Well kids, it's been a season to remember.
https://www.roadatla...ns-road-atlanta
THIS RACE TAKES PLACE ON SATURDAY 13th OCT
Here's your entry list
https://competitors....t_entrylist.pdf
Loads of your favorite stars in these cars for you !
Here's the Schedule
https://d2sfpzmw5wlc...le-100318-2.pdf
This race will decide all....
Let's rub our hands and look at the scenarios.
Here's what I cut n' paiste for U
First, it's GTD.
Lamborghini vs. Acura battle for the GT Daytona (GTD) title:
No. 48 Paul Miller Racing
Lamborghini Huracán GT3
Bryan Sellers/Madison Snow
Engine: 5.2-liter, normally aspirated V10 (mid-engine)
Points: 303 – 1st
2018 Victories: 2
2018 Podiums: 7
How The No. 48 Can Clinch the Title: The No. 48 will eliminate the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG from the championship by starting the race. It will win the title outright if it finishes on the podium, regardless of the No. 86 Acura’s performance. There are several other scenarios that also could bring the No. 48 the championship depending on the finishing position for the No. 86.
2018 Performance: The No. 48 team has led the standings since March, when it won its first race of the season in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. It opened the year with five consecutive podium results and has been on the podium seven times in 10 races thus far – including a second win at Lime Rock Park in July.
Noteworthy: Paul Miller Racing has finished inside the top three in the GTD standings three times in the past four seasons, but this would the first championship for the team, as well as Sellers and Snow.
What They’re Saying:
BRYAN SELLERS - “The battle this season has been intense, the championship is coming down to the final race and it is a testament to how strong the season has been. We have had great results, great team performances, and we are hoping to finish it off the right way. The (No.) 86 team has done a fantastic job all season, and I expect nothing less than a stellar performance for 10 hours. With that said we need to deliver the same."
MADISON SNOW - “We are currently leading the championship and have no plans on that status changing before the season is over. It is a close battle between us and the Acura. Our Lamborghini doesn’t have anywhere near the BoP of the Acura, but I believe that we will be able to keep the points lead at the end of the race.”
No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing
Acura NSX GT3
Katherine Legge
Engine: 3.5-liter, twin-turbo V6 (mid-engine)
Points: 297 – 2nd
2018 Victories: 2
2018 Podiums: 6
How The No. 86 Can Clinch the Title: Among several other possibilities, the No. 86 team would clinch the title with a victory at Motul Petit Le Mans AND a finish of fourth or lower by the No. 48. The No. 86 team holds the tiebreaker, as both it and the No. 48 have two victories, but the No. 86 has more second-place finishes (three to one).
2018 Performance: The No. 86 team is heating up at the right time, with a victory in the most-recent race, the America’s Tire 250 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, for full-season driver Legge and co-driver Alvaro Parente following a third-place run at Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway in August. The key to the team’s season could have been Rounds 3 through 5, as its victory at the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit by Legge and Mario Farnbacher, was sandwiched by second place results in the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio and the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen. Those results were key drivers in the team’s decision to expand from an originally planned Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup program to the full WeatherTech Championship season.
Noteworthy: The championship would be a first for both Legge and the Meyer Shank Racing organization. Legge would continue the streak of female GTD champions following Christina Nielsen’s back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2017.
What She’s Saying:
KATHERINE LEGGE – “I think that preparation and being smart is the key to Petit. It's a long race and there are so many factors that are out of your control, all you can do is try to put yourself in the best possible position for the end, without taking risks. Then in the last hour you go for it.”
Others in mathematical contention for the GTD title:
No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen).
https://www.imsa.com...p-tale-tape-gtd
Now it's GTLM...
INSERT PIC..
oh schitt... I'm not very good at this am I ?
Anyway here's the cut n'd thrust.
Chevrolet vs. Ford battle for the GT Le Mans (GTLM) championship:
No. 3 Corvette Racing
Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen
Engine: 5.5-liter normally aspirated V8 (front engine)
Points: 299 – 1st
2018 Victories: 0
2018 Podiums: 8
How The No. 3 Can Clinch the Title: The No. 3 team will eliminate all others except for the No. 67 by starting the race. It can clinch the title outright with a fourth-place run or better. It would be the team’s second consecutive WeatherTech Championship GTLM title.
2018 Performance: The No. 3 team comes into Motul Petit Le Mans riding a streak of seven consecutive podium results and a total of eight podiums from 10 races this season. The team has finished fourth or better in all but one race this season.
Noteworthy: Since the start of the 2017 WeatherTech Championship, Magnussen and Garcia have finished inside the top five in 20 of 21 races. They missed the top five with an eighth-place showing in March’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts.
