Meyer Shank Acura Team Wins In Dramatic Petit Le Mans

Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis needed to finish ahead of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque to win the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) drivers’ championship.

They did that and much more.

Blomqvist, Jarvis and Helio Castroneves combined to win the 25th Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, claiming the drivers’ title for Blomqvist and Jarvis and winning the team championship for Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian in the season finale Saturday for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

“I’ve never dug so deep in my life,” said Blomqvist, who anchored the victory with his final stint. “I was so motivated to win this thing this weekend.”

A quick pit stop with 45 minutes left pushed the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 past the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 co-driven by Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Brendon Hartley. As Albuquerque chased Blomqvist into turn 2 with 14 minutes left, the No. 10 car made contact with the lapped car driven by Philip Ellis.

The contact damaged the rear suspension on the No. 10 Acura, ending its championship chances and leading to celebration for MSR.

“What a race,” Jarvis said. “It looked like we were out of it with about an hour and 20 to go. I’ve been on the receiving end where I led a few years back and had an issue and failed to be leading, so I know how it feels. They had a fantastic year, so full credit to them, but for Meyer Shank to come away with a championship is something really special.”

The pit stop turned out to be the winning move for the No. 60 car. With 51 minutes remaining, two Cadillac Racing drivers – Renger van der Zande and Earl Bamber – crashed in turn 1. During the ensuing caution period, Albuquerque, then leading, pitted with Blomqvist on his rear wing.

Blomqvist left his pit stall in the lead.

“I had a big fuel number to hit,” Blomqvist said. “We knew that was probably our only chance. The yellow came at the right time, and obviously we had less fuel to fill up. I was able to jump him, and then it was just going gung-ho and not leaving anything on the line.”

The No. 60 came into the race trailing the No. 10 by 14 points, setting the stage for a winner-take-all situation. It ended with yet another championship for Meyer Shank Racing.

“In the last four years, we’ve had three championships for Acura, the Indy 500 win (with Castroneves in 2020), and the Rolex 24,” co-owner Michael Shank said. “It doesn’t get any better.”

The championship was the final for the DPi class, which will be replaced next season by the new Grand Touring Prototype (GTP). The 2023 season begins with the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 28-29.

Tower Motorsport Sweeps LMP2 Win And Championship

John Farano and Tower Motorsport completed a three-peat at Motul Petit Le Mans, winning the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class race for the third straight year and sewing up the class driver and team championships in the process.

Driving with Louis Deletraz and Rui Pinto de Andrade in the No. 8 ORECA LMP2 07, the Tower trio led 59 of the final 66 laps to win for the second time this season. Farano and Deletraz also won at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in May. Saturday’s victory allowed Farano to claim the LMP2 driver’s crown by 126 points over Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel, co-drivers of the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA, and the team championship by 79 points over the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA.

“Race win, team championship, driver championship – it’s all here tonight,” Farano said. “This is just unbelievable. What a team effort! These guys are really fantastic.”

While the No. 8 ran at or near the front all 10 hours, Deletraz found himself second to racing great Juan Pablo Montoya on the final restart with 32 minutes to go. The Swiss driver wasted little time overtaking the former IndyCar and WeatherTech Championship DPi champion, moving past the No. 81 DragonSpeed USA ORECA on the third lap after the restart and pulling away.

“He did a brilliant job there at the end,” Farano commented about Deletraz. “Getting by Montoya was not easy to do. He really did a great job. It was beautiful.”

Montoya, driving with his son Sebastian and Henrik Hedman, finished second. The No. 11 PR1 Mathiasen ORECA shared by Steven Thomas, Josh Pierson and Tristan Nunez placed third.

But for Farano, it was time to relish in a third straight Petit Le Mans triumph.

“We’ve won this event three years in a row, which is absolutely awesome,” he said. “I don’t need to tell you how hard that is to do, but this one here, we really won it in good fashion. The team was fantastic, no mistakes, kept it on track. It was just a beautiful, beautiful race for us.

