The No. 60 Honda team of Michael Shank Racing dominated Saturday’s 19th annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, winning the race over the No. 2 Honda team and the No. 10 Corvette of Wayne Taylor Racing and drivers Jordan Taylor, his brother Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli.
The winning drivers in the elite Prototype class, who shared the duties in the No. 60 Honda, were Oswaldo Negri Jr., John Pew and Olivier Pla. The team started from the pole and was out front for most of the race.
The No. 31 Action Express team finished fourth, but that was good enough to secure the Prototype division’s season title for drivers Dane Cameron and Eric Curran, who were joined at Petit by this year’s IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud.
In the GT Le Mans division, Ferrari and Ford teams squared off at the head of the pack, with the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari with drivers Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and James Calado prevailing over the Le Mans winning No. 66 Ford GT team fielded by Chip Ganassi. Chevrolet’s Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner finished third and won the season championship.
Atlanta-area resident Andy Lally appeared to have scored a dramatic victory in the GTD division as he passed leader Jeroen Bleekemolen with just over a minute left to run in the 10-hour marathon. But Lally and his No. 44 team were disqualified for not meeting series rules about the amount of time each of the team drivers should be behind the wheel. Series officials said driver John Potter did not spend the required amount of time in the car, a ruling team officials disputed in post-race interviews.
Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan clinched the GTD title early in the race.
Tom Kimber-Smith drove the 52 Oreca to victory in Prototype Challenge.
Early on, Saturday’s race saw a one-hour caution period for repair of pot holes in Turn Three, then had a caution flag for a fiery blown engine in the No. 70 Mazda Prototype, which was running in third place with just minutes remaining. That gave drivers one last chance to improve their positions.
Two significant prizes were claimed with the waving of the green flag for the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. By its teams starting the race, Chevrolet clinched the manufacturer championships in the Prototype and GT Le Mans divisions.
Chevrolet has dominated American sports car racing since the merger of the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series in 2014, winning 31 races, 20 in Prototype and 11 in GT Le Mans.
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