Petit Le Mans

History

Following the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1992, sports car racing was left without a major worldwide series in which to compete. The 24 Hours of Le Mans remained a remnant, still competed by a large number of sports cars, but mostly on a single race basis. Various sports car leagues had sprung up since the WSC's demise without major success, including the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)'s replacement for their GTP series, the Professional SportsCar Racing series. In Europe, two series were also developed, the FIA Sportscar Championship and the FIA GT Championship, although they were not combined like IMSA's series.

Don Panoz, owner of the Road Atlanta racing course, collaborated with the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), to form a new sports car endurance race at the track for 1998, called Petit Le Mans (French for little Le Mans). The event would adopt the ACO's rules, and in addition to agreeing to lend the Le Mans name out to Panoz, the ACO offered class winners automatic invitations to the following year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race would be similar to the 12 Hours of Sebring, in that it did not run a full 24 hours like Le Mans. Instead, the race would be 10 hours or 1000 mi, whichever came first. IMSA agreed to let the race be the season finale of their series with a special one-off format, featuring competitors from Le Mans. However, IMSA and Le Mans ran slightly different formulas for their competitors, thus forcing the organizers to create seven different classes: LMP1, LMGT1, and LMGT2 for the ACO-compliant cars, and WSC, GT1, GT2, and GT3 for IMSA's competitors. Even though both organizers used the GT1 and GT2 names the classes were not actually the same, which is why the ACO classes are preceded by LM.

If Petit Le Mans proved to be successful, the ACO would look into developing a series around the same formula. The inaugural event in 1998 attracted 31 entries, including that year's 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning Porsche factory team. A satisfactory number of spectators attended the event, while overall honors for the race were contested between the factory Porsche 911 GT1-98 and LMP1-98 cars as well as multiple Ferrari 333 SPs and Panoz Esperante GTR-1s. Before the race had finished, an agreement was made for Panoz to establish the American Le Mans Series in 1999 with the support of the ACO, replacing the IMSA GT Championship.

The 2009 and 2015 races were shortened due to heavy rains making the track impassable. The 2015 race featured the first time a GT car won overall against the faster prototypes. Rain from Hurricane Joaquin created a flooded track the entire race causing multiple cautions and a red flag, allowing GTLM cars to leap-frog the prototypes that were struggling for grip in the conditions. Nick Tandy, winner of the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, and co-driver Patrick Pilet took the checkered flag when officials called the race with a little over two hours remaining.

Race specifics

Petit Le Mans is held annually at Road Atlanta, a 2.54-mile (4.09 km) permanent road course located in Braselton, Georgia, United States. The circuit features twelve turns and includes significant elevation changes and high-speed sections, with some describing it as a "roller coaster". Notable areas include the downhill "Esses" and the final corner leading onto the main straight. The race has been run for a duration of 10 hours since 2014, prior to which it was run for either 1,000 miles or 10 hours, whichever came first. Teams are required to use multiple drivers, usually three per entry, with driver stints regulated by IMSA rules. The race is contested with multiple car classes—typically split into prototype and GT categories—sharing the circuit simultaneously.

The event is one of the Endurance Cup rounds in the IMSA SportsCar Championship and is considered one of the three crown jewel events in the series, along with the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring. It traditionally serves as the season-ending round of the championship, and championship titles are frequently decided during the event. Teams may take differing approaches to the race because of this, with some willing to take more risks to claim a major win to end the season, while others may take a more cautious approach to secure championship titles. The race usually starts at around 12 p.m. local time on Saturday and ends at 10 p.m. in the evening, with the final two hours of the race taking place at night. The relatively short and tight nature of the track along with a number of blind corners requires drivers to manage traffic carefully to avoid incidents and minimize time losses. Typically held in early October, weather is a variable factor with rain being fairly common.

Petit Le Mans occupies a significant place on the international endurance racing calendar. It has been regarded as one of the "Big Six" endurance motor races worldwide, alongside the 24-hour races at Le Mans, Daytona, Nürburgring and Spa, as well as the Sebring 12 Hours. The race attracts manufacturer-backed professional teams and internationally recognized drivers, with several 24 Hours of Le Mans, Indianapolis 500 and Formula One winners having competed at the event. Manufacturers have participated in the event with innovative technologies and designs, including alternative powertrains and fuel technologies. Notably, Panoz's participation in the 1998 race with the Q9 GTR-1 Hybrid marked the first time in motorsport history that hybrid technology had been used to record a race start, finish, and class win. Other experimental vehicles that have participated in the race include the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid and the DeltaWing, which made their North American debuts in the 2010 and 2012 races, respectively.

Overall winners

Statistics

Multiple wins by driver

Wins by manufacturer

Multiple wins by team

Notes

References

References

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