AXR Controls Petit Le Mans; Jaminet, Campbell Win GTP Title

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Action Express Racing claimed victory in Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, despite late challenges from both the factory Lamborghini SC63 and Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie in an energy-impacted final stint.

Earl Bamber drove the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R to a 5.182-second win over the No. 23 Aston of Roman De Angelis after both Bamber and the then-second placed No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet pitted for energy top-ups with 13 minutes to go.

Romain Grosjean, attempting to stretch the energy in his Lamborghini in the car’s likely final race, was promoted to second at the time, with De Angelis in third in the LMH-spec Valkyrie, which was the first to pit for energy with 50 minutes to go.

Grosjean, however, dived into the pits with five-and-a-half minutes to go for a top-up, which promoted the Valkyrie to its first-ever podium in global sports car racing competition. De Angelis shared runner-up honors alongside co-drivers Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas.

Bamber and co-drivers Frederik Vesti and Jack Aitken led the last four hours of the Michelin Endurance Cup round in controlling fashion, in a race that saw the final 3 hours and 51 minutes run caution-free.

Jaminet, who along with co-driver Matt Campbell, meanwhile, claimed the GTP drivers’ championship with a third place finish alongside last-minute substitute driver Laurens Vanthoor, who pulled double-duty between both Porsche Penske entries after Julien Andlauer suffered a back-related issue.

Porsche secured the GTP manufacturers’ title by 42 points thanks to the No. 6 car finishing ahead of the challenging Acura Meyer Shank Racing entries.

The pole-sitting No. 60 MSR Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist led the early stages in a fierce battle with Aitken, who took over the lead with a move in traffic in the third hour but initially dropped out of contention when Bamber got a right-rear puncture, resulting in an unscheduled stop and drop to 12th.

While Jaminet took the lead due to a well-timed pit stop just prior to the race’s fifth full-course caution, a quicker stop during the final yellow put Vesti back out front, where the No. 31 Cadillac remained for the rest of the race.

It marked the AXR’s second consecutive WeatherTech Championship win after its triumph in last month’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with Cadillac going back-to-back at Petit Le Mans after Chip Ganassi Racing’s win last year.

Despite his late stop for energy, Grosjean drove the Ligier-chassied Lamborghini to its best-ever result in fourth, sharing the honor with Edouardo Mortara and Daniil Kyvat.

The No. 60 MSR Acura of Blomqvist, Colin Braun and Scott Dixon completed the top-five after battling a mechanical issue in the second half of the race that affected the car’s pace.

Its sister No. 93 Acura lost a lap early on when Nick Yelloly pitted for a new steering wheel after the car battled gearshift issues, but rebounded to come home seventh, behind the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac that lost its rear deck early after getting hit by another car.

Louis Deletraz took the sister No. 40 WTR Cadillac to an eighth place result, with the No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Philipp Eng fading to ninth after running inside the top-five in the Bobby Rahal co-owned team’s final race with BMW after a 17-year run.

An issue for the No. 7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr, who reportedly had contact with the No. 10 Cadillac of Ricky Taylor on the final lap, managed to take the checkered flag in tenth, but along with season-long co-driver Nick Tandy lost second place in the GTP drivers’ championship to race winner Aitken.

Aitken, remarkably, entered the event sixth in the drivers’ championship.

The No. 25 BMW and No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche brought up the rear of the 12-car GTP field.

It came despite a starring early-race drive by sports car racing debutant Max Esterson, who ran as high as fourth in the JDC-Miller Porsche and matched the pace of the factory 963s at the time.

LMP2 Win Goes to TDS; AO Racing Scores Title, Le Mans Invite

TDS Racing fought multiple setbacks, including starting from the rear of the class grid, to take LMP2 class honors in Steven Thomas’ last WeatherTech Championship outing.

A sixth place class finish for the No. 99 AO Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Dane Cameron, PJ Hyett and Jonny Edgar, meanwhile, was enough for the Gunnar Jeannette-led team to take the class title and automatic invite for Hyett to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

It came in an up-and-down race for both teams, with Bronze-rated Thomas, who lost his class pole due to a technical infringement, drove to the front by the end of his double stint.

The car, however, was hit by the No. 74 Riley entry of Felipe Fraga in the sixth hour but was then was handed a penalty with failure to adhere to tire operational requirements before getting a mechanical black flag for the car’s rear brake lights not working with two hours and 43 minutes to go.

Thomas shared top class honors with Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea.

AO’s race was nearly initially derailed on Lap 121 when Edgar suffered a right-rear puncture after contact with the No. 88 AF Corse Oreca of Nicklas Nielsen, forcing the team to change the rear deck and the Ferrari Hypercar driver getting handed a penalty for incident responsibility.

The No. 22 United Autosports Oreca saw its championship hopes fade away with just over two hours to go when leader Rasmus Lindh was forced behind the wall due to a right-front suspension upright failure.

It handed the class lead to the TDS entry of McElrea, who was then hit by the No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports Oreca of Pietro Fittipaldi, who received incident responsibility.

AO’s Edgar then took over the class lead until an issue with the belts during the driver change to Cameron during their second-to-last stop gave the race advantage back to TDS.

A further setback dropped Cameron outside of the top five but still managed to win the drivers’ championship with Hyett by 100 points over Thomas.

It marked Cameron’s record fifth WeatherTech Championship title, coming in five different classes.

The No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca, which inherited the class pole, came home second in the race, with Era Motorsport’s Oreca completing the class podium.

RESULTS: Motul Petit Le Mans

John Dagys

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