Another season comes to an end this weekend. The 2019 IMSA season wraps up at what has become a traditional season finale at Road Atlanta for the ten-hour Petit Le Mans.
All four classes have something to play for between overall championships, manufactures' championships and the Endurance Cup competition.
There is a lot to keep an eye on this weekend and with that in mind and in honor of the ten-hour race, here are ten questions ahead of the season finale.
What Should We Know About Recent Petit Le Mans?
There have been six different manufactures to win the last six years at Petit Le Mans, dating back to when Rebellion Racing won with a Lola-Toyota with Neel Jani, Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost in 2013.
Since that victory, Wayne Taylor Racing won with a Corvette DP with Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli. The Porsche GT program took the upset victory in the rain-shortened 2015 race with Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Richard Lietz. Michael Shank Racing won with a Ligier-Honda in 2016 with John Pew, Oswaldo Negri, Jr. and Olivier Pla. Nissan took a victory in 2017 with the Extreme Speed Motorsports group of Ryan Dalziel, Brendon Hartley and Scott Sharp. Last year, Wayne Taylor Racing won with the Cadillac DPi-V.R. with Jordan Taylor, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Renger van der Zande.
The last three years and four of the last five years have had an American winner after an American driver had not won in the first 16 editions of Petit Le Mans.
Jordan Taylor is the only active driver with multiple Petit Le Mans victories. If Taylor were to win he would join Emanuele Pirro, Frank Montagny and Stéphane Sarrazin as three-time winners and trail only Rinaldo Capello's five victories and Allan McNish's four victories in this event.
Last year, Hunter-Reay became the first Indianapolis 500 winner to win Petit Le Mans.
Is the Prototype Championship Wrapped Up?
Pretty much.
The #6 Acura Team Penske of Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya has 274 points and a 12-point lead over the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani.
All the #6 Acura has to do to clinch the championship is finish seventh in class out of 11 cars. So far this season, the #6 Acura has finished on the podium in seven consecutive races with its other finishes being sixth at Daytona and ninth at Sebring.
General Motors teams have won the Prototype championship in all five seasons since the merger of Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series. Nasr is the defending champion in class and Action Express Racing has won four of the previous five seasons. Cameron won the 2016 Prototype championship with Action Express Racing.
What Prototype Team Needs to End 2019 on the Best Note?
The #5 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque and João Barbosa will need a victory because this team will close down at the end of the season. Albuquerque has already been drafted in to be the third driver in the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac. Barbosa's future, however, remains uncertain.
We have run nine races this season and Wayne Taylor Racing has not stood on the top step of the podium since the heavily rain-affected 24 Hours of Daytona. This also appears to be the final race for Jordan Taylor with his father's team, as Taylor is reportedly ready to move to Corvette Racing in 2020 to replace Jan Magnussen. Renger van der Zande has not been confirmed to be returning to the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac. Matthieu Vaxiviére will be the third driver in the #10 Cadillac this weekend.
CORE Autosport will pull out of Prototype competition at the conclusion of the 2019 season as Jon Bennett will retire from driving. The #54 Nissan of Bennett, Colin Braun and Romain Dumas has not been on the podium this season. Last year, Bennett and Braun won twice and had four podium finishes, including two podium finishes with Dumas.
How Does GT Le Mans Look?
The same as Prototype with the #912 Porsche of Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor leading the #911 Porsche of Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet by 12 points.
All Bamber and Vanthoor has to do is finish in the top seven in a nine-car GTLM class to clinch the title.
Mathieu Jaminet will be in the #912 Porsche this weekend alongside Bamber and Vanthoor and Frédéric Makowiecki will be in the #911 Porsche with Tandy and Pilet.
This will be Porsche's first championship since 2015 when Pilet took the title.
What About Corvette?
Corvette Racing had won three consecutive GTLM championships but at best will finish second in the championship with the #3 Corvette of Magnussen and Antonio García only three points behind the #911 Porsche but 15 points behind the #912 Porsche with the most points the #3 Corvette could make up in this race being 14 points.
Corvette has not won since Long Beach last year, 17 races ago. Magnussen and García, despite winning the championship last year, have not won since Virginia International Raceway in 2017, 23 races ago. Corvette has not won at Petit Le Mans since 2009 when Magnussen won with Oliver Gavin and Emmanuel Collard in the #4 Corvette.
Since Corvette last won at Petit Le Mans, Porsche has won this race four times to Ferrari's three and BMW's one Petit Le Mans victory.
Mike Rockenfeller joins Magnussen and García in the #3 Corvette and Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel Fässler will pilot the #4 Corvette.
This will be the final race for the Corvette C7.R with next year the mid-engine Corvette C8.R being introduced to the grid.
Any Words on Ford's Farewell?
The factory-backed Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT program will run its final race this weekend with Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais in the #66 Ford and Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Scott Dixon in the #67 Ford.
In 42 starts, the Ford GT has won 12 times in IMSA competition, including three of the last four races.
