BRASELTON, Ga. – Lap times were extremely close for most of the 90 minutes of available track time for Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) competitors at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia in the Thursday afternoon practice session for the 26th annual Motul Petit Le Mans, the final round of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
With 20 minutes remaining, the top four entries were clustered within 0.08 seconds.
It got even closer as the session progressed into the final 15 minutes, when the GTP and Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) classes had the 2.54 miles of Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta to themselves. At one point, the top four GTPs had lap times between 1 minute, 10.958 seconds, and 1:10.961 – a separation of three hundredths of a second.
Then Sebastien Bourdais took over.
The 44-year-old Frenchman was the first to crack the 1:10 barrier, notching a 1:09.991 lap with less than two minutes on the clock for Cadillac Racing. He then lapped the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R that he co-drives with Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon even quicker the next time around, lowering the mark to 1:09.671 for an average speed of 131.245 mph.
Agusto Farfus came closest to matching Bourdais, placing the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 he shares with Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann second at 1:10.103 (130.436 mph). Felipe Nasr (co-pilots Matt Campbell and defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden) rounded out the top three at 1:10.138 (130.371 mph).
“Everybody was doing kind of a qualification simulation at the end of the session,” Bourdais said. “It’s the closest you’re going to get to a clear-ish track, and the only time you get a bit of track evolution with rubber down, low fuel load and fresh tires. As far as we’re concerned, that’s pretty close to what we’ve got.”
Among the top three championship contenders, the points-leading No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac driven by Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken was seventh fastest Thursday, one spot ahead of the third-ranked No. 6 Porsche 963 (Mathieu Jaminet/Nick Tandy/Laurens Vanthoor). Endurance driver Louis Deletraz placed fourth Thursday in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 (co-drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque) that’s second in the season standings to the No. 31 Cadillac. That trio of combatants are separated by just five points entering Friday’s qualifying session.
In Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Scott Huffaker was fastest in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07, which that leads the standings with full-season drivers Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen, at 1:13.357 (124.650 mph). Garett Grist (co-drivers Bijoy Garg and Dakota Dickerson) paced Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3), clocking 1:16.749 (119.141 mph) in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320.
Corvette Starts Final Weekend With Fast Practice Lap
The farewell for the current version of Corvette Racing began on a positive note Thursday.
Antonio Garcia posted the fastest lap in the GTD PRO class during the first two practice sessions for Saturday’s race, marking the beginning of the final weekend for factory-backed Corvette Racing in the WeatherTech Championship.
General Motors announced earlier this season that it would end Corvette Racing’s factory sports car program and instead focus on customer teams, though Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will continue competing in GTD PRO next season. Motul Petit Le Mans marks the end of a 25-year effort that scored more than 110 victories in American sports car racing.
“I’m definitely going to go for the win,” Garcia said of his plan for Saturday’s 10-hour season finale. “I hope we have a chance; that’s all I ask. Just to have a chance and then it’s up to us if we can manage to win or not.”
Garcia was clocked at 1:19.543 (114.956 mph) in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD he will co-drive with Jordan Taylor and Tommy Milner.
“I’m happy that I’ve been part of this project since Day 1,” Garcia said. “… I’m happy that what we’ve built and developed has gone on to win so many big races and championships.”
While Garcia was honoring the end of a legacy, Madison Snow was beginning a celebratory weekend for Paul Miller Racing in the GT Daytona (GTD) class.
Snow was fastest in GTD with a lap of 1:19.731 (114.685 mph) in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 he will co-drive with Bryan Sellers and Corey Lewis. The team clinched the GTD season championship and IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup crown last month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and is now focused on the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, where it sits four points out of the lead.
Qualifying for the 26th Motul Petit Le Mans streams live on Peacock and IMSA.com at 3:15 p.m. ET Friday. The race kicks off on Peacock at 11:40 a.m. Saturday. USA Network joins the coverage at 6:30 p.m.
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