The eyes of the endurance-racing world, and those of many others from the motorsports arena, will be on Road Atlanta in Braselton this weekend, when the inaugural TUDOR United SportsCar Championship concludes with the 17th annual Petit Le Mans.
Petit Le Mans is a 10-hour race over Road Atlanta’s 12-turn, 2.54-mile course, and it features multiple classes running on the track at the same time.
The race, which begins at 11:15 a.m. Saturday, will determine class champions in Prototype, GT Le Mans and GT Daytona, while the Prototype Challenge class already has been clinched by the team of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett.
Saturday’s race also concludes the Patron Endurance Cup, which includes three other major endurance races in America — the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and the Six Hours of the Glen.
The points races aren’t exactly nail-biters heading into the season finale. In the elite Prototype class, the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP needs only to start the race to clinch the title, and drivers Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa will take the driving championship by spending at least 45 minutes apiece behind the wheel.
The Braselton area has become to sports-car racing much like what Charlotte, N.C., is to the NASCAR world, as many teams and drivers are based near Road Atlanta.
Team DeltaWing is based in Braselton, Paul Miller Racing is in Buford, and Dempsey Racing calls Flowery Branch home.
On the driving side, Sean Rayhall lives in Winston, Andrew Davis is from Athens, Nick Jonsson from Buford, James Gue from Alpharetta, Ryan Eversley from Lithonia and Joe Foster from Suwanee.
Leh Keen, Spencer Pumpelly and Bryan Sellers are from Atlanta, and Andy Lally is in the process of moving from Suwanee to Atlanta.
Lally, who is familiar to NASCAR fans from his days in the Sprint Cup Series where he was rookie of the year in 2011, will drive the No. 44 Magnus Racing Flex-Box Porsche 911 GT America in the GT Daytona class, with co-drivers John Potter and Marco Seefried.
Although he and his teammates can’t win the class championship, they can finish in the top three, and they can add another major victory to their triumph at Sebring earlier this year.
But Lally said that winning at his home track is a daunting task.
“Road Atlanta is probably one of the most challenging tracks in America, and also one of the most dangerous,” he said. “But it’s one of the best places to watch a race. There’s so much fan access and so many great places to watch the race, particularly those high-sped corners.”
And with the race running into the dark of night Saturday, the pressure is on the drivers not to make mistakes near the end.
“It’s pretty wild at night,” he said. “What it takes is a really good ability to have timing, and a good memory of what’s coming up. You’re basically driving blind.”
And some of that sight problem, just as for motorists on the highway, comes from the bright headlights of cars in the rearview mirror.
“Those cars have really bright lights, and there’s glare,” he said. “You get a little oil on the windshield and your eyes are fully dilated, and it’s difficult to see.”
Lally also pointed out that “endurance” racing doesn’t carry the same meaning as some might think. Even at that distance, there’s no point at which drivers just ride out the laps.
“It’s like a 10-hour sprint,” he said. “The quality of cars is so strong that you go 100 percent from the drop of the green flag and every time you leave pit lane.
“It’s exhausting, especially if you’re fighting for position and really driving both offensively and defensively,” he said. “At the end of the night, you’re tired, but you’re running on adrenaline. Then when it wears off you’re like ‘I’m going to bed.’”