The #67 Ford of Briscoe and Westbrook won eight of those 12 races with the #66 Ford of Hand and Müller taking four victories, including the most recent race at Laguna Seca last month. Both cars won the 24 Hours of Daytona with Hand, Müller and Bourdais taking the victory in 2017 and Hand, Müller and Dixon following it up in 2018.
Hand, Müller and Bourdais also won the GTE-Pro class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016. Briscoe, Westbrook and Dixon were third-place finishers in class that year.
In 26 FIA World Endurance Championship races, the Ford GT won five races with the final victory being the 2018-19 season opener at Spa-Francorchamps with Olivier Pla, Stefan Mücke and Billy Johnson. The first victory was the Le Mans victory with Hand, Müller and Bourdais. Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell were responsible for the other three victories, having taken the top step of the podium at Fuji and Shanghai in 2016 and again at Shanghai in 2017.
Entering this weekend, the Ford GT won 17 of 68 races, 25% of the races.
Despite not winning the drivers' or teams' championship, Ford did win the 2018 manufactures' championship in IMSA, Hand and Müller won the Endurance Cup last year and Ford won the manufactures' Endurance Cup the last two years.
Is the GT Daytona Title Sealed?
Pretty much.
The #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher has a 20-point lead over Zachary Robichon, driver of the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche. All Hindman and Farnbacher have to do to clinch the title is start the race.
Are the Manufactures' Championship At Least More Compelling?
Why yes they are!
Acura has a comfortable lead in the Prototype class with an eight-point lead over Cadillac but a Cadillac victory forces one of the Acuras to finish in the top five. Cadillac won the first three races of 2019 but has not won one of the last six races.
Porsche has clinched the GTLM manufactures' championship with 332 points, 19 points clear of Ford and 30 points clear of Corvette.
GT Daytona is where it is interesting.
Lamborghini has 269 points, one point ahead of Acura, eight points ahead of Porsche and 15 points ahead of Lexus. Since the merger, there have been four different GT Daytona manufacture champions with Ferrari being the only repeat champion in 2015 and 2017. Porsche won in 2014, Audi won in 2016 and Lamborghini won last season.
Paul Miller Racing won at Laguna Seca with Corey Lewis and Bryan Sellers in the #48 Lamborghini and it was the Italian manufacture's third victory of the season. Acura's only victory was with Hindman and Farnbacher at Watkins Glen. Lexus won back-to-back races at Mid-Ohio and Belle Isle, both victories with Jack Hawksworth and Richard Heistand.
Pfaff Motorsports won at Lime Rock Park and Road America with Dennis Olsen and Matt Campbell joining Robichon in the #9 Porsche for those respective races.
The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley won at Mosport and the #33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsport entry of Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating won at Virginia International Raceway.
What About the Endurance Cup?
We are going to cover each class at a glance:
Prototypes:
Taylor and van der Zande lead with 34 points, two ahead of Derani, Nasr and Eric Curran and nine points ahead of the #55 Mazda of Tincknell, Bomarito and Pla.
Cadillac has 41 points to Acura's 35 point.
GT Le Mans:
Tandy and Pilet lead with 31 points, Westbrook, Briscoe, Bamber and Vanthoor are all on 25 points, Magnussen and García have 24 points and Müller and Hand have 23 points.
Porsche has 34 points while Corvette and Ford are tied on 29 points and BMW sits on 24 points.
GT Daytona:
The Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsport drivers Bleekemolen, Keating and Felipe Fraga lead with 29 points. Scuderia Corsa's Toni Vilander, Cooper MacNeil and Jeff Westphal are second on 26 points. Hindman, Farnbacher and Justin Marks sit on 25 points.
The Montaplast by Land Motorsport #29 Audi of Christopher Mies, Daniel Morad and Ricky Feiler have 24 points. Three cars are tied on 21 points: The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Auberlen, Foley and Dillon Machavern, the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Robichon, Scott Hargrove and Lars Kern and the #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Townsend Bell, Frank Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz.
The #44 Magnus Racing Lamborghini of Andy Lally, John Potter and Spencer Pumpelly have 20 points.
Every manufacture in GT Daytona has a shot at the Endurance Cup title with Mercedes-AMG leading on 29 points with Ferrari two points back in second. Audi, Lamborghini and Acura are all tied on 26 points. Porsche has 22 points. Lexus and BMW are tied on 21 points.
Is the LMP2 Championship Worth Talking About?
Matthew McMurry has 235 points and an eight-point lead over Cameron Cassels. If McMurry starts the race, he will clinch the championship.
McMurry will be in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson with Dalton Kellett and Gabriel Aubry. Cassels will drive the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca-Gibson with Kyle Masson and Andrew Evans.
Cassels and Masson have 37 points in the Endurance Cup standings with McMurry and Aubry on 29 points.
The 22nd Petit Le Mans will start at 12:05 p.m. ET on Saturday October 12th.
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