Taylor picking up the fight all the way to the final incident.