Very Last IMSA GTLM Fight Corvette V Porsche Nov 13th

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Nov 11th is the very last GTLM class race as it goes away starting next season
Corvette and Porsche both have 41 GTLM wins, so whoever wins this last race then will hold the GTLM title forever
There will be 2 C8.Rs and 2 Porsche's fighting it out and Porsche says they will do all to win this historic last race battle

The 24th Annual Motul Petit Le Mans, set for Nov. 10-13 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, will serve as the absolute final event for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

In 2022, IMSA will replace GTLM with a Pro division of the GT Daytona class (GTD PRO). With so many sports car marques around the world committed to producing GT3 specification cars, it’s a move that should ultimately result in growth for IMSA.

While it all sounds like a bowl of alphabet soup, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the GTLM era. On paper, GTLM was a product of the merger between the American Le Mans Series and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series that resulted in today’s WeatherTech Championship.

The nuts-and-bolts basis of the class was the GT2 category of the ALMS, which by 2009 was entering a golden era of manufacturer involvement.
The next dozen years featuring the transition from GT2 into GTLM will be viewed as a prime period for GT racing in the U.S., with fierce competition between the likes of Porsche, Corvette, BMW, Ford, Ferrari and even Dodge Viper.
While the cars outwardly resembled those competing in the GT Daytona (GTD) class, there was a much higher level of technology under the skin, along with a phalanx of factory drivers and engineering support.
One key factor in the category’s growth was Corvette Racing’s decision to transfer from GT1 to GT2 midway through the 2009 ALMS season.
The ALMS era from 2009 through 2013 featured some mighty scraps, with Porsche claiming 16 race wins compared to 12 for Corvette, 10 for Ferrari, nine for BMW and a single victory for Viper.

“I was lucky enough to be part of the transition between GT1 and GT2,” said longtime Corvette Racing star Antonio Garcia, who teamed with Jan Magnussen to win the final ALMS GT title in 2013 prior to notching three more GTLM crowns in IMSA (two more with Magnussen and last year with Jordan Taylor). “You saw all the different names that got into what this category became.
You look back at the speeds we are doing now, we could never imagine them when we first went into GT2. We are faster now than we were with GT1.”

What drove that increase in speed was relentless competition among the manufacturers.
GTLM is the ultimate manifestation of a production-based road racing car, and no other form of racing more accurately sums up the old adage: “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.”
“You can see year by year all the resources that the manufacturers put in how everything is advancing and the resources the manufacturers put in on the simulator side, tire development, car development and electronics,” Garcia related.
“We have all kept improving everything. We’re now at the point where we are faster now than when we had 100 more horsepower!”

Another key milestone for GTLM came when Ford entered the category in 2016 with a new, purpose-build GT that was as much racing car as street machine. The level of factory commitment from Ford convinced Chip Ganassi Racing to transfer its IMSA focus from Daytona Prototypes to GTLM to coordinate the trackside aspect of the Ford effort.

“We had switched from BMW to Ford in the old Daytona Prototype class, wanting to stay in sports car racing but not knowing that developing the EcoBoost engine had a big carrot out there at the end of the stick,” Ganassi recalled. “We didn’t know anything about the GT program, but when you first saw the car, it took your breath away.
“It had some nice enhancements and technologies that we could really sink our teeth into. That really energized us and rejuvenated some of those brain cells that got us into racing in the first place.”

As the competition between GTLM manufacturers became more intense, so did action on the track.
The level of professionalism in the category, whether in terms of driver or engineering pedigree, was truly impressive.

“The racing in GTLM was fairly cutthroat,” observed veteran IndyCar and sports car driver Sebastien Bourdais, who was part of the Ganassi/Ford effort and co-driver of the winning car in the 2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona. “In DP, if you were faster than the guy ahead of you, he had a tendency to let you through, so you could both run your own race. In GTLM, it was a lot more competitive.”

