Team effort pays off for Scuderia Corsa at Petit Le Mans

Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
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emailBy RACER Staff | October 18, 2020 6:24 AM

Scuderia Corsa’s path to its second Petit Le Mans victory was a collective triumph for drivers Cooper MacNeil, Jeff Westphal and Alessandro Balzan. A final pass for the GT Daytona class lead by Westphal came in the chicane with 40 minutes remaining, but he said that was just the icing on the cake.

“It was a real team effort today,” Westphal said. “Cooper and Ale did a great job all race keeping the car in front of the field. I just happened to be the one that closed at the end. The Scuderia Corsa guys had the WeatherTech Ferrari hooked-up at the end. They put the car into a window where it would be good when it got cold at night. The colder it got, the better the car got. It was a pleasure to drive.”


The win was especially meaningful for Balzan, who returned to Scuderia Corsa for the first time since the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January. While Balzan is a two-time IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar champion, he had never won at Petit Le Mans.

“I would like to dedicate the win to Nina, my girlfriend; her dad passed away a few months ago,” he related. “I am so grateful for David and Cooper MacNeil of WeatherTech to put me back in the car. It is my 40th birthday today — that is a lovely gift. This one of the few endurance races wins that I was missing. The car was amazing. We kept the rear tires on it, and it was a great run and a great win.”

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MacNeil was similarly delighted in the team’s efforts, and to have made the most of the opportunity the drivers had been handed.

“The team gave me the tool, the great car to fight with, and that is what I did,” MacNeil said. “We thought we would be good off of the trailer because we had a good car for the six hours; boy, were we wrong. We had to work on it. The Scuderia Corsa guys didn’t complain about anything we wanted them to do, which was a fair amount of work. Thanks to them for keeping at it and working hard.

“It was up to us to execute as well as them to perform on pit stops. We had some contact with some prototypes, but that is multi-class racing, so that kind of thing happens. I am pretty stoked to get my second Petit Le Mans win.”

Petit Le Mans, Scuderia Corsa, IMSA, WeatherTech Sportscar Championship

 

Incident shakes up Petit Le Mans contenders at half-distance

Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
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emailBy J.J. O'Malley | October 17, 2020 5:27 PM

Two of the top three contenders in Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans were involved in an incident at the exit of Turn 1 moments before the halfway point that suddenly changed the complexion of the 10-hour event.

Up until that point, the No. 6 Team Penske Acura driven by Dane Cameron had dominated the race, although challenged by the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R of Pipo Derani and the No. 77 Mazda DPi of Tristan Nunez.

Nunez was leading near the end of a round of green-flag pit stops. Exiting pit road, he was clipped by the second-place GTD No. 63 WeatherTech Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo of Alessandro Balzan. That sent the Mazda into the tire barrier, although it was able to continue directly to the paddock with a damaged nose and right-rear bodywork.

Cameron also was involved in the incident, although able to continue without apparent damage. Following pit stops at the five-hour mark, Ricky Taylor held the lead in the No. 7 Team Penske Acura, followed by the championship-leading No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac of Ryan Briscoe and Derani. Cameron was running fifth, +7.6 seconds back.

After the No. 6 Acura led all but seven of the opening 171 laps with Cameron, Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud, Felipe Nasr quietly took the lead at the 3:38 mark during an exchange of green-flag pit stops that gave the No. 31 Cadillac a 3.168s advantage.

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The second caution waved at the 4:03 mark for an incident involving the No. 51 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2-Gibson of Rob Hodes. During pit stops, Nasr tried to get around Cameron as they were exiting the pits. Nasr pulled ahead, but was ordered to relinquish the position. Cameron then led until the incident that dropped the Acura back in the running.


Prior to the halfway incident, the biggest moment in the first half was in GTLM shortly after the two-hour mark. Jesse Krohn, driving the No. 24 BMW, passed the Corvettes of both Tommy Milner and class leader Jordan Taylor on the same straight to take over the lead. Moments later, though, the RLL sister No. 25 BMW driven by Colton Herta went to the garage after reporting being down on power. The car returned after losing 31 laps for repairs.

Following the halfway pit stops John Edwards led in the No. 24 BMW, followed by the No. 912 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet and the No. 3 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg.

The No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini of Bryan Sellers has dominated GTD, although challenged by Balzan in the No. 63 Ferrari; Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Lexus; and Shinya Michimi in the No. 86 Acura.

The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA currently driven by Scott Huffaker is leading in LMP2, with John Farano second in the No. 8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks ORECA, 33s back.

Harry Tincknell was the first contender to experience problems when he straight-lined the No. 55 Mazda off Turn 10 through the gravel and back on course. After a short pit stop, Tincknell took the Mazda to the paddock to replace the left-front rotor. He returned to the race after losing six laps — although another problem after four hours sent that car back to the paddock.

On lap 19, Gabriel Aubry went straight off exiting Turn 1, nosing the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi-V.R into the tire barrier. That brought out the first full-course caution — although it was followed by a very long stretch of green-flag racing.

Petit Le Mans, IMSA