2022 Petit Le Mans

The 2022 Petit Le Mans (known as the 2022 MOTUL Petit Le Mans for sponsorship reasons) was the 25th running of the Petit Le Mans, and was held on October 1, 2022. It was the 12th and final race in the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship, and the 4th race of the 2022 Michelin Endurance Cup. The race was held at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. The event was the last ever race for the DPi Class.

Background

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2022 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2021. It was the ninth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2022 Petit Le Mans was the final of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2022 by IMSA , and it was the last of four rounds held as part of the Michelin Endurance Cup. The race took place at the 12-turn, Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia on October 1, 2023.

As the final event of the 2022 season, the race marked the swansong for the DPi class. First introduced in 2017, the class enjoyed six seasons of success before making way for the new-for-2023 GTP class. Wayne Taylor, whose team scored the first DPi championship in 2017, described the class as one of the best in North American sports car racing history. Wayne Taylor Racing competed from 2017 to 2020 with the Cadillac DPi-V.R, and from 2021 to 2022 with the Acura ARX-05; the only two manufacturers which took to the grid for the 2022 running of Petit Le Mans. Nissan, who exited following the 2019 season, and Mazda, who pulled their entry after 2021, did not take part. The championship battle in the class was still on, with just 19 points separating the Acura entries from Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing entering the race weekend.

The Porsche 911 GT3 R and Ferrari 488 GT3 also entered their final IMSA events, ahead of the switch to new-generation GT3 machinery for both manufacturers and their respective customers in 2023. Porsche would introduce a new GT3 offering based on the 992 model, while Ferrari would transition to an entry based on the Ferrari 296.

The event marked the 25th anniversary of the first Petit Le Mans, held in 1998. The winners of the race's inaugural running, Eric van de Poele, Wayne Taylor and Emmanuel Collard, served as grand marshals for the 2022 event.

The race was initially feared to be threatened by Hurricane Ian, with serious concerns expressed early in the preceding week that the storm could threaten the race's running. However, with the changing course of the storm, high winds early in the weekend proved the only major effect on the event's 25th running.

On September 21, 2022, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event. No changes were made to cars in any of the four classes eligible for BoP adjustments.

Heading into the final race of the season, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 3066 points; the duo held a 19 point advantage over Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis. In LMP2, John Farano led the Drivers' Championship with 1640 points; 33 ahead of Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman. With 1716 points, Jon Bennett and Colin Braun led the Drivers' Championship by 83 points over Gar Robinson. Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet led the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship with 3173 points, 265 points ahead of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor. In GTD, Roman De Angelis led the Drivers' Championship with 2630 points; 45 points ahead of Stevan McAleer in second position followed by Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen with 2573 points. Acura, Porsche, and BMW were leading their respective Manufactures' Championships while Wayne Taylor Racing, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, CORE Autosport, Pfaff Motorsports, and Heart of Racing Team each led their own Teams' Championships.

The event also preceded an IMSA-sanctioned joint test for the LMDh entries, attended by Acura, BMW, and Cadillac. Of the 2023 LMDh manufacturers, Porsche were the only entrant that did not take part.

Entries

A total of 43 cars took part in the event, split across five classes. 7 were entered in DPi, 6 in LMP2, 8 in LMP3, 7 in GTD Pro, and 15 in GTD.

DPi saw the return of competitors taking part in IMSA's Endurance Cup championship. The Ally Cadillac Racing entry returned in line with its Endurance Cup schedule, while all six full-season DPi teams added a third driver. Scott Dixon returned to Cadillac Racing's #01 entry, while Ryan Hunter-Reay guested in the team's No. 02 after last appearing at Sebring. Loïc Duval continued in his endurance role for JDC-Miller MotorSports, as did Mike Conway and Hélio Castroneves for Whelen Engineering Racing and Meyer Shank Racing respectively. Toyota factory driver Brendon Hartley joined Wayne Taylor Racing, replacing Will Stevens.

Seven cars were listed on the preliminary LMP2 entry list, but the late withdrawal of the Racing Team Nederland entry following Frits van Eerd's arrest and subsequent release on suspicion of money laundering reduced the final entry list to six. Indy Lights driver Christian Rasmussen joined Era Motorsport for the first time, while other endurance additions included Sebastián Montoya for DragonSpeed, Rui Andrade for Tower Motorsport, Tristan Nunez for the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports No. 11 Oreca, and Fabio Scherer at High Class Racing.

