2018 Petit Le Mans

The 2018 Petit Le Mans (formally known as the 2018 MOTUL Petit Le Mans for sponsorship reasons) was the 21st running of the Petit Le Mans, and was held on October 15, 2018. It was the last race in the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, and the last race of the 2018 Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup, and was run at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. The race was won overall by the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Background

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2017. It was the fifth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the 21st annual running of the race. The race was the final of 2018's twelve scheduled IMSA automobile endurance races, and the last of four Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup (NAEC) events. The race was held at the twelve-turn, Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, on October 15, 2018. The 2018 Petit Le Mans marked the first IMSA race after the passing of American Le Mans Series founder Don Panoz on 11 September 2018. The DeltaWing and Panoz Esperante GTR-1 did 1 demonstration lap before the race start on Saturday in tribute of Panoz.

After the Monterey Grand Prix 1 month earlier, Eric Curran and Felipe Nasr led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 254 points, ahead of Jon Bennett and Colin Braun with 250 points. With 299 points, the GTLM Drivers' Championship was led by Antonio García and Jan Magnussen with a nine-point advantage over Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow with a six-point advantage over Katherine Legge with 297 points. Cadillac, Ford, and Lamborghini were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Whelen Engineering Racing, Corvette Racing, and Paul Miller Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.

As the final race for the 2018 season, the race marked the final event for Continental Tire being the official tire supplier of the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Beginning in 2019, Michelin would take over as the sole tire supplier of the series.

The P class made its final appearance as Daytona Prototype International and LMP2 would split into two classes in 2019.

This was the final race entry for Tequila Patrón ESM due to Tequila Patrón ending their involvement with IMSA. As a result, the team shutdown after not finding a sponsor to replace Tequila Patrón.

On October 3, 2018, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event. In P, the Acura ARX-05 received an increase in turbo boost and gained 2 liters of fuel capacity. The LMP2 cars gained 3 liters of fuel capacity while the Mazda RT24-P gained 1 liter of fuel capacity. In GTLM, the Porsche 911 RSR received a 0.7 mm larger air restrictor and got a 15 kilogram weight increase. Additionally, the car gained 1 liter of fuel capacity. The BMW M8 GTE received a fuel capacity reduction of 6 liters. In GTD, the Acura NSX GT3 received a 10 kilogram weight increase. The Audi R8 LMS received a 1 mm smaller air restrictor and a fuel capacity reduction of 2 liters.

Entries

Due to a highly controversial change made by the FIA/ACO in the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship, which saw the date of the 6 Hours of Fuji moved to allow Fernando Alonso to compete at the home race of the sole LMP1 manufacturer, Toyota, several drivers which were due to compete in both events were unable to do so. As such, the entry list featured a large number of changes compared to the previous rounds of the championship. A total of 37 cars took part in the event split across 3 classes. 14 cars were entered in P, 9 in GTLM, and 14 in GTD. In P, Tristan Vautier substituted for João Barbosa, who received injuries from an accident at the previous round in Laguna Seca. Marino Franchitti substituted for Harry Tincknell in the #55 Mazda Team Joest entry due to a clash with the WEC race at Fuji while Lucas Di Grassi substituted for René Rast in the #77 Mazda Team Joest entry due to a clash with the DTM race at Hockenheimring. Timo Bernhard and Norman Nato subbed for Oliver Pla and Nicolas Lapierre in the Tequila Patrón ESM entries due to a clash with the WEC race at Fuji. Gabby Chaves joined Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran in the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing entry. in GTLM, Risi Competizione made its first appearance since Sebring. Chaz Mostert made his IMSA SportsCar Championship debut joining John Edwards and Jesse Krohn in the #24 BMW Team RLL entry. Mathieu Jaminet joined Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor in the #912 Porsche GT Team entry. Bill Auberlen returned to the #25 BMW Team RLL entry. Marcel Fässler substituted for Mike Rockenfeller in the #3 Corvette Racing entry due to a clash with the DTM race at Hockenheimring. In GTD, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport and P1 Motorsports made their first appearances since the Watkins Glen round. Don Yount, Dillon Machavern, and Markus Palttala returned to the Turner Motorsport entry.

Practice

There were four practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third held later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 11:15 am ET on Thursday and ended with Filipe Albuquerque topping the charts for Mustang Sampling Racing, with a lap time of 1:11.878.

Practice 2

The second practice session took place at 3:15 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Colin Braun topping the charts for CORE Autosport, with a lap time of 1:11.669.

Night Practice

The night practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Norman Nato topping the charts for Tequila Patrón ESM, with a lap time of 1:11.457.

Final Practice

The fourth and final practice session took place at 11:15 am ET on Friday and ended with Oliver Jarvis topping the charts for Mazda Team Joest, with a lap time of 1:10.786.

Qualifying

Friday afternoon's 65-minute qualifying session was divided into three groups. All three categories had 15-minute individual sessions, and regulations stipulated teams to nominate a single driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order with the grid arranged to put the Prototype and GTLM cars ahead of all GTD entries.

Qualifying results

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by .

* The No. 54 CORE Autosport entry was moved to the back of the P field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified.
* The No. 44 Magnus Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field after the team elected to change tires after qualifying.
* The No. 73 Park Place Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field after the team elected to change tires after qualifying.
* The No. 58 Wright Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified.

Race

Post-race

Curran, and Nasr took the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 277 points. They were 3 points ahead of Bennett, and Braun in second position. Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande followed in third place with 270 points, ahead of Goikhberg and Simpson in fourth with 252 points and Cameron and Montoya in fifth with 251 points. García and Magnussen took the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 322 points. They were 6 points ahead of Briscoe and Westbrook in second position. Gavin and Milner followed in third place with 310 points, ahead of Hand and Müller with 308 points in fourth and Bamber and Vanthoor in fifth with 308 points. With 333 points, Sellers and Snow won the GTD Drivers' Championship, 4 points ahead of Legge in second. Bleekemolen and Keating were in third position with 299 points and MacNeil was fourth with 295 points. Cadillac, Ford, and Lamborghini won their respective Manufactures' Championships while Whelen Engineering Racing, Corvette Racing, and Paul Miller Racing won their respective Teams' Championships.

Results

Class winners are denoted in bold and .

Standings after the race

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
* Note: Bold names include the Drivers', Teams', and Manufactures' Champion respectively.

References

{{Petit Le Mans
, Previous = 2017
, Current year = 2018
, Next = 2019
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Petit Le Mans
2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season