IMSA Petit Le Mans: MSR Acura wins dramatic race, snatches title

Tom Blomqvist converted his pole into the early advantage in the title-leading Acura ARX-05, running ahead of Earl Bamber in the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R.

But Blomqvist's lead didn't last long, Bamber getting ahead on lap six, before it was then the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais that cycled into the lead following several full course yellow periods.

However, the Ganassi crew's chances then took a turn for the worse when, with Scott Dixon at the wheel approaching mid-distance, it was handed the first of two drivethrough penalties for not meeting tyre pressure requirements, which dropped Dixon back to sixth.

Up at the front, there was a close battle between Loic Duval in the JDC Miller Cadillac and Mike Conway in the similar Action Express car.

But several other crews were still firmly in the mix with the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura - which had pitted on the very first lap of the race after Ricky Taylor damaged its tyres with a qualifying spin - cycling into the lead on an alternate strategy.

However, Filipe Albuquerque was then delayed by a spinning LMP2 car, which handed the advantage back to Pipo Derani in the Action Express Cadillac.

But Albuquerque was content to remain in second, given his rival for the title was down in fourth at this stage. 

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 Acura DPi: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Brendon Hartley

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

With around  two hours to go, the #01 Cadillac of Bourdais appeared to improve its chances, with the sister car of Alex Lynn falling off the track briefly just ahead before it pitted and Lynn gave up his ride to Bamber. Bourdais then pitted, and CGR got his replacement Renger van der Zande out ahead of Meyer Shank Racing’s #60 Acura, in which Blomqvist had replaced Helio Castroneves.

Olivier Pla also had a brief off in the #31 Action Express Cadillac but he had second place in his hands, 13 seconds behind Albuquerque, but being pressured heavily by Bamber.

But one of the key moments of the race came with with 50mins to go, when the two Ganassi Cadillacs collided. Bamber got held up by the Korthoff Mercedes GTD car, allowing van der Zande to get a run on him on the outside approaching Turn 1, and the pair made side-by-side contact that sent them both into the gravel on the outside and into the tyre wall.

That of course brought out the full course yellow, and when the Acuras pitted, Meyer Shank Racing got Blomqvist out ahead of Albuquerque, who then pitted for a second time to top up fuel without losing position.

At the restart, with little more than half an hour to go, Blomqvist retained the lead from Albuquerque, and they were now being pursued by Derani.

Blomqvist briefly stretched out a small lead on the restart, before he came under intense pressure from Albuquerque as they encountered GT traffic. But it was that very traffic that also proved the WTR car’s undoing, Albuquerque making contact with the Winward Racing Mercedes.

The car trickled slowly to the pits with a dozen minutes to go, leaving the MSR Acura to triumph - Blomqvist and Castroneves sharing with Oliver Jarvis - by four seconds from Derani, Conway and Pla.

Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Rockenfeller and Jimmie Johnson came home third in the second AXR Cadillac, one lap down having been penalised for spinning its wheels while the car was up on its jacks during one of Johnson's stops.

#14 VasserSullivan Lexus RC F GT3: Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, Kyle Kirkwood

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

There was drama after the race in GTD Pro class, the Risi Competizione Ferrari of Daniel Serria, James Calado and Davide Rigon having seemingly triumphed having snuck ahead of the leading Lexis and the Pfaff Porsche in a double move down the inside of both at Turn 10.

But Serra had driven four hours and 11 minutes in the last six hours of the race, a violation of IMSA’s drive-time rules, meaning Risi Competizione was moved to the back of the lead lap.

Thus Jack Hawskworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood clinched victory for the Vasser Sullivan Lexus, ahead of the RLL BMW and the Pfaff Porsche - the latter's Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet taking the class title by virtue of simply starting the race.

There was more success for Acura in the GTD division, as the Gradient Racing NSX of Kyffin Simpson, Tim Bechtolsheimer and Mario Farnbacher took the spoils.

However, seventh in class was enough for Heart of Racing Aston Martin driver Roman de Angelis to clinch the GTD drivers' title.

In LMP2, Louis Deletraz, Rui Andrade and John Farano of Tower Motorsport (ORECA) clinched the win ahead of rival teams DragonSpeed and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, giving Farano the drivers' crown.

In LMP3, Andretti Autosport's Ligier won with Jarett Andretti, Gabby Chaves and Josh Burdon at the wheel ahead of Jr III Motorsports and Sean Creech Motorsport, but title honours went the way of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett of CORE Autosport in fifth place.

