Drama And Excitement Fill The 2024 Petit Le Mans
Braselton, GA. (October 13,2024)
Endurance racing is fraught with highs and lows. Challenges abound and dramatic turns are the norm. This year’s season ending Motul Petit Le Mans, the final race of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, was chock full drama throughout its ten hour length with Chip Ganassi Racing capturing the win.
The drama started early for the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. During the first hour of the race the team received a black flag due to a sensor related issue that dropped them off the lead lap. If that wasn’t enough, a couple drive through penalties caused the team to tumble further down the order.
On lap three Sebastien Bourdais, who was behind the wheel of the Cadillac said “Lap three, there we go again, So I did a hundred laps with a set of tires and no power. That was very fun. It was just what looked like a bit of a lost race, and the guys just managed to get the PPU back under control and give us a chance to be contenders at the end.”
With the sensor issues straightened out, it seemed as though the race was out of reach for the Chip Ganassi Team. For the next four and half hours there were no yellow flags for the team to take advantage of. Then an incident involving one of the Acura’s and a GTD car brought out a yellow flag bunching the field up.
The No. 6 Porsche 963 with Nick Tandy was leading the race, and Renger van der Zande behind the wheel of the Cadillac was following tightly. With a mere fifteen minutes remaining in the race, van der Zandt dove to the inside of Tandy into turn one with a late lunge to grab the lead of the race.
van der Zande would go on to say “It was the only move I could make. I was behind Tandy for a while, and he was so fast on the straights. Every time they pulled a gap of like, I don’t know, six, seven car lengths. But in the corners we were very fast. Especially we set up the car a lot for Turn 1 and Turn 3. That’s where I could really make up a lot of ground.”
But the drama wasn’t over yet. With the race winding down, the headlights went out on the Cadillac. Sometimes the right headlight went out, sometimes it was the left one and there were times it was both that failed. Luckily enough the lights didn’t go out long enough to draw a black flag and end the teams race.
van der Zande laughed when he said “It was a bit of a disco going on. I started to press all kinds of buttons this way, and it was still not good enough. Then it stuck more and more and more, then they told me, ‘Press the white button,’ so I pressed the white button and it worked. So, we got the lights back.” With that he was able to bring the Cadillac home for the win by 2.948 seconds over the No. 6 Porsche 963.
As for the season championships, it was settled before the field hit turn one. The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry of Nasr, Cameron and Matt Campbell just needed to start the race to take the season crown. By the four hour mark of the race the team even scored the GTP Michelin Endurance Cup as well.
In LMP2 the No. 11 TDS ORECA LMP2 07 had built a commanding lead over the field. By the eight hour mark of the race the team had even managed to capture the Michelin Endurance Cup championship. Driver Mikkel Jensen would later relate “Petit Le Mans is the most crazy race of the season, for sure, It’s all about survival in the beginning, then we also had the task today to try to get endurance points at four hours and eight hours, so we couldn’t just care about survival. We also had to get the car in the lead to get the points for the endurance title and then go for the win after that.”
With less than an hour left in the race a full course caution brought four teams back on to the lead lap. With six teams now in the fight for the race win, Jensen behind the wheel of the No. 11 TDS car put the hammer down on the restart. With the GTP cars still on cold tires, he was able to get past several of them creating a big gap between himself and the No. 74 Riley ORECA. With that gap and the pace of the team they were able to capture the race win with a seventeen second advantage.
After the race Jensen said “I know how the GTP cars struggle on cold tires on restarts. So one of the targets in LMP2 cars is to pass some GTP cars on the restarts and by that you can gap the rest of P2 cars. I managed to pass the Lambo GTP in Turn 1 and the Proton (Porsche) in Turn 7. Fraga was following with me through that. They came back on me on the straight and it was three cars side-by-side into Turn 10, the Proton and our two P2 cars. I escaped from that one in first place, and I think Fraga was battling with them for three or four or five laps, and I managed to stay clear. Eventually, (the GTP cars) got pace in their tires and passed me, but by that point I had my gap and it was just a matter of managing the gap to the finish.”
By coming in fourth place, the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen ORECA did enough to get the season championships. After the race, driver Tom Dillman would say “I knew I just needed a sixth and I was sixth at the restart. I let the other guys fight and bang wheels. It was kind of crazy to see. I was just coasting and letting them fight because I didn’t want to take any risk. But then I overtook a couple of cars, was sitting P4 and the podium was close. But I decided for the team not to fight for the podium.”
Another class and once again, more drama. GTD Pro saw its fair share of action as well. Coming into the final race of the season AO Racing was in control of the season championships as well as sitting on the pole for the race. Right up to the start of the race everything was lining up well for the team.
Early on in the race the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R suddenly slowed down. At one point the car affectionately known as Rexy even came to a complete stop. With the car now in the pits, the team tumbled down the order to eleventh place and five laps off the lead. Meanwhile the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo was now in second place on the road and threatening to take the season championship.
Once Rexy was back in working order, the race was a nip and tuck affair. While AO racing couldn’t find its way back towards front Heart of Racing was battling it out at the front even setting the fastest lap of the race at 1 minute, 18.954 seconds. All the team needed to do was get past the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 and grab second place. But the team fell a scant 1.845 seconds short to finish in third place.
After the race AO Racing team owner Gunnar Jeannette said “I think the race today took at least 10 years off my life. We have had incredible reliability all year. So, of course, when it mattered, we had a simple issue put us six or seven laps down. We managed it how we manage races all year – minimize the losses and have some luck.”
While all the drama was unfolding behind them, the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 went on to capture the race win. Afterwards driver Jordan Pepper said “It was such a good feeling obviously, to close it out this time. I’m very proud. It was just an intense, intense battle out there on all stints. There was a point when we were mixing it up with the GTD cars and I got the lead.”
Excitement followed the GTD class as well. The No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 qualified back in eight place. But the team drove a perfect race and worked their way up the standings. Finally, Conquest driver Albert Costa Balboa pulled off the perfect pass on race leader No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 to take the lead of the race and the win by .718 seconds.
Afterwards Balboa said, “I knew I had better traction on the last corner. He was fighting, so I tried to drive to the outside on the last chicane on braking. He was protecting, and then he was on the right. … He was pushing every lap and every corner, trying everything, but in the end, we managed it.”
Meanwhile back in the field the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 cruised to a ninth place finish in the race and ultimately the season championships as well. Driver Russell Ward said “It was an incredible result by the team. There were a lot of long, hard nights. It’s been difficult but exciting at the same time. It’s really good to be able to bring it home. … In reality, all the work is done at home. We show up here and just try to execute.”
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