What They’re Saying:
ANTONIO GARCIA - “There’s always pressure when you go to Road Atlanta, especially when you are fighting for a championship. We were in a perfect scenario last season where we only needed to start to clinch. It won’t be like that this year. I really like this track and the event itself. It’s very challenging. Hopefully we have a good chance to win the championship by scoring a good result. Road Atlanta has always been a good track for Corvette Racing, but it’s one race that I still haven’t won. So, I definitely want to fix that. Hopefully we can do that and win the championship, as well. It would be great for us to win our first race of the year to clinch the championship.”
JAN MAGNUSSEN - “Last year was an easy Petit Le Mans for us; we basically took the green flag and won the championship. This year for sure will be different. It’s a tough race because you race throughout the day and into the night. Road Atlanta is a very tough circuit; it’s bumpy, super-fast and very old school. If you make a mistake, you’ll hit something! There’s a lot of traffic and some new drivers because so many teams use three drivers. The important thing is that we know what we need to. No one controls luck, but if we do the best we can and run the plan that we set out to do, we will be in good shape.”
No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing
Ford GT
Richard Westbrook/Ryan Briscoe
Engine: 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged Ford EcoBoost V6 (mid-engine)
Points: 290 – 2nd
2018 Victories: 3
2018 Podiums: 4
How The No. 67 Can Clinch the Title: There are a several possibilities, but the most straightforward scenario is the No. 67 team would take the championship with a race win AND a result of fifth or worse by the No. 3 Corvette. The No. 67 holds the tiebreaker with three victories to none for the No. 3 team.
2018 Performance: Westbrook and Briscoe lead the GTLM class with three victories this season, in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America.
Noteworthy: The No. 67 team led the GTLM standings from the season opener at Daytona until the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, when they were overtaken by the No. 66 Ford GT team of Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller. One Ford Chip Ganassi Racing car or the other led the championship until the No. 3 Corvette team took the lead for the first time following the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway in August.
What They’re Saying:
RICHARD WESTBROOK - "We had a test in Atlanta and hoped to see a preview of what the weather will be like in a few weeks during the race, but with fall now upon us, that is not always the case. It was a good chance to try some different stuff to last year and build on the good performance we had there last year. We are obviously going for the win after the disappointment of Laguna and will hopefully put some pressure on the (No.) 3 Corvette."
RYAN BRISCOE - “I think obviously we’ve fallen a bit behind on the points, but we can still win it and we have one goal, to go out and win the race and see where the points fall at the end of it. It’s an important race to win no matter where you are in the championship, so you’re going to have everyone gunning for the win. It’s always an exciting race, one of my favorites.”
Others in mathematical contention for the GTLM title:
No. 66 Ford GT (Mueller, Hand); No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR (Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor); No. 4 Corvette C7.R (Tommy Milner, Oliver Gavin); No. 25 BMW M8 GTE (Alexander Sims, Connor De Phillippi); No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR (Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet).
https://sportscarcha...-tale-tape-gtlm
Last but not least. AND YOU'LL NEVER SEE THIS AGAIN...
OMG...
Daytona Prototype international (DPi) vs. LMP2 battle for the Prototype championship:
No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing
Cadillac DPi-V.R
Eric Curran/Felipe Nasr
Engine: 5.5-liter normally aspirated V8
Points: 254 – 1st
2018 Victories: 1
2018 Podiums: 5
How The No. 31 Can Clinch the Title: The No. 31 team will eliminate all others except for the No. 54 CORE autosport team of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett by starting the race. It can clinch the title outright with a finish of second or better. It would be the team’s second WeatherTech Championship Prototype title in three years.
2018 Performance: The No. 31 team has five podiums and six top-five finishes from the season’s nine races, which are equal to the No. 54 team’s stats. The difference in the championship can be traced to Rounds 3 through 5 where Curran and Nasr took results of seventh at Long Beach, eighth at Mid-Ohio and a win at Detroit, which moved them into a tie for the points lead. They’ve either led or been within one point of the lead since then.
Noteworthy: Action Express Racing, the team that fields both the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac DPi and the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi, won the first three consecutive WeatherTech Championship Prototype titles. If it wins this year, it would be the team’s fourth in five seasons. Action Express also has won every Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup to date with the No. 5 team and leads this year’s standings with the No. 31.
What They’re Saying:
ERIC CURRAN - ““We’d love to win the race, but first we’ve got to make sure we do what we have to do for the championship. That will come down to executing as a team and not putting ourselves at risk. You have to be there at the end, and Road Atlanta is not a very forgiving place. It is a real driver’s track with how much speed you carry into the corners, but it is also a really challenging race. It is 10 hours, and anything can happen in a race like Motul Petit Le Mans.
