IMSA’s GTP Championship Comes Down to the Wire at Road Atlanta
No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R (Photo by Jake Galstad/LAT Images, courtesy of IMSA)
As has been the case in recent years, Saturday’s ten-hour Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta will decide the champions in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Making this year’s race all the more compelling, six teams and their drivers remain in mathematical contention for the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class title.
Few would’ve predicted this scenario when the new, complex, hybrid-powered GTP cars took to the grid nine months ago for the Rolex24 at Daytona International Speedway.
The Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R driving duo of Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims hold a slim three-point edge over Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque’s Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy are just five-points back.
“There’s no playing games, there’s no math, there’s nothing. It’s very simple, you gotta be ahead.”
Derani, the 2021 WeatherTech Daytona Prototype International (DPi) champion and the 2018 overall winner at Petit Le Mans, has been in championship battles before, but not quite like this.
“I think, having been involved in a championship fight and having been involved in a race win situation at Petit Le Mans, everything can come down to the wire. There's so many things that can happen during a 10-hour race, especially with those GTP cars, which are very complex and you have to go through, first of all, 10-hours of racing before you think about a championship.
“So it's gonna be an interesting race for everyone,” Derani continued. “But, obviously, it's gonna be, I think, a dogfight at the end because, being so close, it only means that you gotta be ahead. There's no playing games, there's no math, there's nothing. It's very simple, you gotta be ahead.”
No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing w/ Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 (Photo by Richard Dole/LAT Images, courtesy of IMSA)
Taylor, a two-time WeatherTech champion, in prototypes in 2017 and DPi in 2020, and an overall winner at Petit Le Mans in 2014, is also no stranger to championship battles at Road Atlanta. But, instead of being the points leader going into the final race of the season, Taylor finds himself in the role of a hunter.
“It seems like every year it just couldn't be more dramatic in terms of the championship. And I think it's kind of refreshing to be entering with so many cars going for it instead of watching one car and focusing on them and what we have to do to beat that car.
“I think the approach is just to go at this race and try to win the race,” explained Taylor, “because whoever wins is going to most likely win the championship.
“So, I think it's just going to come down to a nice, old fashioned, just go for the race win and not trying to defend or watch one car is going to be, I think, quite refreshing.”
No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 (Photo by Richard Dole/LAT Images, courtesy of IMSA)
Porsche Penske Motorsport driver Mathieu Jaminet was last year’s champion in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD Pro) last season and won Petit Le Mans in the Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) class in 2021. If anyone has momentum heading into Petit Le Mans, it could be Jaminet and Porsche Penske Motorsport, having won the most recent round at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a month ago.
“I think we are having a pretty good role in the last events. The team finally seems to operate extremely well right now, having great pit stops. Strategy has been less critical the last two events, but yeah, we seem to be making the right calls and definitely improve the pace of our car throughout all the testing we have done in the last couple of weeks.
“We also are happy and lucky to be, let's say a four-car team, if you look at the big picture,” Jaminet added. “I think the team also running WEC (World Endurance Championship) really helped us to continue to develop the car in terms of setups and software in the background that people don't really see. But there is always a lot of things happening on the car and with all the people back in IMSA, which always try to find improvements and bring updates.
“So, yeah, it's been going well in the last couple of months for the team. And now, yeah, for sure, we arrive in a good position, going to Petit with two cars. So that could maybe help us to assist the car in there and fighting also up front.”
(Photo by Jake Galstad/LAT Images, courtesy of IMSA)
While shorter than the Rolex24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, many drivers say Petit Le Mans is the toughest race of the year. For Taylor, having the championship decided at, arguably, the toughest race, is a good thing.
“I think it's fantastic.
“I think whoever is the champion after Petit Le Mans, has deserved it. And I think this year, more than ever, it's going to be a very fitting champion. Whoever earns it will have worked very hard for it. And I think IMSA competition is about how demanding it is for the cars and the drivers and the teams. And I would agree that no single race does that like Petit Le Mans.
“The amount of commitment and risk that happens towards the end of that race and traffic as it goes to dark and the amount of trust that you have in everybody else on track is definitely not matched in any other endurance race throughout the year or any other race, for that matter.
“The championship has come down to these thrilling finishes in the past and I don't think there could be a better race than Petit to give that finish.”
(Photo by Jake Galstad/LAT Images, courtesy of IMSA)
For Derani, Petit brings an extra element to the championship fight.
“It's a short but very quick racetrack. We are much quicker than some other classes and in some parts of the track makes it for a very difficult overtaking over those slower classes.
“It's also very physically demanding on the driver, on the car, because of how quick it is, a bit of bumps all around and so it just makes an extra element of stress, of difficulty for a championship fight.”
It seems Petit Le Mans always offers up the unexpected during its final hour. Taylor is expecting more of the same Saturday night.
“Unfortunately, yes. I think it's never easy.
“I think the more I think about how stressful this weekend is going to be, I'd much rather this level of stress than be sitting in fifth place and without a chance.
“I think all of us are looking forward to the opportunity and when we get into the race, when you get towards those last couple of hours. We’re at our limit every weekend and we're doing our best and I feel like for some reason, when you get to the last couple of hours in a situation like this, everybody raises their game just a little bit and it seems to put the championship contenders head to head almost every time, for whatever reason. And, yeah, I wish it was easy, but it's not going to be. I think it's going to be dramatic again.”
(Photo by Jake Galstad/LAT Images, courtesy of IMSA)
Jaminet, too, believes it will be chaotic at the end.
“I'm sure it's gonna be a dogfight. All four, five cars might not be there (at the end) but at least two or three will still be somehow in the game to win it coming to the last hour. And, as we know in Petit, there is always this late safety car which comes out, so maybe one of the teams might think he has it in the pocket running up front and having a nice life and then, suddenly, the safety car comes out and it's maybe 20-minutes to go and then it's all to play again. Then you might have, again, an opportunity to win that race.
“It will, for sure, be a lot of stress on all the drivers, on all the teams, “ Jaminet continued. “I think we will see, even though we do all year, the best teams or drivers maybe able to extract a little more when it counts. I just hope from our side that we will be in that position. I’m personally very excited for that race.
“I think it will be even more stressful, if I'm not finishing the race, to watch it from the outside as (I have) a tendency to get quite excited on the pit wall when I watch it, so, let's see. I'm sure it's gonna be a little bit of a mess and I just hope we are on the good side of things at the end.”