Ganassi also ran the Ford GT program in the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2016-18. The U.S.-based team secured a history-making win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016, with Bourdais, Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller taking the GTE Pro class win 50 years after the Ford GT dazzled the racing world by finishing 1-2-3 overall in the iconic race.

One of the Ganassi/Ford WEC drivers was Harry Tincknell, who has moved on to earn five DPi race wins since 2019 in the WeatherTech Championship for Mazda Motorsports.
“That was a great situation for me because I was the young guy and I got to learn the ropes from some great teammates,” Tincknell said. “It was absolutely invaluable to be part of a factory team at that part of my career, and I’ve really fed off of that.”

Ready for a Big Finish

From 2014 to date in the WeatherTech Championship, Corvette leads with 29 race wins, followed by Porsche (25), Ford (13), BMW (12), Ferrari (4) and Viper (2). Porsche and Corvette are tied with 41 wins since 2009, so if either of them wins at Motul Petit Le Mans, it will make them the winning est manufacturer in GTLM.

Nick Tandy co-drove in 13 of Porsche’s GTLM wins since 2014, including a victory in the Rolex 24, three at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts and two in the Motul Petit Le Mans. Now a member of Corvette Racing, Tandy and co-driver Tommy Milner have the opportunity to cap off the GTLM era with four consecutive race wins to end the 2021 season.

“The glory days were really 2016, 2017 and 2018 when you had four and five manufacturers putting out the best GT cars ever developed and fighting it out with the best drivers in the world and best teams around,” Tandy recalled. “It was a Balance of Performance class, but it goes to show that kind of racing does work.
“All the teams, the cars and drivers had to be on their games' week in and week out,” he added. “It pushed everyone on.

The manufacturers loved it, the fans loved it, and we as drivers loved it. It’s been the most enjoyable phase of my career and what’s been the biggest part of my career to date.”

The GTLM cars take to Michelin Raceway along with the other four WeatherTech Championship classes for practice beginning Thursday, Nov. 11, with qualifying the following day.
The race airs live beginning at noon ET Saturday, Nov. 13 on NBC before coverage switches to NBCSN at 3 p.m. and continues through the conclusion of the 10-hour endurance event. IMSA Radio also has flag-to-flag coverage
 

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Is Porsche and Weathertech playing a game by saying they are entering a second Porsche but not saying who the 3 drivers will be when the race is just about 1 week away ?
BMW at last minute has decided to show up even not racing most of the season

Is this a way Europe assures Corvette will not win the very last GTLM race into history ?

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Corvette Racing closes out the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and the last race for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category this weekend with Petit Le Mans from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
The 10-hour endurance race the program’s 250th event all-time will serve as a Corvette Racing celebration as the race’s green flag will officially bring another sweep of the GTLM Manufacturers, Drivers and Team championships to Chevrolet and Corvette Racing for the second year in a row.

On the strength of seven wins and nine straight pole positions, Chevrolet will lock up its 14th Manufacturers Championship in IMSA GT racing since 2001. Four of those victories came via Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, teammates in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.
The duo, teaming with Nicky Catsburg at Road Atlanta, only need to start the race to wrap up their second straight GTLM title and consecutive Team championships for the No. 3 Corvette.
Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy will secure second in GTLM points once they start the race in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette.
They’ll team with Alexander Sims at Road Atlanta.

In addition to the full-season GTLM titles, Corvette Racing and Chevrolet also lead the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings in the Manufacturers, Drivers and Team categories. Points are awarded at the four-, eight- and 10-hour marks.
The two Corvettes and their drivers are 1-2 in the standings while Chevy leads the Manufacturers race by two points.

Corvette Racing has eight class wins at Petit Le Mans and is seeking its first win at Road Atlanta since 2010. It would be a fitting end to the GTLM era as the program has more wins (29) than any other entrant in the class since its debut in 2014.
Taylor, Tandy and Sims each have previous victories to their credit in Petit Le Mans; Tandy leads all current IMSA drivers with four career wins in the event.



