The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship crowned race winners and 2022 series champions after tallying the points in Saturday’s Petit Le Mans season finale at Michelin Road Atlanta.
Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 Acura won the final race of the DPi category to capture the championship over Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Acura.
Tom Blomqvist held on for the victory by 4.369 seconds over Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Cadillac. Kamui Kobayashi finished third in the No. 48 Ally Cadillac (which marked the last scheduled prototype race for Jimmie Johnson).
RESULTS: Click here for the finishing order at Petit Le Mans l Results by class
The No. 10 Acura of Wayne Taylor Racing, which entered the season finale leading the championship by 14 points, finished ninth after Filipe Albuquerque made contact with a GT car in the final 14 minutes.
It was the third consecutive runner-up finish in the points standings for WTR, which was trying to win the final championship in DPi after capturing the class’ first title in 2017. After six seasons, the premier category is being rebranded as GTP with new LMDh cars in 2023.
OTHER CLASS WINNERS:
LMP2: Tower Motorsport’s No. 8 clinched the driver and team championship by winning its class in the Petit Le Mans for the third consecutive year.
John Farano, who was driving with Louis Deletraz and Rui Pinto de Andrade, won the championship by 126 points over Era Motorsport’s Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel. Tower won the team title by 79 points over the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, which crashed in the finale.
“Race win, team championship, driver championship, it’s all here tonight,” Farano said. “This is just unbelievable. What a team effort. These guys are really fantastic.
“We’ve won this event three years in a row, which is absolutely awesome. I don’t need to tell you how hard that is to do, but this one here, we really won it in good fashion. The team was fantastic, no mistakes, kept it on track. It was just a beautiful, beautiful race.”
The No. 81 DragonSpeed of Juan Pablo Montoya, Sebastian Montoya and Henrik Hedman finished second.
LMP3: Andretti Autosport scored its first victory this season and first at Petit Le Mans. No. 36 drivers Gabby Chaves, Jarett Andretti and Josh Burdon each earned their first career wins in IMSA LMP3.
“It’s unbelievable,” Andretti said. “This is one of the hardest places to win, and I’m just so proud of everybody here involved with the team.”
CORE autosport’s No. 54 rebounded from a spin for a fifth place in class to win the championship over Riley Motorsports’ No. 74, which also went off course.
GTD Pro: Despite losing the lead late in the race, the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 of Vasser Sullivan was awarded the victory after the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 was relegated to the back of the class because of a drive-time violation when Daniel Serra went over the limit of four hours in a six-hour stretch.
Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood were awarded the first IMSA Endurance Cup victory for Vasser Sullivan, which took second place in the GTD Pro points standings.
“It was just wild. I’m just so happy, this has been a long time coming for this team,” Hawksworth said after his ninth career victory. “The guys have worked so hard for it.”
Hawksworth was leading when he was bumped with 21 minutes remaining by the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3, which clinched the class title by starting the race. Hawksworth lost the lead to the No. 62 soon afterward but didn’t lose the race.
“I had more contact in the last 30 minutes of that race than I think I had the whole season, probably my whole IMSA career,” he said. “(Jaminet) tried to pass me in (Turn) 10, we had contact there, and then he hit me three or four more times. God knows how the car is still in one piece.”
Pfaff’s trio of Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr finished third behind the No. 25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi, John Edwards and Jesse Krohn.
GTD: The No. 66 of Gradient Racing scored its first career victory as the trio of Mario Farnbacher, Till Bechtolsheimer and Kyffin Simpson took the Acura to victory after failing to qualify because of a turbocharger problem. After starting last, the car took the lead on a green-flag pit stop sequence with just under an hour remaining.
“After the problem we had in qualifying, the guys tore the whole car apart, made it absolutely perfect for today, and here we are,” Farnbacher said after his 10th career victory and second Petit Le Mans. “I’m so proud of the guys. It means a lot. Ten years ago was my first race in the U.S., at this track. I won back then, and now, exactly 10 years later, I won again. So, there’s a really special connection to this track.”
Roman De Angelis, with co-drivers Maxime Martin and Ian James, won the championship with the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which finished seventh in class after steering problems and an off-course shunt.
POINTS
After the final round of the 2022 season, here are the champions in each division:
DPi: Meyer Shank Racing (Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis)
LMP2: Tower Motorsport (John Farano)
LMP3: CORE autosport (Colin Braun, Jonathan Bennett)
GTD Pro: Pfaff Motorsports (Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell)
GTD: Heart of Racing Team (Roman De Angelis)
Click here for the unofficial standings after Motul Petit Le Mans.
STATS PACKAGE FOR IMSA PETIT LE MANS AT ROAD ATLANTA
Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)
Fastest laps by driver and class after race
ROUND 1: Points and results from the Rolex 24 at Daytona
ROUND 2: Points and results from the Twelve Hours of Sebring
ROUND 3: Points and results from Long Beach
ROUND 4: Points and results from Laguna Seca
ROUND 5: Points and results from Mid-Ohio
ROUND 6: Points and results from Detroit
ROUND 7: Points and results from Watkins Glen
ROUND 8: Points and results from CMTP
ROUND 9: Points and results from Lime Rock
ROUND 10: Points and results from Road America
ROUND 11: Points and results from Virginia International Raceway
NEXT: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will begin the 2023 season and its new GTP category Jan. 28-29 with the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.
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