Petit Le Mans: Hour 2 Update

Now two hours into the 10-hour/1,000-mile American Le Mans Series season finale, the drama at the 14th annual Petit Le Mans began before the green flag dropped. A number of cars required last-minute repairs or replacements. The LMP1 Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda driven by Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and Jay Cochran elected to change engines after the morning warm-up and the Level 5 Motorsports crew was working to fix an oil leak on the No. 55 LMP2 HPD ARX-01G of Scott Tucker, Marino Franchitti and Luis Diaz. In the GT category, the Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Wolf Henzler, Bryan Sellers and Martin Ragginger did not make the starting grid nor did the Lotus Jetalliance Lotus Evora of James Rossiter, Johnny Mowlem and David Heinemeier Hansson. LMPC championship leaders Genoa Racing and the Oreca FLM09 of Eric Lux, Elton Julian, Chrisitan Zugel and Jordan Grogor did not appear on the starting grid either. All started the race from pit lane.

During the grid formation lap, Jaime Melo had an off in the Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 he shares with Toni Vilander and Raphael Matos. The damage to the car was too great to repair and the team withdrew.

As expected, the opening laps were a dogfight between Peugeot Sport Total and Audi Sport Team Joest. Marcel Fassler in the No. 1 Audi R18 took the lead briefly from Sébastien Bourdais in the pole winning No. 7 Peugeot 908. Bourdais retook the race lead shortly before the first full-course yellow, but Timo Bernard now leads in the No.1 Audi.

A similar tale is playing out in GTE-Pro between AF Corse and BMW Motorsports. Dirk Werner seized the GTE-Pro lead in the No. 55 BMW M3 GT on the opening lap, but Gianmaria Bruni regained the spot just before the caution period. Following pit stops, Werner was back in the class lead. Nic Jonsson leads GTE-Am in the Krohn Racing Ferrari F430.

With the Genoa Racing entry and Lux starting from pit lane, it appeared the LMPC championship momentum was in CORE autosport’s favor, but 11 minutes into the 10 hour race, CORE’s No. 06 Oreca FLM09, in the hands of Ricardo Gonzalez was in the gravel at turn 12. The safety team was able to remove the Gonzalez machine and send it on his way, but three laps down.

Despite starting from the back of the grid (after failing to pass post-qualifying technical inspection) Intersport Racing’s Kyle Marcelli currently leads LMPC.

In LMP2, the problems with the No. 055 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-01G may not have been completely solved, as the car has gone behind the wall shortly before the two-hour mark. Franck Mailleux leads the class comfortably in the Signatech Nissan Oreca 03.

The GTC championship fight is on. Black Swan Racing’s Jeroen Bleekemolen started on pole, but TRG’s Spencer Pumpelly currently leads in class.

(c) ALMS PR