LMP3 featured a number of changes from the preliminary entry list. FastMD Racing initially were set to return with Colin Noble, Adam Ali, and Max Hanratty, but were withdrawn late on. The Forty7 Motorsports No. 7 was also withdrawn, with all three of their scheduled drivers spread across AWA's two entries. Mühlner Motorsport also withdrew their scheduled entry. Other notable additions included Tyler Maxson for Performance Tech Motorsports, and Nico Pino for Sean Creech Motorsport.

GTD Pro included the addition of Risi Competizione's Ferrari 488, as well as WeatherTech Racing's return following Cooper MacNeil's withdrawal from the No. 79 entry. Nicky Catsburg returned for Corvette Racing, as did Felipe Nasr and Kyle Kirkwood for Pfaff Motorsports and Vasser Sullivan Racing respectively. Jesse Krohn and Tom Gamble joined BMW Team RLL and the Heart of Racing Team, respectively, as well.

15 cars were entered in GTD, decreased by one following the withdrawal of Crucial Motorsports' McLaren 720S GT3. Ulysse de Pauw was drafted into Cetilar Racing's entry with endurance driver Antonio Fuoco taking part in the GT World Challenge Europe season finale in Europe, while Sebastian Priaulx's addition to the Inception Racing McLaren marked the only other brand new addition to a GTD driver roster.

Practice

There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, all three on Thursday. The first session on Thursday morning lasted 90 minutes. The second session on Thursday afternoon lasted 105 minutes. The final session on Thursday evening lasted 90 minutes.

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 9:50 AM ET on Thursday and ended with Earl Bamber topping the charts for Cadillac Racing, with a lap time of 1:09.583.

Practice 2

The second practice session took place at 2:55 PM ET on Thursday and ended with Sébastien Bourdais topping the charts for Cadillac Racing, with a lap time of 1:09.040.

Practice 3

The night practice session took place at 7:30 PM ET on Thursday and ended with Earl Bamber again topping the charts for Cadillac Racing, with a lap time of 1:09.880.

Qualifying

Friday's afternoon qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the DPi and LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD classes, which lasted for 15 minutes each, and a ten minute interval between the sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am (LMP2/LMP3/GTD) classes requiring a Bronze/Silver Rated Driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put DPis ahead of the LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro, and GTD cars.

Tom Blomqvist took overall pole for Meyer Shank Racing, reducing the championship points gap to 14 points heading into the race.

Qualifying results

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by .

Warm-Up

The morning warm-up took place at 9:15 AM ET on Saturday and ended with Loïc Duval topping the charts for JDC-Miller MotorSports, with a lap time of 1:10.406.

Race

Post-Race

Blomqvist and Jarvis took the DPi Drivers' Championship with 3422 points. They were 86 points clear of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor. With 2018 points, Farno won the LMP2 Drivers' Championship, 126 points ahead of Dalziel and Merriman. With 2002 points, Bennett and Braun won the LMP3 Drivers' Championship, 54 points ahead of Robinson. Campbell and Jaminet took the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship with 3947 points. They were 220 points clear of Barnicoat in second. Antonio García and Jordan Taylor were third with 3194 points. De Angelis won the GTD Drivers' Championship with 2898 points, 23 points ahead of Hardwick and Heylend. McAleer was third with 2860 points. Acura, Porsche, and BMW won their respective Manufactures' Championships, while Meyer Shank Racing, Tower Motorsport, CORE Autosport, Pfaff Motorsports, and Heart of Racing Team won their respective Teams' Championships.

Race Results

Class winners denoted in bold and with

Standings after the race

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

References

External links

2022 Petit Le Mans
event schedule at IMSA.com
{{Sportscar Race Report, Sportscar_Series=IMSA SportsCar Championship, Year_of_race=2022, Next_race_in_season=None, Previous_race_in_season= 2022 GT Challenge at VIR
Petit Le Mans
Petit Le Mans
Petit Le Mans
2022 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season