Gradient Scores Breakthrough Win; De Angelis Claims GTD Title

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Gradient Racing has claimed a breakthrough first GTD class victory in Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans, with the team’s Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 finishing ahead of the GTD Pro competition on the road in the ten-hour contest at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The Heart of Racing’s Roman De Angelis, meanwhile, won the GTD drivers’ championship with a seventh place class finish in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale.

Mario Farnbacher drove the No. 66 Acura the win under full course caution over the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 of Jordan Pepper, which saw the top five GTD cars all place ahead of the GTD Pro class-winning Ferrari, which was later stripped of its class victory due to a drive time infraction.

The unique finishing order was because of a wave-by procedure during the race’s fourth full course caution that gave cars in between the then-leading No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 and the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 a lap lead over the majority of the GTD Pro runners by virtue of the BMW’s position.

Farnbacher got around Pepper as the South African dashed into the pits moments before the eighth full course caution period, with the HPD factory driver holding off the Inception McLaren in a closely fought battle prior to the race-ending yellow.

The German shared top honors with Till Bechtolsheimer and Kyffin Simpson in the first major endurance win for the Acura NSX GT3 in global sports car racing competition.

Runner-ups Pepper and Seb Priaulx celebrated on the podium as a duo, with third driver Brendan Iribe en-route to Barcelona to contest Sunday’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season finale as a class championship leader.

Iribe, Pepper and the Optimum Motorsport-run origination, however, won the Michelin Endurance Cup title in GTD.

Daniel Serra, James Calado and Davide Rigon initially came out on top in GTD Pro, which would have given Risi class victory 25 years from the team’s win in the inaugural running of the race.

Serra made a daring late-race pass around the a damaged No. 14 Lexus of Jack Hawksworth on the outside after Hawksworth came together with another car in the darkness.

Hawksworth managed to bring the Lexus home in second but was promoted to the class win after it was found out that Serra exceeded the four-hour drive-time in a six-hour period by 11 minutes.

The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, which needed to only start the race to clinch the GTD Pro class championship for Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell and the Canadian squad, finished third in the class.

Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley, Bill Auberlen and Michael Dinan completed the GTD class podium in third, ahead of the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche in fourth.

The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW was in contention for the GTD class win until Bryan Sellers got hit by an LMP3 car, resulting in a right-front puncture with less than two hours to go.

Team Korthoff Motorsports’ Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo came home sixth in class after multiple electrical issues that ultimately denied Stevan McAleer a run for the GTD title after the No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston also battled similar woes.

The race ended after the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes of Philip Ellis, who had made contact with the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 of Filipe Albuquerque, stopped on track after running inside the top-three in the GTD class prior to the incident.

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