Petit Le Mans is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Saturday, November 13 from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
The live television broadcast begins at noon ET on NBC followed by 7.5 hours of coverage on NBCSN from 3 to 10:30 pm. ET.
The full race will stream on TrackPass and NBC Sports Gold. Live IMSA Radio coverage will air on XM 202, SiriusXM Online 992 and IMSA.com, which also will host live timing and scoring.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“I personally really want to win this race really bad! This is something about Petit Le Mans apart from last year always being the last race. You usually play it a little different. There were many years where we were contesting for the championship.
Your approach was a little different compared to how you raced at Daytona and Sebring, where you are all-out to win the race. Here in the past, we would focus on covering the cars that were in the championship with us.

Then there were other cars that weren’t in contention for the championship that would take gambles and go for the win.
That’s probably one of the reasons I haven’t won the race although we did win many championships here. I’ll take that.
Maybe we didn’t get the glory of the race wins but I have many memories of winning championships. Maybe this year we can do both!”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“We’re in a great position in the championship. We just need to start the race to clinch it.
That’s a good feeling. But at the end of the day, Petit Le Mans is its own race and a big deal. Antonio and Nicky haven’t won it yet, so I know it’s at the top of their list. With the championship being pretty much over, it means we can take all the risks we want in the race.
It opens up options on track and with strategy, and puts us in a pretty good situation.

“The track at Road Atlanta is unique.
It’s narrow, high-speed and has one good racing line. When it comes to traffic with how many classes we have now, it makes it busy. For us, we can be more aggressive and take some risks to overtake cars and not have to worry about points. I think that will work in our favor.”

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“This definitely is an event we all want to win. Antonio has been here for a long time and has never won it. He keeps mentioning it so there’s a lot of pressure to win it! I’ve not won here either so I’d love to win it as well.
Last year we got close but never really had the real pace to beat the winning car. Things feel good. We have had some testing so that we can be more prepared.

“Being in a good spot in the championship definitely takes away a lot of the pressure. I do feel like, especially in IMSA races in the early parts, sometimes I could be a little too aggressive and it’s not so rewarding, especially at the beginning of the race.
Every time it will get equalized with the yellows. So even though there is no championship on the line, it’s almost better to be careful early.
Toward the end, we can of course push a bit more and take more risks than if you were still racing for the championship.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“We’re coming to Petit Le Mans, and it’s the end of GTLM. The future for the GT classes looks better than ever but it would be awesome to send this class off in IMSA with a win for us in the 4 car. I’m sure the 3 car guys would love to be P1 as well.
Nick and I have been on a roll here the last couple of races. We’d love to keep that momentum going but as always with Petit Le Mans, it’s always a very challenging race. Ten hours here is very hard.
The traffic management is always difficult. It’s no easy task, plus we have the BMWs back for even more competition.

“This track has more of the risk vs. reward benefits. But as you would expect, the biggest risks come with the biggest rewards but also potentially bigger problems. With how IMSA is structured with safety cars, it’s hard to make a lot of time on your competitors. Therefore it’s hard to lose a lot of time as well.

That doesn’t play quite as big a role early in the race but certainly late in the race and the last hour, there are opportunities to take bigger risks to get a bigger gap in traffic or close a gap. We’ll have to go off all our years of experience and knowledge of where you can and can’t pass, how the traffic works to the best of our ability.”

NICK TANDY, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“Petit Le Mans is a different animal compared to a lot of events. The track is quite short. It being a long race with a lot of classes, there are that many more cars on track at the same time. It’s a lot different than having the same number of cars at a place like Sebring, for example.
The event and the race are typically quite fraught, and it’s easy to get mixed up in trouble during the race.

The track is fast and lends itself well to multi-class racing. There are different lines you can take, and there are places where cars can co-exist together on-track.
But there also are places where it’s easy to get into trouble. So experience matters in this race.

“Petit Le Mans was my first big win and is probably my most successful event in terms of winning a big event. A lot of the time it’s been really kind to me. I enjoy going into the darkness at night for the last couple of hours after starting in the day.
The night-time isn’t so long, so if you have a driver that is adaptable, they can often make a difference come the end of the race. Hopefully my success in the past will carry on this year.