Petit Le Mans result:

Cla	Class	Num	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time
1	DPi	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist Helio Castroneves	Acura DPi	423	10:00'14.591
2	DPi	31	Olivier Pla Pipo Derani Mike Conway	Cadillac DPi	423	10:00'18.960
3	DPi	48	Mike Rockenfeller Kamui Kobayashi Jimmie Johnson	Cadillac DPi	422	10:00'28.165
4	DPi	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais Scott Dixon	Cadillac DPi	419	10:00'26.366
5	LMP2	8	John Farano Louis Deletraz Rui Andrade	ORECA LMP2 07	418	10:00'29.473
6	LMP2	81	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Sebastian Montoya	ORECA LMP2 07	418	10:00'30.422
7	LMP2	11	Thomas Steven Josh Pierson Tristan Nunez	ORECA LMP2 07	418	10:00'31.404
8	DPi	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Ryan Hunter-Reay	Cadillac DPi	418	10:00'49.881
9	DPi	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque Brendon Hartley	Acura DPi	414	9:47'08.006
10	LMP2	20	Dennis Andersen Anders Fjordbach Fabio Scherer	ORECA LMP2 07	414	10:00'46.370
11	LMP3	36	Jarett Andretti Gabby Chaves Josh Burdon	Ligier JS P320	401	10:00'40.338
12	LMP3	30	Ari Balogh Garett Grist Nolan Siegel	Ligier JS P320	401	10:00'42.747
13	LMP3	33	Joao Barbosa Malthe Jakobsen Nicolas Pino	Ligier JS P320	401	10:00'51.175
14	LMP3	74	Gar Robinson Felipe Fraga Kay van Berlo	Ligier JS P320	400	10:00'36.953
15	LMP3	54	Jon Bennett Colin Braun George Kurtz	Ligier JS P320	399	10:00'47.201
16	LMP3	76	Anthony Mantella Kyle Marcelli Josh Sarchet	Duqueine D08	397	10:00'18.144
17	LMP3	13	Orey Fidani Matthew Bell Lars Kern	Duqueine D08	395	10:00'48.366
18	GTD	66	Kyffin Simpson Till Bechtolsheimer Mario Farnbacher	Acura NSX GT3	387	10:00'38.972
19	GTD	70	Brendan Iribe Jordan Lee Pepper Sebastian Priaulx	McLaren 720S GT3	387	10:00'40.915
20	GTD	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen Michael Dinan	BMW M4 GT3	386	10:00'16.919
21	GTD	16	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Jan Heylen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	386	10:00'19.798
22	GTD	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow Erik Johansson	BMW M4 GT3	386	10:00'20.915
23	GTD PRO	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat Kyle Kirkwood	Lexus RC F GT3	386	10:00'34.816
24	GTD PRO	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards Jesse Krohn	BMW M4 GT3	386	10:00'35.428
25	GTD PRO	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet Felipe Nasr	Porsche 911 GT3 R	386	10:00'37.837
26	GTD PRO	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas Tom Gamble	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	386	10:00'41.599
27	GTD PRO	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor Nick Catsburg	Corvette C8.R GTD	386	10:00'44.460
28	GTD	32	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer Dirk Muller	Mercedes AMG GT3	385	10:00'15.696
29	GTD	27	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin Ian James	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	385	10:00'24.848
30	GTD	21	Simon Mann Luis Perez Companc Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GT3	385	10:00'27.234
31	GTD PRO	79	Maximilian Buhk Mikael Grenier Maximillian Goetz	Mercedes AMG GT3	385	10:00'49.389
32	GTD PRO	62	Daniel Serra Davide Rigon James Calado	Ferrari 488 GT3	386	10:00'33.808
33	GTD	42	Jaden Conwright Marco Holzer Don Yount	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	385	10:00'52.173
34	GTD	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Ulysse De	Ferrari 488 GT3	384	10:00'22.139
35	GTD	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis Marvin Dienst	Mercedes AMG GT3	383	10:00'23.545
36	LMP3	38	Daniel Goldburg Cameron Shields Tyler Maxson	Ligier JS P320	355	10:00'28.757
37	GTD	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge Nicholas Boulle	Porsche 911 GT3 R	264	6:58'52.065
38	LMP2	18	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Christian Rasmussen	ORECA LMP2 07	249	6:32'05.927
39	DPi	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook Loic Duval	Cadillac DPi	170	4:19'04.773
40	GTD	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz Richard Heistand	Lexus RC F GT3	158	4:17'25.443
41	LMP2	52	Ben Keating Mikkel Jensen Scott Huffaker	ORECA LMP2 07	102	2:37'02.443
42	GTD	44	John Potter Andy Lally Spencer Pumpelly	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	62	1:39'47.789
43	GTD	39	Robert Megennis Corey Lewis Jeff Westphal	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	22	40'31.335
View full results