IMSA – Shank Racing wins, Curran and Cameron take the title at Petit Le Mans

Already very fast in practice and author of pole position, Olivier Pla was the great architect of the success of Michael Shank Racing on the Road Atlanta route (Georgia), scene of the 2016 season finale of theIMSA Sportscar Championship, and last event before the advent of DPi in 2017.

The Frenchman, associated in the No. 2 Ligier JS P60 – Honda with Ozz Negri and John Pew, held off the No. 2 Ligier JS P2 of the Tequila Patron ESM of Derani – Sharp – van Overbeek in the final moments of the event , following a yellow flag following problems with the No. 70 Mazda of Long – Miller – Pigot, victim of a fire which could be caused by an injector problem. The American team signs its second success in 2016 after Laguna Seca.

Behind the two LM P2s from Onroak Automotive, the overall podium is completed by the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of Jordan and Ricky Taylor. But it is the Action Express Racing clan which reaps the laurels at the end of this Petit final Le Mans.

Fourth in the No. 31 Corvette DP, Eric Curran and Dane Cameron, assisted by the champion IndyCar 2016 simon pagenaud, wins the Drivers title, in their duel against their teammates Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi.

The duo, associated with Filipe Albuquerque, did not have success, notably suffering a puncture less than four hours from the finish, which will cause the No. 5 Corvette DP to fall back in the hierarchy. The final fifth place will remain insufficient to prevent Curran and Cameron, leaders of the ranking by one point before this last meeting of 2016, from being titled. The NAEC title, however, eases the disappointment for the Barbosa-Fittipaldi pair.

On PC, Renger van der Zande and Alex Popow, lined up in the Oreca FLM09 of Starworks Motorsports won the category title, despite the victory of Robert Alon, José Gutiérrez and Tom Kimber-Smith in the PR09/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca FLM1.

Ferrari concluded 2016 in the best way in IMSA with a success for the 488 GTLM of the Risi Competizione of Fisichella – Vilander – Calado, which beat the No. 66 Ford of Chip Ganassi Racing of Hand – Müller – Bourdais.

Thirds, Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin, assisted by Marcel Fässler in the No. 7 Corvette C4.R, pocketed the GTLM title for their part, after four victories during the season. Corvette is also crowned among Manufacturers.

In the running for the title until this Petit Le Mans final, Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe, joined by Scott Dixon in Georgia in the No. 67 Ford, had no success, disrupted in particular by wastegate problems.

Finally in GTD, Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan (Ferrari 488 GT3 – Scuderia Corsa) had secured the title after the first three hours of racing, and victory went to Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Marc Miller in the No. 3 Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper GT33-R.

Note that the event was neutralized for more than an hour for repairs to the asphalt on turn no. 3.

Find the full report of Petit Le Mans in IMSA, in issue 2083 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.

Results Petit Le Mans