We’ve also got the Michelin Endurance Cup, which we’ll have an eye on. This is something that the team and all of us would like to get ahold of. Hopefully by Hour Four it should look pretty rosy and we can crack on and start working our way back from the end of the race rather looking ahead of the four- and eight-hour mark.”

ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R:

“First off, to come back to Road Atlanta and drive this track is a pleasure. It has such a nice mixture of corners some banking, some slightly off-camber, some crests, high-speed and low-speed stuff, esses to get the car turned in to all those different types of corners, it’s always nice when you do find that sweet spot. The race itself has been pretty eventful the last couple of times I’ve done it.

There is a good mixture of cars in the field, a reasonable scope for yellow flags to bunch the field up and create close racing. Also driving into the night is quite special. There are only a handful of races where you drive in the night during a season.
This being one of them is pretty cool when you make that transition. It will get dark earlier this year as well.

“I don’t have a huge amount of understanding the C8.R around this track, but it was nice to be at Road Atlanta to get some experience ahead of the race. It’s been a brilliant year to drive with the team, Nick and Tommy. I’d like to think it was the inspiration that I gave them at Le Mans of the car being able to achieve the fastest lap has pushed them on! I have learned a lot from them about how to extract time out of this car. I’ve really enjoyed every moment.”
 

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WeatherTech Racing is entering a second Porsche 911 RSR-19 for Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans that completes the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and Fred Makowiecki will pilot the No. 97 WeatherTech Racing Porsche running alongside its No. 79 stablemate driven by Cooper MacNeil, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. The race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta will be the final one for GTLM, with the class being replaced by GTD PRO in 2022.

Makowiecki is aiming for his third Motul Petit Le Mans class win in four years.

“Petit Le Mans is a very special race, one of the best of the season,” said Makowiecki, who has six career WeatherTech Championship wins.
“It is always a big fight. I’ve won it twice in GTLM; last year in 2020 and my first came in 2018. We will try to repeat this next week.
This will be the first time all of us drive together in the Porsche RSR. We are motivated to have a good result.

It is also special to be running the last race of the GTLM.
The competition level will be high with BMW and Corvette. I am looking forward to the race.”

Estre co-drove the No. 79 Porsche at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona and last month’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway. He’s eager to team with fellow Frenchman Makowiecki and Dutchman Christensen in the No. 97 at Michelin Raceway.

“I’ve driven a lot with Michael, and we’ve had a lot of success together,” Estre said. “This will be my first time-sharing a car with Fred, so that will be interesting. This will be my second Petit Le Mans, the first was in 2014, and it didn’t go so well. I am looking forward to it.”

Christensen has notched class wins driving Porsches at both the Rolex 24 (2017 in GT Daytona) and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts (2014 in GTLM). This week’s return will mark his first WeatherTech Championship event since the 2017 Motul Petit Le Mans.

“Petit Le Mans is a very challenging race,” Christensen said. “Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta is narrow and makes for a fast and hectic race.
People are excited and ambitious for the race, which makes for some chaos on the track. We need to stay out of trouble and be ready to fight for the win late in the race.”

Saturday’s race airs live starting at noon ET on NBC before moving to NBCSN at 3 p.m.
IMSA Radio (XM 202, SiriusXM Online 992) also has flag-to-flag coverage.
 

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This weekend will be Corvette Racing’s 250th racing event they have participated in since their first outing at the Rolex 24 in 1999.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Over the years, the competition has changed, the classes have changed, and the Corvette race cars have changed, but through it all, Corvette Racing’s winning attitude has never wavered, and ultimately it has led to 120 victories worldwide including 8 Le Mans Class Wins.

That winning attitude has carried over to the Corvette Engineering team who continued to make vast improvements with each generation of Corvette with lessons learned from racing, culminating with the 2023 Corvette Z06 which shares its engine with the C8.R race car.
And as fans, we have watched a scrappy team with a “take no prisoners” rallying cry and a skull logo become a dominant force in GT sports car racing.
It’s been an amazing run, and we are hoping for many more!

