Petit Le Mans Results, Final Standings: Surprises Aplenty in IMSA WeatherTech Finale

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The Petit Le Mans is known for surprise endings and this year’s race had several.

In the first unexpected development, the Acura team of Meyer Shank Racing, down two laps at one point, won the 10-hour event with an ambitious pass by Colin Braun at Turn 1 and an energy gamble, running one hour and 21 minutes after its final pit stop with the help of three full-course cautions.

The second surprising twist was Acura driver Felipe Albuquerque’s odd decision to attempt an outside pass of the Action Express Racing team’s Pipo Derani in Turn 1 with 72 minutes remaining. Contact sent Albuquerque’s ARX-06 into the wall. As a result, Cadillac V-Series.R drivers Derani and Alexander Sims won the first GTP driver’s title in the WeatherTech Championship’s inaugural hybrid season.

Derani and Sims narrowly captured the championship after their co-driver Louis Deletraz won the pole on Friday, Wayne Taylor Racing’s Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor finished second in the points. Albuquerque, meanwhile, was taken to the hospital for observation after his late-race mishap.

It appeared Albuquerque tried to back out of the throttle before contact. “He was too optimistic trying to go around the outside,” said Derani, who carefully drove the final hour and finished sixth.

Yet Another Surprise in GTP

Another surprise was Cadillac’s Chip Ganassi Racing choosing an even more risky pit strategy than the winning Acura squad, a move that earned the manufacturer’s championship for Cadillac.

In this case, the team ran 1 hour, 34 minutes following its last pit stop. After leading the most laps, the Caddy of Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon finished one position ahead of the Proton Competition Porsche 963, which was enough to clinch the factory title. Also trying to steal a march on the same pit strategy, the Proton entry of Harry Tincknell was not fast enough to make the needed overtake of the Ganassi Cadillac.

The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry stayed out one lap more than the No. 01 Cadillac before pitting, lost track position and finished fourth.

Meyer Shank Wins Season Finale for Acura

The race winners at Meyer Shank, Tom Blomqvist and Braun, had a mathematical chance of winning the drivers’ title, but finished third despite capturing their third race of the year and second with Helio Castroneves. The only three-time winners this season were penalized 200 points after their victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona for defeating IMSA’s telemetry and running low Michelin tire pressures without detection.

“There’s a reason why we’re getting results,” said Blomqvist, referring to the scandal and the team’s second victory after the belated penalty was administered by IMSA. The team was not renewed by Honda Performance Development for the 2024 season and Blomqvist will go IndyCar racing next season with Meyer Shank.

Braun, whose future plans remain unclear, made the winning pass in Turn 1 on a re-start with 31 minutes remaining, passing van der Zande, who was trying to save fuel. “I knew it was going to be hard. Renger has always raced me super hard and super clean. I put it all on the line and we didn’t have a whole lot to lose.”