7 Things to Watch at Petit Le Mans and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Season Finale Weekend

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship wraps up the 2023 season this weekend with the annual Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. Four teams from four different manufacturers are still in contention for the what promises to be an incredible race day in the GTP class for prototypes.

Saturday's race is also a celebration of an IMSA WeatherTech season that has seen 15 of 18 different manufacturers across the classes find their way to victory lane.

That's not all we're looking forward to. Here's seven things to watch this weekend:

Meyer Shank Racing Has Something to Prove

Out of the running in defense of last year’s DPi championship, the Meyer Shank Acura ARX-06 team is motivated to show that it can win a major endurance race without breaking the rules.

Having been docked 200 driver and team points after winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona for circumventing the telemetry on tire pressures, Meyer Shank proved it can win within the rules in the sprint race at Mosport.

Can the Acura ARX-06 squad defend last year’s Petit Le Mans victory?

“We had a solid test there a few weeks back,” said Tom Blomqvist, who drove the winning final stint last year. “I think it’s going to be super close. It seemed like the competition was tightly matched. But I am really, really motivated and everyone on the team is hoping to end the season on a high note and go for back-to-back wins at Petit Le Mans.”

Jenson Button, Josdef Newgarden Step into GTP

Past F1 champion and Le Mans veteran Jensen Button and current Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden will be racing GTP cars for the first time.

Newgarden, who described the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta’s 12-turn course as “wild” and “old school,” has two incentives. He will co-drive the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 with Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr, who are still in the running for the WeatherTech Championship. And he will seek to become the first driver to win the Indy 500 and the Petit Le Mans in the same year. Helio Castroneves co-drove to victory at the Petit last year, one year after winning his fourth 500.

After taking three years off to start a family while living in Los Angeles, this has been a break out season for Button. He drove the Garage 56 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro at Le Mans and competed in three NASCAR Cup series road races. The Brit, who will co-drive the JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963, is hunting a Hypercar seat in next year’s World Endurance Championship.

Strength in Numbers for Porsche

Porsche officials have expressed regret that the German company has been the only entrant in the LMDh category to sell cars to customers.

Given that Porsche Penske Motorsport has two cars with drivers competing for the championship, could the Petit Le Mans be an opportunity to take advantage of multiple entries?

Including Proton Competition and JDC-Miller MotorSports, four of the ten GTP entries are Porsches. Meanwhile, Porsche Penske drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy enter the race within five points of the championship lead. Matthew Campbell and Felipe Nasr are within 73 points.

In the late running with the race and championship on the line, the Porsches could prove to be tough to pass for contenders from Cadillac, Acura and BMW.

Keating Seeks Two Titles in 2023

Seemingly ageless Texan Ben Keating clinched a WEC championship this summer on board a Corvette in the GTE Am class. Coming into the Petit, the bronze-rated driver is within 20 points of winning the LMP2 title in the WeatherTech Championship’s pro-am prototype class.

Keating, who is 52, and co-driver Paul-Loup Chatin of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports trail only Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen of TDS Racing. (The difference between finishing first and second in the race is 30 points.)

Keating said his team elected to save money by not testing for the preceding rounds at Road America and Indy, but ran a successful test recently at Road Atlanta.

“I feel like our team has done what we can do for this weekend. The only thing I need to worry about is taking care of the car.”

Swan Song for Corvette Racing's C8.R

After an impressive come-from-behind victory at Le Mans in June, Corvette Racing will close the book on 25 years as a full-blown factory team and four years of running its current C8.R, the company’s first mid-engine racer. Next year, Corvette Racing will transition to supporting customer teams and the Z06 GT3.R.

The team and longtime entrant Pratt Miller scored its first major victory in the Petit in 2000, when Andy Pilgrim made a bump-and-run pass on Tommy Archer’s Dodge Viper in Turn 1 on the last lap. That brought a congratulatory letter to Pilgrim via FedEx from NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, his co-driver in the following year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. In all, there have been 127 victories, including nine at Le Mans and eight at the Petit Le Mans.

“The C8.R has won every major endurance race that it’s done – it’s just missing Petit Le Mans,” said Jordan Taylor, who is co-driving his final race with Corvette Racing before moving back to his father Wayne’s GTP team. “It would be amazing to check off that last box on this last weekend for this car.”

Last chance for Ferrari

The vaunted new Ferrari 296 GT3 has yet to win a race in the WeatherTech Championship in either of the GTD classes. Risi Competizione, which finished second at Watkens Glen’s six-hour race after starting from the pole, is the best bet at the Petit.

Risi driver Alessandro Pier Guidi returns to Road Atlanta a conquering hero. He was one of three who co-drove to victory at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans on board the new Ferrari 499P Hypercar.

“Together with Daniel (Serra) and Davide (Rigon), I think we have a strong lineup,” said Pier Guidi. “Let’s see what we can do, but I hope to finish on the podium in the night at Atlanta. It is one of my favorite tracks, so I really can’t wait to drive there again.”

The Risi team has run only a partial schedule, concentrating on the longer distance events that are included in the Michelin Endurance Cup. The other Ferrari entrants have also cherry-picked the schedule, indicative that there has been little or no financial support from the factory outside of providing drivers.

AF Corse will race in both classes at the Petit, joining Risi in in GTD Pro and Triarsi Competizione and Cetilar Racing in GTD.

Driving on Cold Tires Decisive?

Don’t bet the farm, but maybe bet the car keys on at least one GTP driver exceeding track limits on cold tires.

The GTP cars have been especially tricky to operate on cold tires due to the cars’ brake-by-wire system. In the past, when the race is on the line and temperatures drop considerably due to the fall weather at night, drivers have kicked up plenty of Georgia red clay with off-course excursions on their out lap in the heat of battle.

Due to a short entrance lane at the top of the hill in Turn 1, the pit exit, where collisions are known to happen during the day or night, presents an added challenge on cold tires.