Here are some other fun facts about Corvette Racing and this weekend’s final race of the season AND the grand finale for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class:
CORVETTE RACING AT ROAD ATLANTA: By the Numbers

• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 23 years: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette.
• 3: Tracks where Corvette Racing has competed in each of its 23 years: Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Sebring International Raceway and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
• 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Road Atlanta since 1999 – Corvette C5-R (1999-04) Corvette C6.R (2005-2013), Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and the new-generation Corvette C8.R (2020-current), which made its Road Atlanta debut during last September’s six-hour IMSA race.
• 10: Number of Road Atlanta victories for Corvette Racing dating back to 2000 – eight of those at Petit Le Mans.
• 10: Petit Le Mans wins for Chevrolet – eight in GT and two in prototype. That ranks third among manufacturers in event history.
• 13: Manufacturer Championships in GT racing for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001. That will grow to 14 with the start of Saturday’s race
• 25: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen.
• 29: Number of GT Le Mans wins in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Corvette Racing since the start of 2014.
• 31: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 120: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 112 in North America and eight at Le Mans.
• 249: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 39,497.24: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 25 previous trips to Road Atlanta.
That represents 15,773 laps, or more than 617 trips around Interstate 285 – Atlanta’s Perimeter.
• 331,830.62: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception.

To put that in perspective, Apollo 13 the longest manned spaceflight in history covered “just” 248,655 miles when it reached its farthest point from earth. Simply put, the program has raced to the moon… and then some.
 

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Jesse Krohn took BMW Team RLL to pole in the final qualifying session in the GT Le Mans class and did it running only 7 laps where #3 C8.R ran 12 laps was still about 0.7 tenths of a second behind :-(

The Finn reeled off a best lap of 1:15.226 in the No. 24 BMW M8 GTE to outpace the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Matt Campbell by a considerable 0.512 seconds.

A late flyer by class champion-elect Antonio Garcia put the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R third on the grid, ahead of the second WeatherTech Racing Porsche of Fred Makowiecki in fourth and the No. 4 Corvette of Nick Tandy in fifth.

An issue for the No. 25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi, who went off-course and picked up a advertising sign,
will start from the rear of the six-car class field after not setting a representative lap.

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Corvette Racing will line up on the second and third rows of the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category grid Saturday for the 10-hour of Petit Le Mans and the final race of this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship as well as the GTLM category.

Antonio Garcia was the quickest Corvette driver in Friday’s 15-minute GTLM qualifying in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R at 1:15.930 (120.426 mph). He’ll start third in the mid-engine Corvette he shares with Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg as the trio looks to end the season in the same way they began it a victory in a blue-riband endurance race.

Garcia, Taylor and the No. 3 Corvette need only to start the race to complete a second straight sweep of the full-season GTLM Drivers and Team titles. Chevrolet will clinch its 14th IMSA GT Manufacturers Championship if either of the two Corvettes take the green flag.

Nick Tandy, in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette C8.R, qualified fifth at 1:16.051 (120.234 mph). He’ll drive with Tommy Milner and Alexander Sims with the Tandy/Milner duo coming in on a three-race win streak in GTLM.

The 10-hour Petit Le Mans is Corvette Racing’s 250th event all-time, dating back to the 1999 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Will serve as a Corvette Racing celebration as the race’s green flag will officially bring another sweep of the GTLM Manufacturers, Drivers and Team championships to Chevrolet and Corvette Racing for the second year in a row.

In addition to the full-season GTLM titles, Corvette Racing and Chevrolet also lead the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup standings in the Manufacturers, Drivers and Team categories. Points are awarded at the four-, eight- and 10-hour marks. The two Corvettes and their drivers are 1-2 in the standings, while Chevy leads the Manufacturer's race by two points.

Corvette Racing has eight class wins at Petit Le Mans and is seeking its first win at Road Atlanta since 2010. It would be a fitting end to the GTLM era as the program has more wins (29) than any other entrant in the class since its debut in 2014.

