Yahoo Autos Crunch time for the Michelin Endurance Cup title contenders at Petit Le Mans
Aside from the overall IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season titles teams are trying to secure at Motul Petit Le Mans this weekend, also up for grabs at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta are the coveted Michelin Endurance Cup (IMEC) Championships.
For the uninitiated, the IMEC is comprised of four races in 2023: the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen and Petit Le Mans. A maximum of five points is awarded to team’s at various stages during the race; Daytona has four points stages, the Glen has two, and Sebring and PLM have three. So if a team leads Saturday’s race at hour four, hour eight and wins the race, they would earn 15 points toward the IMEC. The minimum awarded to a running car at each stage is two points, so the maximum spread between winner and anyone else that finishes is nine points.
That makes Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing’s seven-point advantage held by Alexander Sims, Pipo Derani (also leading the overall GTP championship by only three points) and Jack Aitken hard to overcome. Their closest rivals, also fighting for the overall title, are Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport’s Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor and Louis Deletraz, with 26 points to Whelen Engineering’s 33.
From there, it gets tight. Renger van Der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais are third, the Cadillac Racing squad only a single point behind WTRAndretti. Bourdais and van der Zande aren’t in the overall title fight, so that could give them some freedom in strategy to try to maximize the IMEC points intervals to move ahead of them in the points. Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly are another two points back of Bourdais and van der Zande for BMW M Team RLL.
In LMP2, it’s a pretty stout fight within the top five: a two-point gap in between each position. Ben Hanley and George Kurtz lead for Crowdstrike Racing by APR over PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Bean Keating, Paul-Loup Chatin and Alex Quinn. Third is the TDS Racing trio of Mikkel Jensen, Steven Thomas and Scott Huffaker, followed by Kyffin Simpson (Tower Motorsports) and Giedo van der Garde and Josh Pierson in the No. 35 TDS Racing entry.
Juncadella and Gounon head into Petit Le Mans with a three point advantage in the GTD PRO class. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Gar Robinson and his co-drivers in the Riley Motorsports Ligier have dominated LMP3 this season, with the exception of the 24 Hours of Daytona. While that race doesn’t pay points for the regular LMP3 season championship, it counts for IMEC. As a result, Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon have only a two-point lead over a three-way tie for second. That tie is between Dakota Dickerson (Jr III racing at Sebring, the Glen and Road Atlanta); the AWA Racing trio of Anthony Mantella, Wayne Boyd and Nico Varrone; and Sean Creech Motorsports’ Joao Barbosa, Lance Willsey and Nico Pino. Andretti Autosport’s Jarett Andretti and Gabby Chavez are fifth, six points behind Fraga and Robinson.
The top three teams in GTD PRO each have a victory in an endurance race. Daytona winners Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon are leading with 33 points for WeatherTech Racing over Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor with 30. Maro Engel, who has partnered with Juncadella and Gounon in the IMEC races this season with the exception of Watkins Glen, is third at 29, one point ahead of Vasser Sullivan Racing’s Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth.
Roman De Angelis may have missed out on repeating his GTD championship for Heart of Racing, but he still has a solid shot at winning the IMEC title with Marco Sorensen and Ian James. They have a one-point lead over Mikael Grenier, Mike Skeen and Kenton Koch for Korthoff/Preston Motorsports. Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow have a chance to hit the GTD trifecta, as they and endurance addition Corey Lewis are third in the points, four behind Heart of Racing at 25. There’s a tie between the next two teams with 23 each. Magnus Racing, the only IMEC-only team with a real shot at a title, and drivers Andy Lally, John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly, are neck-and-neck with Turner Motorsport’s Patrick Gallagher, Robby Foley and Michael Dinan.
