Paul Miller BMW Wins GTD Pro; Corvette Crowned Champions

Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Connor De Phillippi delivered the GTD Pro class victory for Paul Miller Racing at Motul Petit Le Mans, while Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims captured the championship in class by finishing third.

The No. 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVO crossed the line with a margin of 55 seconds after ten hours of racing, with the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Tommy Milner, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone in second.

After starting the race from pole position, the No. 48 crew delivered a largely commanding run to their second win of the season, following on from a breakthrough triumph at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in June.

Harper completed what would turn out to be the race-winning pass when he fought his way past Catsburg’s off-sequence Corvette at Turns 3 and 4 with just over an hour remaining.

The No. 3 Corvette finished third in class, which was enough for Sims and Garcia to take the GTD Pro title.

Notably, Garcia took a record-extending fifth WeatherTech Championship championship, adding to previous  GTLM crowns secured in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021.

The Anglo-Spanish pairing came into the finale with a small lead over DragonSpeed driver Albert Costa.

However, Costa saw his bid for the title apart fall apart under the cover of darkness.

He first suffered a significant setback when the No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 was given a drive-through penalty as a wheel was left unattended in the pits.

Moments later, Costa was spun round at Turn 10 after contact with the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, although the Spaniard was able to continue.

However, DragonSpeed’s title bid received what was effectively the final hammer blow when a second drive-through was handed out due to an incident involving Sebastian Priaulx’s No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3.

Priaulx, Mike Rockenfeller and Ben Barker finished the race in fourth ahead of the No. 65 machine of Christopher Mies, Frederic Vervisch and Dennis Olsen.

Ferrari Takes Dominant GTD 1-2; Winward Claims Back-to-Back Class Titles

In the GTD class, AF Corse led a dominant 1-2 finish for Ferrari, while Winward Racing pressed home their comfortable championship advantage to take a second consecutive title.

The No. 21 Ferrari of Simon Mann, Lilou Wadoux and Alessandro Pier Guidi completed a commanding run to finish 4.158 seconds clear of the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione machine piloted by Onofrio Triarsi, Kenton Koch and James Calado.

The Prancing Horse carried through a dominant run to win in class, with the second of the two Ferraris over 20 seconds clear of the third-placed No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 piloted by Jack Hawksworth, Parker Thompson and Frankie Montecalvo.

Hawksworth narrowly finished ahead of the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Casper Stevenson, Tom Gamble and Zach Robichon.

In fifth place, Winward successfully defended its GTD title, with the championship battle decided in the favor of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis on the opening lap of the race.

The No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo already came into the deciding round with a healthy points lead and were effectively crowned when a major incident in the Esses took out multiple GTD runners.

This occurred when Manny Franco lost control of the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari, with the resulting melee also eliminating the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari, No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin and No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3.

Due to these retirements, it was no longer possible for any other GTD runner to outscore the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG with the amount of points on offer, thus crowning them champions.

It marked the second consecutive class title for Ward and Ellis, also making Winward the first team to take back-to-back GTD championships since Meyer Shank Racing in 2019-20.

The opening lap crash also decided the battle for the Bob Akin Award in favor of AWA driver Orey Fidani.

Fidani came into Petit Le Mans level on points with Inception’s Brendan Iribe, but when the No. 70 Ferrari collided head-on with Franco’s Conquest machine, it dashed Iribe’s hopes of securing the auto-invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Franco, who climbed from his car under his own power, was transported to a local hospital for precautionary checks according to a team spokesperson.

RESULTS: Motul Petit Le Mans