Petit Le Mans is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Saturday from Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The live television broadcast begins at noon ET on NBC followed by 7.5 hours of coverage on NBCSN from 3 to 10:30 pm. ET. The full race will stream on TrackPass and NBC Sports Gold. Live IMSA Radio coverage will air on XM 202, SiriusXM Online 992 and IMSA.com, which also will host live timing and scoring.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R QUALIFIED THIRD IN GTLM:

“That was interesting a minute-15 lap with 21 cars!
To have 20-plus cars on this track was pretty stressful. Everyone wants to find a gap. It’s difficult to gauge how much faster we are than the GTDs, so I probably lost three-quarters of a session trying to find a gap until everyone started setting lap times and pulling into the pits.
Those were really my first two laps that I could do. The car was still coming in. I didn’t nail the lap. It wasn’t a clean qualifying for me, for sure. I gave everything I could to get a decent lap.
Tomorrow will be way cooler with a very long race and a lot of cars out there plus five hours of dark. Today was challenging and tomorrow will be even more.”

NICK TANDY, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R QUALIFIED FIFTH IN GTLM:

“It was a bit of a frustrating session. It was difficult to find space on track. You would do one lap. Catch traffic, back off and the tires would cool. You’d try to go again, so it was difficult to get a rhythm and the tires to work consistently.
I’m sure we weren’t the only ones to have this. In the end, we kind of missed the potential of the car. Congratulations to the 24. It was a good run for them. Of course, this isn’t a 100-minute race; it’s a 10-hour race.
This isn’t the end of the world.”
 

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10 hour race starting
If you cannot watch the race live in TV you can keep up with how drivers and cars are doing
you can see the live scoring at

Live Timing

Good luck to the C8.Rs in GTLM and Caddy in DPi classes, both looking to win their championships

Let's Go a Racing Boys . . . . !
 

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Well, it is now up to the #4 C8.R to win because :(

A multi-car accident in the GT pack caused the sixth caution period of Motul Petit Le Mans as the field approached a restart shortly after the four-hour mark.
The No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R from the GT Le Mans class & half a dozen cars from GT Daytona were involved in the collision on the run down to Turn 10.

Jordan Taylor was in the Corvette Racing car and was pictured walking away from the incident after striking the back of Michele Beretta’s Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo. All drivers were reported to be OK as the cleanup commenced.

Vasser Sullivan’s No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos from Winward Racing and Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports, the Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 and Turner Motorsport’s BMW M6 GT3 were also involved.

The incident occurred as the field was preparing to take a restart at the start of the fourth hour, which marked the first points distribution checkpoint for the Michelin Endurance Cup.

Tommy Milner scored five MEC points for the No. 4 Corvette Racing crew as the class leader on four hours.

The Corvettes had been involved in an entertaining battle
with the two BMW M8 GTEs through the opening four hours of the race.

WeatherTech Racing’s Porsche 911 RSR-19s both remain on the lead lap, with the No. 97 recovering from an early puncture that set Frederic Makowiecki off the lead lap.

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Just two hours to go and the Fricking Porsche's trying to take out the #4 C8.R !

Door banging for sure ! :-(

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With only 6 minutes of race left and the #4 C8.R running in second place
a Ahole of DPi class rear ends the #4 and sends it off course and unable to run any longer :(

But
For the 2nd straight season, Chevrolet and Corvette Racing captured all three full-season GT Le Mans (GTLM) titles of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The Corvette Racing program completed a repeat sweep of the GTLM Manufacturers, Drivers and Team championships with the start of Saturday’s 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Chevrolet claimed its 14th Manufacturers title in GT racing, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor went back-to-back as Drivers champions while the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R repeated as Team title-winners.

“Chevrolet is proud to win the 2021 Manufacturers Championship and the final for the GT Le Mans category,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S Vice President, Performance and Motorsports.
“The mid-engine Corvette C8.R is building a strong legacy thanks to the ‘One Team’ approach of the Corvette race team, our powertrain engineers, and Corvette production engineers and designers. We are excited to continue the development of the C8.R onward in 2022.

