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Race report
The
Laurens Vanthoor got the best start of the entire field. In the first lap, he promptly overtook three rivals in his #912
In the #911
Third place also went to the 911 GT3 R fielded in the GTD class by the
Petit Le Mans is the last round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship and the North American Endurance Cup. It will be contested on 7 October September at Road Atlanta in Braselton in the US state of Georgia.
Comments of the race
Marco Ujhasi, Director GT Factory Motorsports: “This podium at an exciting and highly competitive race is thanks to a good strategy and a 911 RSR that proved consistently fast on this demanding racetrack. The fact that we focused on preparing for the race during our days here rather than on fast lap times in qualifying proved to be the right decision. With this result under our belt we can now head to Atlanta. There, we’ll do everything at the season finale to finish two positions further up the field – and win the coveted North American Endurance Cup for
Patrick Pilet (911 RSR #911): “That was really close. In the end it was a pure game of chance with the fuel. We assumed that the leading BMW would have to pit, but he kept going. Dirk saved as much fuel as he could, but he couldn’t keep up with the Ferrari, which was following a different strategy. We did the best we could with what we had today, and, as always, we’ve enjoyed wonderful support from our team.”
Dirk Werner (911 RSR #911): “It’s great to head home from Laguna Seca with a podium result. The entire team threw themselves completely into this race and improved the car even more. It was a fiercely competitive race, and fans really got their money’s worth. In the closing phase we all tried to conserve fuel and turn our laps without having to make a pit stop. My fuel light came on shortly before the flag, so that strategy worked perfectly. I think this is a great achievement for the team.”
Laurens Vanthoor (911 RSR #912): “We had a great car for the weekend and a great tyre strategy. Unfortunately we couldn’t turn it into a better result. We had a chance for the podium spot, but we made mistakes. We’ll now look closely at what happened and we’ll be back in the fight at the season finale at Road Atlanta.”
Gianmaria Bruni (911 RSR #912): “We had pretty much everything going against us in this race. Our 911 RSR had the speed to run at the front, but bad luck struck and we made mistakes. Now we need to concentrate totally on Petit Le Mans and on winning the North American Endurance Cup for
Jörg Bergmeister (911 GT3 R #73): “The podium result is good, however we could have achieved even more today. At our last pit stop a mechanic injured his back, so the tyre change took longer and we lost several positions. Now I’m looking forward to Petit Le Mans.”
Race result
GTLM class
1. Edwards/Tomczyk (USA/D), BMW M6, 110 laps
2. Fisichella/Vilander (I/SF), Ferrari 488 GTE, 110
3. Pilet/Werner (F/D),
4. Garcia/Magnussen (E/DK), Corvette, 110
5. Westbrook/Briscoe (GB/USA), Ford GT, 110
6. Hand/Müller (USA/D), Ford GT, 110
7. Vanthoor/Bruni (B/I),
8. Auberlen/Sims (USA/GB), BMW M6, 108
9. Gavin/Milner (GB/USA), Corvette, 107
GTD class
1. Balzan/Nielsen (I/DK), Ferrari 488, 107 laps
2. Lally/Legge (USA/GB), Acura NSX, 107
3. Bergmeister/Lindsey (D/USA),
4. Braun/Bennett (USA/USA),
6. MacNeil/Jeannette (USA/USA),
16. Long/Morad (USA/USA),
All results and points’ standings of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship can be found on the Internet: results.imsa.com.
All reports on the previous season can be found in our archive.