GTLM Leaders Collide in Pits, Cautions Aplenty in Hour 3

Photo: John Dagys

Jordan Taylor continues to lead the Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda following an incident-filled and championship-impacting third hour at Road Atlanta.

A pit lane pileup between the three leading GTLM cars resulted in damage to the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari, No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR and the title-contending No. 4 Corvette C7.R.

Pierre Kaffer slowed at the exit of pit lane due to a red light and was clobbered by Patrick Pilet’s Porsche, which was hit by the Jan Magnussen-driven Corvette.

Kaffer went behind the wall with right-rear suspension damage and steering issues before being retired, while Magnusen lost four laps due to repairs and now runs ninth in class.

The No. 911 Porsche of Pilet came away with the least amount of damage, making two stops while under yellow and remaining on the tail end of the lead lap.

Porsche’s sister No. 912 entry of Patrick Long now leads GT, ahead of the No. 91 SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R of Ryan Hunter-Reay, in second, which has championship leader Kuno Wittmer in its driver lineup.

Bruno Junqueira (RSR Racing) and Madison Snow (Snow Racing) continue to lead the Prototype Challenge and GT Daytona classes, respectively.

The third hour ended while under the sixth full-course caution of the race.

Separate incidents for Spencer Pumpelly (No. 45 Flying Lizard Audi) and Marc Drumwright (No. 87 BAR1 Oreca) brought out the fourth yellow, which led to the GTLM pit lane drama.

The 5th yellow was for Joey Hand’s No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE, which lost drive and stopped on track and is also a suspected retirement.

The most recent full course caution was for the other BAR1 car of Tom Papadopoulos that went into the barriers in Turn 3.

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