Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun and Helio Castroneves won the race at Road Atlanta, in the team’s last event with Acura, while the Cadillac V-Series.R of Derani and Action Express Racing’s Alexander Sims, supported by Jack Aitken won the GTP Championship.
Ten hours earlier, Acura’s Louis Deletraz led the 54-strong field to the green on the hilly 2.54-mile road course in Georgia, but Sebastien Bourdais didn’t give himself much time to take the lead by chipping his Ganassi Racing Cadillac On the outside of Wayne, Taylor Racing ARX-06 passed in turn 1.
After a series of yellow flags, the first of which didn’t come until the third minute, a hugely significant moment occurred in Hour 2 when a multi-car accident on the way to the downhill chicane at Turn 10 resulted in Porsche’s title contender Nick Tandy retired from the race after an accident in a clash between the #20 High Class Racing LMP2 car of Dennis Andersen and the #023 Triarsi Ferrari GTD of Charles Scardina, which also involved the #70 Inception McLaren GTD of Brendan Iribe.
The number 6 car returned to the race many laps later, but Laurens Vanthoor suffered another accident in the Esses in the seventh hour, which damaged the car even more.
That narrowed the field of title contenders and the pendulum swung towards Acura when Albuquerque overtook Aitken with two hours to go to secure the lead, which Aitken reclaimed just 15 minutes later when Albuquerque stumbled across an LMP2 car.
The truly controversial moment came with just over an hour to go when Albuquerque overtook Derani heading into Turn 1 and moved to the outside, but Derani was in no mood to give him way and Albuquerque was pushed into the corner coming out of the curb and crashed head-on into the tire wall at high speed.
Albuquerque was in audible pain, according to the onboard camera, and had to be taken to the AMR security team’s vehicle to be taken to the medical center and then on to the hospital. The accident caused the 11th caution of the race, and race control reviewed the collision but took no action, even though Albuquerque was clearly ahead thanks to Derani’s board.
#31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac V-LMDh Cadillac V-LMDh: Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims, Jack Aitken
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Meyer Shank Racing’s other Acura was delayed at the start of the third hour as Blomqvist was hot on Deletraz’s heels in the lead battle but was sent to the pits for suspension repairs after being hit by the #1 BMW GTD car on the exit of the chicane .
But Blomqvist’s teammate Braun took the lead from Renger van der Zande (who shared the CGR caddy with Bourdais and Scott Dixon) immediately after the penultimate restart.
Van der Zande had stayed out during the yellow period due to the accident in Albuquerque with 40 minutes to go, and although he had fallen three seconds behind to save fuel, he came up just before the final yellow sequence, which effectively ended the race early.
The 10-hour race ended with a restart in 5:30 minutes, with Braun van der Zande, Harry Tincknell (Proton Porsche) and Matt Campbell leading in the Penske-entered works 963, but Jan Heylen’s GTD class Porsche trailed a multi-car ablaze collision before the green flag, effectively ending the race and the season.
Derani finished sixth and took the title, but only after slight contact with the other title contender, the #25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi, Nick Yelloly and Sheldon van der Linde. They had already clashed hours earlier when van der Linde hit Sims as both ran a red light at the end of the pit lane.
Jenson Button finished fifth in his IMSA debut in the JDC Miller MotorSport Porsche 963, along with Mike Rockenfeller and Tijmen van der Helm.
#04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR Oreca LMP2 07: George Kurtz, Ben Hanley, Nolan Siegel
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
In the LMP2 class, TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas initially led Ben Keating, but PR1 Mathiasen ace Keating prevailed and remained in the lead despite a quick spin towards the end of the first hour.
Alex Quinn took over the No. 52 PR1 car from Keating and the car held the lead for most of the race. But Quinn suffered a spin in Turn 10 after colliding with the #18 Era Motorsport machine of Christian Rasmussen at the front in the final two hours, and narrowly managed to free himself from the gravel.
Rasmussen and Ben Hanley (Crowdstrike by APR) battled it out for class victory, with Hanley taking a decisive lead after the penultimate yellow. Rasmussen crashed in the Esses with just 13 minutes to go and finished second behind the TDS car of Giedo van der Garde, John Falb and Josh Pierson.
Hanley won by less than a second, along with George Kurtz and Nolan Siegel.
The No. 11 TDS car lost its title hopes when Mikkel Jensen rammed the car into the tires at the foot of the Esse just before sunset.
In the Minnow LMP3 Prototype class, Glenn van Barlo led from the start for Andretti Autosport, but Cameron Shields soon took over the race for Performance Tech Motorsports.
There was already action in this class before the green flag when Indy NXT racer Rasmus Lindh crashed the leading car #85 Duqueine LMP3 seconds after leaving the dummy starting grid, causing significant damage to the rear.
The #74 Riley crew of Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga were confirmed as champions in the closing stages, but Fraga had lost the top spot to Garett Grist in the #30 Jr III car when he was hit in Turn 10 by Matt Bell’s AWA car was attacked and eliminated him in the box.
Grist and teammates Bijoy Garg and Dakota Dickerson won the class by 1.4 seconds over Bell.
#79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3: Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon, Maro Engel
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
Ian James initially led the GTD in his Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage, but was quickly attacked by Jack Hawksworth in the Lexus, who was crowned class champion right from the start.
However, just before the halfway point of the track, the Lexus was switched off when Ben Barnicoat went off the track and sent the nose of the car flying across the damp Esses infield. Strangely, both GTD champions didn’t see the finish, as Paul Miller Racing’s #1 Pro-Am BMW also retired.
The GTD Pro saw a shootout between Dani Juncadella (WeatherTech Mercedes) and Kevin Estre (Pfaff Motorsports Porsche), with Juncadella holding out until the disrupted finish.
In the Pro-Am version of GTD, the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan of Misha Goikhberg, Loris Spinelli and Patrick Liddy won over the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW.