Photo: Gruppe C Photography/Porsche
Laurens Vanthoor delivered Team Penske’s first overall Motul Petit Le Mans victory in a chaotic and carnage-filled ten-hour enduro that saw a record 16 full-course cautions.
Vanthoor held off the No. 24 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde in a frantic final ten-minute shootout to the finish after the GTP championship-winning No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber crashed out.
The Belgian retained the lead after being the last of the front-runners to make their final stops with 50 minutes to go for energy and fresh left-side Michelin tires only, but ran off course in the Esses on his out lap.
A second off-course excursion several corners later for the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 briefly handed the lead to Bamber but Vanthoor retook the top spot two laps later through traffic with the No. 912 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R of Ricardo Pera in Turn 12.
Van der Linde then got around Bamber for second with 45 minutes to go as the Kiwi faded to fourth, behind the pole-sitting No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist.
However, contact between Roman De Angelis and Bamber with 19 minutes remaining that sent the Action Express Cadillac into the Turn 1 barriers resulted in the final caution and a drive-through penalty for the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie for incident responsibility on the race’s restart.
Vanthoor came under pressure by the the South African, who shared driving duties with Dries Vanthoor and Robin Frijns, on the final two laps through traffic but managed to take the checkered flag by 1.205 seconds.
Vanthoor scored top honors with longtime co-driver Kevin Estre, who picked up his long-awaited first career IMSA victory, and Matt Campbell, in his final start as a Porsche factory driver.
It marked the first outright Petit Le Mans win for Porsche since the rain-shortened 2015 edition when Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet drove a GTLM class Porsche 911 RSR to overall honors and was the first for a Porsche prototype in the race’s 29-year history.
Blomqvist was forced to pit on the final lap for energy, which promoted the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Lous Deletraz, Jordan Taylor and Colton Herta to the final podium position.
The No. 10 WTR Cadillac finished fourth in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque, with De Angelis finishing fifth after his penalty.
Blomqvist brought the No. 60 MSR Acura home in sixth, in the final outing for both the manufacturer and team in WeatherTech Championship competition.
The remainder of the 11-car GTP field all retired due to accidents.
Despite Bamber ending the race in the barriers, co-driver Jack Aitken clinched his first GTP title by just rolling off the grid. It also gave the teams’ and manufacturers’ titles to Action Express and Cadillac, respectively.
The No. 7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr crashed out in dramatic airborne fashion on the front straight with 90 minutes to go after checking up behind Vanthoor and the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo.
Nasr, who along with Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich were seeking an unprecedented sweep of victories at Daytona International Speedway, Sebring International Raceway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in the same year, climbed from the car under his own power.
It came after the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche of Tijmen van der Helm brought out the 12th yellow, and a race-ending accident for the No. 93 MSR Acura of Nick Yelloly, after numerous incidents for the car, which resulted in three cautions of its own.
The No. 25 BMW crashed out in the fourth hour after Kevin Magnussen ran into the No. 93 Acura of Alex Palou, which sent the Dane’s car into the air and hard into the Turn 5 barriers.
Kurtz, Quinn Take LMP2 Title in Comeback Drive
CrowdStrike Racing by APR scored a remarkable comeback victory and class title in LMP2 after Tom Dillmann ran into Alex Quinn with 1 hour and 47 minutes to go, resulting in rear-deck damage to the No. 04 Oreca 07 Gibson.
Quinn came back from a one-lap deficit after repairs were made to retake the lead in the final pit sequence over the No. 22 United Autosports entry of Paul di Resta, who was in the gravel trap with less than two hours to go.
Di Resta, however, was forced to pit for a splash of fuel on the final lap, which promoted Dillmann to a second place class result, finishing 0.666 seconds behind Quinn.
Dillmann took the final restart in fifth.
Quinn shared his first IMSA LMP2 title with George Kurtz, who earned the Jim Trueman Award and automatic invite to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Stewart and Samantha Cox-led squad first overcame a drive-through penalty in the third hour when Kurtz was handed incident responsibility for contact with the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Frankie Montecalvo.
Third driver Toby Sowery then emerged in the lead after running through a rainstorm, and subsequent 30-minute red flag period for lightning in the area, on Michelin slicks when nearly everyone switched to rain tires.
The No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca of Ferdinand Habsburg, Naveen Rao and Jacob Abel completed the class podium.
RESULTS: Motul Petit Le Mans
John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John