“If we can execute on everything, hopefully we will be in a position to take the IMSA championship and the Tequila Patrón Cup, which we’ve never done with the Whelen car. To go out with a win—what a way that would be to close out 2018!”
FELIPE NASR - “It’s the final race of the year already? How quickly the season goes by. I’m heading to the Motul Petit Le Mans fully prepared. We had the opportunity to test at the circuit a few weeks ago with Action Express and we were able to get ourselves ready for the final race. It’s a real fun track, fast, flowing corners, but also very tricky for clearing traffic. So, we have all the ingredients to make it an exciting 10-hour race. As a team, we are going to have Gabby Chaves onboard the 31 Whelen Cadillac who had previously driven at Watkins and together with Eric our goal remains the same. Expect to win. I know we have the best team behind us in the paddock when it comes to endurance racing, Petit is very demanding and for us drivers behind the wheel also physically challenging.”
No. 54 CORE autosport
ORECA LMP2
Jon Bennett/Colin Braun
Engine: 4.2-liter normally aspirated V8
Points: 250 – 2nd
2018 Victories: 2
2018 Podiums: 5
How The No. 54 Can Clinch the Title: Among several other possibilities, the No. 54 team would take the championship with a Motul Petit Le Mans victory AND a result of third or worse by the No. 31 team. Any ties would go to the No. 54 team with its two victories compared to one by the No. 31 team.
2018 Performance: There has been no hotter team in the Prototype class over the second half of the season than the No. 54 squad. Braun and Bennett scored back-to-back wins at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America and comes into Motul Petit Le Mans riding a streak of five consecutive podium finishes. Braun also has two Motul Pole Awards – taking back-to-back poles at Watkins Glen and CTMP.
Noteworthy: This would be Braun and Bennett’s third WeatherTech Championship title and first in the Prototype class. They took back-to-back Prototype Challenge (PC) class championships in 2014 and 2015. Last year, they competed in the GT Daytona (GTD) class in a Porsche before stepping up to WeatherTech Championship Prototypes for the first time this season.
What They’re Saying:
JON BENNETT - "All of us at CORE autosport are excited and prepared to compete for the championship at the Motul Petit Le Mans. Competing at the highest level possible has been my personal lifetime goal, and I could not be prouder of my teammates at CORE autosport and Hugues de Chaunac’s talented group at ORECA. I look forward to joining my world class co-drivers Colin Braun and Romain Dumas as we continue to focus on perfecting the elements we can control.”
COLIN BRAUN - “Going into the weekend, it isn’t a big deal for us. We’ve been in quite a few championship battles over the years. For us, we keep our heads down and do what we’ve been doing all year and throughout the year and previous championship battles; constantly find ways to improve and get better. Whether we win or lose at Petit, we’re going in with the goal of trying to improve.
“We had a nice test at Road Atlanta and focused on things we’re trying to work on as a team and that’s all we can do is keep trying to get better. We haven’t raced a single race any different from the start of the year to when we started winning. We just got into a rhythm and that’s what happens when you work hard. For us, these championship battles are easy to deal with - we don’t have any manufacturer battle to worry about - we’ll just keep our heads down and have some fun.”
Others in mathematical contention for the Prototype title:
No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R (Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande); No. 6 Acura Team Penske Acura ARX-05 (Dane Cameron, Juan Pablo Montoya); No. 99 JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA LMP2 (Misha Goikhberg, Stephen Simpson); No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R (Filipe Albuquerque).
https://sportscarcha...-tape-prototype
Now a word about the founder of this race and so much more...
Dr. Don Panoz will be remembered within the racing community as a visionary champion of our sport, the founder of one of the greatest endurance races of all time —Petit Le Mans, and the savior for Road Atlanta when it was in a desperate time of need. Most importantly, he recognized that without the fans, none of his efforts would work.
We are quickly approaching the 21st running of the Motul Petit Le Mans, sadly our very first without “Dr. P” as he was affectionately known. He built this event and revived this racetrack for you, the fans, enabling all of us to witness the incredible spectacle of sports car endurance racing that he fell so deeply in love with. This is a legacy we are committed to continuing, so we want to give this opportunity back to you, our fans, in his honor.
So...
Lil Ol' Jp will be trackside for this one with all his crazed race fans buddies from yesteryear and hopes to give you another taste of the stupid reportage he's embarrassed himself with for years....ago.
...which BTW is completely and totally dependent on wifi availability and sobriety...
so don't count on much.
Oh and..we don't need paddock passes? The website says...
"We allow everyone into the paddock to see your favorite cars and teams any time!"
What could go wrong?
Jp
