United SportsCar Petit Le Mans: Tandy/Pilet GT Porsche wins overall
Porsche GT drivers Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet took a shock outright Petit Le Mans victory, as Action Express' Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi retained the United SportsCar Prototype championship
Barbosa, Fittipaldi and team-mate Sebastien Bourdais won the Prototype class but finished only third overall behind Porsche and BMW GT Le Mans cars in a race cut short after just under eight of the expected 10 hours due to appalling wet weather conditions.
Despite having their second place class starting spot taken away due to a ride infringement in qualifying, Tandy and Pilet came from the back to dominate the GT field in the race.
That gave the Frenchman the USC class title, and Tandy a second major outright endurance race victory of 2015 to add to his Le Mans 24 Hours triumph with Nico Hulkenberg and Earl Bamber.
Richard Lietz joined them on the top step of the podium, though the shortened distance meant he didn't drive the car in the race.
The Porsche drivers seemed to be able to pull away from the rest of the field at will, defying the awful conditions, and Pilet gave Porsche its first stint in the overall lead just before the mid-way stoppage.
A fuel stop under yellow after the restart dropped them to third in class behind the two Corvettes, but Tandy overtook both within the first two corners when the course went green.
He subsequently set about chasing Prototype driver Dane Cameron for the outright lead and swept by just before the final caution of the race came out.
Cameron's Action Express car then pitted prior to the yellow - which ultimately proved to be the end of the event - handing second overall to the Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW of Jens Klingmann, Lucas Luhr and John Edwards.
The Cameron pitstop also decided the Prototype title.
For the best part of the race, the sister #5 Action Express car did not appear to be heading for the crown, while an early spin two hours in by championship rival Michael Valiante in the SDR Motorsports car he shares with Richard Westbrook put the polesitters two laps down.
With conditions starting to deteriorate, several other cars fell victim to aquaplaning. After three cautions to clear standing water, the race was red-flagged midway through following shunts for DeltaWing's Memo Rojas and Michael Shank Racing's John Pew.
Having already secured the North American Endurance Cup in Prototype courtesy of Bourdais leading at the midway stage, the #5 Action Express car was still behind the sister #31 of Eric Curran and Cameron, who also had a title shot.
But when it became clear that the race could not finish as normal just after the #31's routine pitstop dropped it to third behind the #5 and the Ganassi entry, the reigning champions' 2015 title was secure along with the class win at Petit.
In Prototype Challenge, CORE Autosport's Colin Braun and Jonathan Bennett wrapped up their second consecutive title despite drafted driver Anthony Lazzaro skating off into the wall and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports securing a dominant race win with Tom Kimber-Smith, Andrew Palmer and Mike Guasch.
Similarly Scuderia Corsa Ferrari trio Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell and Jeff Segal won the GT Daytona class championship even though Spencer Pumpelly took the win on the night in the Park Place Motorsports Porsche he shares with Patrick Lindsay and Madison Snow.
RESULTS - 199 LAPS:
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | GTLM | N.Tandy, P.Pilet, R.Lietz | Porsche North America | Porsche | 7h51m12.894s |
2 | GTLM | J.M.Edwards, L.Luhr, J.Klingmann | BMW Team RLL | BMW | 5.475s |
3 | P | J.Barbosa, C.Fittipaldi, S.Bourdais | Action Express Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 8.524s |
4 | P | J.Hand, S.Pruett, S.Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates | Riley/Ford | 8.773s |
5 | P | E.Curran, D.Cameron, M.Papis | Action Express Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 9.908s |
6 | GTLM | O.Gavin, T.Milner | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 11.764s |
7 | P | R.Taylor, J.Taylor, M.Angelelli | Wayne Taylor Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 13.378s |
8 | GTLM | B.Auberlen, D.Werner, A.Farfus | BMW Team RLL | BMW | 14.446s |
9 | GTLM | P.Kaffer, G.Fisichella, T.Vilander | Risi Competizione | Ferrari | 20.840s |
10 | GTLM | J.Magnussen, A.Garcia, R.Briscoe | Corvette Racing | Chevrolet | 1 Lap |
11 | GTLM | B.Sellers, W.Henzler, P.Long | Team Falken Tire | Porsche | 2 Laps |
12 | P | R.Westbrook, M.Valiante, M.Rockenfeller | visitflorida.com Racing | Corvette/Chevrolet | 2 Laps |
13 | GTLM | J.Bergmeister, E.Bamber, F.Makowiecki | Porsche North America | Porsche | 3 Laps |
14 | PC | M.Guasch, T.K.-Smith, A.Palmer | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | 5 Laps |
15 | PC | R.van der Zande, M.Hedlund, M.Schultis, A.Popow | Starworks Motorsport | ORECA/Chevrolet | 5 Laps |
16 | PC | M.Drumwright, T.Drissi, D.Yount, J.Mowlem | BAR1 Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | 6 Laps |
17 | GTD | P.Lindsey, S.Pumpelly, M.Snow | Park Place Motorsports | Porsche | 7 Laps |
18 | GTD | J.Potter, A.Lally, R.Renauer | Magnus Racing | Porsche | 7 Laps |
19 | GTD | A.Carter, M.Goossens, C.Lawrence | Riley Motorsports | Dodge | 7 Laps |
20 | GTD | B.Sweedler, T.Bell, J.Segal | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari | 7 Laps |
21 | GTD | G.Cosmo, R.Thorne, C.Thompson | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Audi | 7 Laps |
22 | GTD | J.Westphal, D.Serra, M.Cressoni | Scuderia Corsa | Ferrari | 7 Laps |
23 | GTD | I.James, M.Farnbacher, A.Riberas | Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing | Porsche | 7 Laps |
24 | GTD | C.MacNeil, L.Keen, A.Davis | Alex Job Racing | Porsche | 7 Laps |
25 | GTD | C.Nielsen, K.Wittmer, B.Davis | TRG-AMR | Aston Martin | 8 Laps |
26 | GTD | C.Haase, D.von Moltke, B.Miller | Paul Miller Racing | Audi | 8 Laps |
27 | GTD | M.Marsal, M.Palttala, A.Priaulx, B.Johnson | Turner Motorsport | BMW | 10 Laps |
28 | GTD | B.Keating, S.Bleekemolen, J.Bleekemolen | Riley Motorsports | Dodge | 14 Laps |
29 | PC | J.Bennett, C.Braun, A.Lazzaro | CORE Autosport | ORECA/Chevrolet | 25 Laps |
30 | P | T.Long, J.Miller | Speedsource | Mazda | Not running |
31 | P | T.Nunez, J.Bomarito, S.Tremblay | Mazda Motorsports | Mazda | Not running |
32 | PC | M.Goikhberg, C.Miller, R.Mitchell | JDC-Miller Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | Not running |
33 | P | M.Rojas, K.Legge, A.Meyrick | Claro / TracFone DeltaWing Racing | DeltaWing/Elan | Not running |
34 | PC | B.Junqueira, C.Cumming, G.Menezes, J.Hawksworth | RSR Racing | ORECA/Chevrolet | Not running |
35 | P | J.Pew, O.Negri, M.McMurry | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | Ligier/HPD | Not running |
36 | PC | A.Popow, S.Mayer, S.Rayhall, J.Falb | Starworks Motorsport | ORECA/Chevrolet | Not running |
37 | PC | J.French, J.Mee, C.Daly | Performance Tech Motorsports | ORECA/Chevrolet | Not started |
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