“There’s no better fun than winning and standing on that podium. That’s absolutely awesome. It just doesn’t get any better than that.”

The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen ORECA and drivers Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen and Scott Huffaker secured the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup for the LMP2 class by starting the race. They finished sixth in class Saturday after Keating slid into a tire barrier less than three hours into the race, causing irreparable damage to the car.

CORE Autosport Wins LMP3 Season-Long War, Andretti Takes Motul Petit Le Mans Battle

Both championship contenders in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class went off course during the 10-hour race. Only one later emerged victorious.

The No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier JS P320 co-driven by Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and George Kurtz recovered from a spin to claim the WeatherTech Championship LMP3 drivers’ championship for Braun and Bennett and the team championship for CORE.

“We had to walk that line of being smart versus being aggressive,” Braun said. “The biggest thing for us came down to being fast when we needed to be, being smart when we needed to be and being aware of our situation.”

Braun and Bennett came into the event 83 points ahead of Gar Robinson and the No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier JS P320 he co-drove with Felipe Fraga and Kay van Berlo. Three hours and 25 minutes into the race, though, the No. 54 car slid off course with Kurtz behind the wheel.

Kurtz made it back to the pits for repairs and returned to the race, but what had been second place in class had become sixth in the seven-car field. When Fraga took the lead with 5:05 remaining, Robinson was in line for the drivers’ championship.

Then, with four hours and 41 minutes remaining, Fraga went off in turn 6, sending the No. 74 back to sixth and renewing the chances for Braun, Bennett and CORE. The No. 54 clinched it by finishing fifth in class and 15th overall, one position behind the No. 74.

“Jon and George did a great job,” Braun said. “We had good speed when we needed to, and other times we just had to be smart and try not to use the curbs, try to just save the car a little bit toward the end when it was coming down to a big mountain for the 74 to come back around.”

While the battle for the LMP3 championships were underway behind them, Jarett Andretti, Gabby Chaves and Josh Burdon were piecing together the class win in the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier JS P320.

“It’s unbelievable,” Andretti said. “This is one of the hardest places to win, and I’m just so proud of everybody here involved with the team.”

Gradient Acura Wins Petit Le Mans GTD Race; Heart of Racing Secures Championship

Gradient Racing put an exclamation point on a huge day for Acura by winning the GTD class of the Petit Le Mans.

Kyffin Simpson, Till Bechtolsheimer, and Mario Farnbacher teamed up to vanquish the 15-car GTD field in the No. 66 Acura NSX GT3, holding off the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 driven by Brendan Iribe, Jordan Pepper, and Sebastian Priaulx during a tense 30-minute battle until the 10-hour race ended under caution.

Acura also claimed the overall and Daytona Prototype international (DPi) victory in the race, with Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian and drivers Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis earning the DPi season championship.

The Gradient drivers started from the back of the GTD field after a problem with a turbocharger wastegate prevented them from competing a qualifying lap. They steadily worked toward the front before dramatically seizing the lead during an exchange of green flag pit stops with a little under an hour remaining. The eighth of the race’s nine safety car periods soon followed.

Over the next 22 green flag laps, GTD leaders Farnbacher and Pepper were rarely separated by more than a second. They posted lap times within a thousandth of a second with 24 minutes to go. But Pepper was never able to get close enough to try a move, and he was denied a final opportunity when the race ended under yellow.

“After the problem we had in qualifying, the guys tore the whole car apart, made it absolutely perfect for today, and here we are,” said Farnbacher. “I’m so proud of the guys…it’s absolutely great.

“It means a lot,” he noted. “Ten years ago was my first race in the U.S., at this track. I won back then, and now, exactly 10 years later, I won again. So, there’s a really special connection to this track.”

The tension was almost unbearable for Farnbacher’s co-drivers and team.

“It was all a blur, and I was just trying not to throw up,” Bechtolsheimer remarked. “An incredible day. Kyffin was just clinical all day, and the last couple stints from Mario were out of this world. It’s huge for Gradient to get their first win in IMSA.”