“Congratulations also to Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and everyone on the No. 3 Corvette C8.R team,” Campbell added. “This was a challenging season in many aspects but the competitive spirit within the two Corvette C8.R teams has never been stronger.”

Chevrolet and Corvette Racing won seven times in IMSA entering Petit Le Mans including 1-2 finishes in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the three most recent rounds of the championship. Corvette Racing also claimed pole position in each GTLM race heading into Petit Le Mans.

After winning five times during their 2020 championship run, Garcia and Taylor backed that up with four wins to date, including the Rolex 24.
Garcia won his fifth IMSA title, tying Oliver Gavin for the most among all Corvette Racing drivers.
The rapid Spaniard took pole positions at Sebring and the Watkins Glen Six Hours and was the fastest GTLM driver at Sebring.

Taylor is now a four-time IMSA champion, with two in GTLM to go along with a pair of Prototype titles.
The American has five pole positions to his credit this season – all consecutively from the Watkins Glen Six Hours to Long Beach.

No. 4 Corvette C8.R teammates Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy wrapped up second in GTLM points with the start of today’s race.
They also were contributors in the Manufacturer's Championship with three victories and two pole positions.
 

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Jaminet, Campbell & MacNeil won the last race for IMSA’s GT Le Mans class at Motul Petit Le Mans in a 1-2 finish for the privateer WeatherTech Racing squad against the factory efforts from Corvette Racing & BMW Team RLL.

Jaminet took the checkered flag just 0.3 seconds ahead of Kevin Estre in the sister WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19 after late contact between Nick Tandy and the overall winning Mazda DPi cost the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R a potential second place.
A final-lap reversal between the Porsches following Tandy’s incident resulted in the second major endurance race win of the year for the No. 79 WeatherTech crew which also prevailed in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Previous race leader Estre drew clear of Tandy’s Corvette after the final round of pit stops that took place with approximately three-quarters of an hour to go.
The two GT racing greats came to blows while fighting for the lead during the penultimate hour, in an episode that influenced the pit strategies for the final phase.
Estre first got past Jaminet in the No. 79 WeatherTech Porsche before closing in on Tandy, who shared the No. 4 Corvette with Tommy Milner and Alexander Sims.

Estre planted his Porsche down Tandy’s inside into Turn 10, but the pair touched and Tandy fought back which sent Estre out into the dirt for the next right-hand corner.
The contact caused some damage to Estre’s Porsche and the Frenchman pitted with an hour and 45 minutes to go, while Tandy continued under pressure from Jaminet.

The timing of Estre’s penultimate stop ended up giving him the upper hand when the GTLM front-runners came in for the final time, and set him around five seconds ahead of Tandy for the run to the checkered flag.
The 2018-19 FIA World Endurance champion then pulled away from Tandy, who fell into the clutches of Jaminet.

Tandy, who previously drove for Porsche, lost his second place with 10 minutes to go when his Corvette incurred left-front damage after a touch from Mazda’s Harry Tincknell in the Turn 10 braking zone.

Jaminet was several seconds behind Estre until the final lap when the WeatherTech cars reversed positions.

Augusto Farfus, John Edwards and Jesse Krohn picked up the final podium position in the pole-sitting No. 24 BMW M8 GTE run by the factory RLL squad.
Tandy did not return to the track after pitting his injured Corvette, marking a double retirement for the American manufacturer.

Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia also failed to finish, but sealed the GTLM drivers’ championship simply by taking the start of Saturday’s race.
After a strong opening, their No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R retired when Taylor slammed into the rear of Michele Beretta’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo as the GTD field bunched up in preparation for a restart. Both drivers walked away from the crash.

The other GTLM retirement was the No. 25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi, Philipp Eng and Bruno Spengler, which exited in the eighth hour when De Philippi ran wide out of Turn 12 and incurred damage to the car when he took to the grass along the main straight.
 
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