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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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