After controlling the race from the middle of the sixth hour to the final 30 minutes, the Inception team was frustrated and disappointed to come home second. Pepper was mystified why the red light was lit at the pit exit following his crucial final pit stop, trapping him behind a slower Lamborghini and ultimately allowing Farnbacher past.

“Unfortunately, there were just a couple tenths between us, and the fight was on,” Pepper said. “It was quite fun, and the two of us were having our own battle. Maybe a bit of smashing between the two cars would have led to an overtake, but I don’t think that’s a fair way to race. Mario did an incredible job.”

The second-place finish did clinch the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup for the No. 70 McLaren.

“That’s the cherry on the cake, that was the goal coming into this weekend,” said Pepper. “The guys are super happy this evening, and I think we’ll be celebrating that and our podium tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Roman De Angelis, Maxime Martin, and Ian James overcame a series of challenges throughout the race in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to claim a seventh-place class finish. That was enough to secure the GTD championship for De Angelis, a 21-year-old from Belle River, Ontario, Canada.

The hurdles included an electrical issue that required a mid-race steering wheel change, and an off-course excursion at the very end when Martin was bumped by the team’s closest title competition, the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R shared by Jan Heylen, Ryan Hardwick, and Zacharie Robichon.

De Angelis ended the season with a slim 23-point edge over Heylen and Hardwick.

“A messy day, and we really fought to get back on the lead lap all day,” related De Angelis. “When the checkered flag dropped, I didn’t even know if we won it or not. Then everyone started screaming, so that was my indication that it went pretty well.

“The team did an awesome job through all the chaos and those points where we were very far from the championship,” he added. “They stayed motivated and kept fighting, and it definitely all paid off in the end.”

Vasser Sullivan Finally Conquers Endurance Race With GTD PRO Win, Pfaff Takes Championship

The Vasser Sullivan crew thought the GTD PRO win was well in hand late in Saturday’s race. Until it wasn’t. And then it was.

After leading much of the 10-hour race, No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 driver Jack Hawksworth was caught in a late-race scuffle and surrendered first place to the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3. The Ferrari crossed the finish line first but was moved to the back of the class results for driver Daniel Serra exceeding the limit of driving four hours within a six-hour period.

The penalty put Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood atop the GTD PRO podium, securing the first WeatherTech Championship endurance race win for the team and Lexus as well as clinching second place in the GTD PRO standings for Barnicoat and the No. 14.

“It was just wild. I’m just so happy, this has been a long time coming for this team,” said Hawksworth, a pillar of the Lexus program who collected his ninth career win. “The guys have worked so hard for it.”

The No. 14 Lexus was leading at the final restart from caution with just more than a half-hour remaining but was pushed hard by Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R that clinched the season championship by starting the race. Jaminet bumped into the back of Hawksworth entering Turn 10 with 21 minutes to go, causing the Lexus to wiggle and allowing the No. 62 Ferrari and the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M4 GT3 a chance to pounce.

Hawksworth somehow retained the lead while the Ferrari overtook the Porsche for second place. Soon after, Serra pushed the Risi Ferrari past the Vasser Sullivan for the class lead to the finish. But the Ferrari’s joy was short-lived as Serra was cited for maximum driving infringement.

Hawksworth was still shaking his head over what transpired in the closing minutes.

“I had more contact in the last 30 minutes of that race than I think I had the whole season, probably my whole IMSA career,” he said. “(Jaminet) tried to pass me in (turn) 10, we had contact there, and then he hit me three or four more times. God knows how the car is still in one piece.”

Barnicoat joined the team this year and was elated to help deliver the first endurance win and take second in the GTD PRO championship.

“You can see how much this means to everyone here, the whole Lexus family,” he said. “I joined them a year ago and to be able to do this at my first Petit Le Mans with them is incredible.”

With the Risi Ferrari’s demotion, the No. 25 BMW with drivers Connor De Phillippi, John Edwards and Jesse Krohn finished second and the No. 9 Pfaff Porsche shared by Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr took third place.