While the Petit Le Mans had served as the cornerstone event of the American Le Mans Series, the annual 10-hour race into the darkness at Road Atlanta now plays host to the season-ending round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
Titles are up for grabs in three of the four classes, but there’s other storylines as well, including returning teams and drivers that help make up the 50-plus entry for Saturday’s fourth and final round of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup.
Prototype:
Eleven cars are listed to take part in the Prototype class, including the return of the No. 0 DeltaWing DWC13 for Andy Meyrick, Katherine Legge and Gabby Chaves, as well as the No. 9 Action Express Racing Corvette DP with drivers Burt and Brian Frisselle and Jon Fogarty, which currently sits second in the Patron Endurance Cup standings.
Leading the way in the championship-within-a-championship are overall P class leaders Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, who will again be joined by Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 5 Action Express entry. Max Angelelli, meanwhile, completes the lineup in the title-contending No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP.
Other third driver additions include Max Papis to the Marsh Racing Corvette DP and Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP. Ben Devlin and Tristan Vautier complete the lineups in the Nos. 70 and 07 SpeedSource Mazdas, respectively.
IndyCar ace Scott Dixon will team with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas in the No. 01 Ganassi Riley-Ford, while the No. 02 car, which took part in the two opening Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup rounds, will not race.
Also absent are the pair of Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03bs, which announced its withdrawal from the race to instead compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship round in Shanghai.
It leaves only three P2 cars for this weekend, with the pair of Mazdas being joined by OAK Racing’s Ligier JS P2 Honda for Gustavo Yacaman, Alex Brundle and Ho-Pin Tung.
Realistically, OAK's entry will be the only P2 car that will take the fight to the DP machinery, in a track that could particularly suit the lighter and more nimble Le Mans-style prototype.
Prototype Challenge:
Prototype Challenge features an 11-car field, with a number of new and returning drivers to the spec prototype class.
Ryan Eversley will make his PC race debut alongside Adam Merzon, John Martin and Martin Fuentes in the No. 7 Starworks entry, while Alex Popow is listed to complete the lineup in the team’s No. 8 Oreca FLM09 with Renger van der Zande and Mirco Schultis.
Tom Kimber-Smith and Eric Lux return to the No. 25 8Star Motorsports entry with Sean Rayhall who, along with the Enzo Potolicchio-owned team, are on the heels of back-to-back class victories and sit a solid second in the season-long teams’ championship.
IMSA Prototype Lites drivers Jerome Mee and Mikhail Goikhberg make their PC debuts for Performance Tech and JDC/Miller Motorsports, respectively, while James Gue (CORE autosport), David Cheng and Tomy Drissi (BAR1), plus Rusty Mitchell and David Heinemeier Hansson (RSR Racing) also return as third drivers for the enduro.
CORE’s Colin Braun and Jon Bennett already locked up the drivers’ title last time out at COTA but will be looking to secure the teams’ title, as well as a complete lockout of Patron Endurance Cup victories this year, having taken top honors at Daytona, Sebring and Watkins Glen.
GT Le Mans:
There are a total of 11 cars entered in GT Le Mans, including the addition of Krohn Racing’s Ferrari F458 Italia for Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and Andrea Bertolini, which contested last month’s FIA WEC round at COTA.
The big news comes from Porsche North America, which has elected to concentrate efforts only on its two season-long factory Porsche 911 RSRs instead of a planned three-car entry, while rising star Earl Bamber makes his class debut.
Bamber, who currently leads the highly competitive Porsche Supercup championship, joins the No. 912 entry of Patrick Long and Michael Christensen, while Patrick Pilet and Joerg Bergmeister are brought into the No. 911 lineup with Nick Tandy.
Joey Hand and Dirk Werner (BMW Team RLL) as well as Ryan Hunter-Reay and Rob Bell (SRT Motorsports) return for reinforcement, while Ryan Briscoe is listed to drive both the Nos. 3 and 4 Corvette Racing C7.Rs.
Olivier Beretta returns to Risi Competizione, teaming with full-season drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer, while Marco Holzer is set to rejoin Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler in the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche.
GT Daytona:
Despite some late withdrawals, the GT Daytona class features a bumper 20-car entry.
Championship leaders Turner Motorsport seek the GTD class title, with Paul Dalla Lana rejoining Dane Cameron and Markus Palttala in the No. 94 BMW Z4 GT3 entry.
Craig Stanton (Alex Job Racing) and Conrad Grunewald (AIM Autosport) round out driving duties in the two other title-contending efforts.
Marco Seefried and Alex Riberas rejoin Magnus Racing and Team Seattle/AJR, respectively, while England’s Matt Bell returns to the wheel of Paul Miller Racing’s Audi R8 LMS, as does Sebastiaan Bleekemolen in the Riley Motorsports Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R.
The AF Corse-run Spirit of Race operation will make its first start since the Six Hours of The Glen in June, with a two-car Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 effort featuring the likes of Matt Griffin, Michele Rugolo and Eddie Cheever III.
Porsche Supercup ace Philipp Eng joins Damien Faulkner and Ben Barker in the GB Autosport Porsche, while Brandon Davis and Kyle Marcelli complete the four-driver lineup in the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.
TUDOR Championship competitors take to the 2.54-mile 12-turn circuit on Thursday for practice, with qualifying on tap for Friday. The 10-hour Petit Le Mans takes the green flag Saturday at 11:15 a.m. ET.
FOX Sports 2 will televise the race beginning at 3 p.m. ET, while a two-hour highlights show will air on FOX on Sunday. Check your local listings.
