The 16th annual Petit Le Mans took place at Road Atlanta this weekend, it was Rebellion Racing who won the race, earlier before they had won the pole position ending the long winning streak of the No. 6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD ARX-03c-Honda. Driven by Nick Heidfeld, Neel Jani and Nico Prost the No.12 Rebellion Racing car was fastest in the 1,000-mile race finishing 6 laps ahead of the P2 winner Ryan Briscoe and his co-driver Scott Tucker.
Looking to win their ninth straight race of the season, the team of Romain Dumas, Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf driving their No. 6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD ARX-03c-Honda had to pit after the car suffered overheating problems. Meanwhile, Rebellion Racing had been hit with a penalty and were struggling to get to the top and they did that when Muscle Milk Racing pitted.
Speaking after the race, Jani said; “The beginning was not easy at all, it was dry, wet, dry, but wet enough so had to keep the slicks, It was kind of a gamble on the tires. It was a bit of a question what do you risk. I tried not to burn out the tires, but the rain never came so we switched back.”
Luhr and his crew ended the season an eight-race winning streak, despite losing the final race to Rebellion Racing, they scooped away the driver, team and manufacturer titles. One hour into the race, Jani had made contact with the PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ No. 52 Molecule ORECA FLM09, it lost 20 laps in the pits but amazingly managed to finish the race fifth.
The GT class was under heavy competition right from the qualifying session which saw Matteo Malucelli win pole, during the race however, it was Nick Tandy, Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler who won this category in their No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia took the drivers’ title but finished sixth.
GT saw drama all the way from the start to the end, the winner Tandy nearly lost control after the final restart with 11 laps remaining, he won narrowly by 0.741-of-a-second over Dirk Muller in the No. 56 Team RLL Crowne Plaza BMW Z4 GTE co-driven by John Edwards and Bill Auberlen. The GTC class was won by Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 45 Venezuela/eSilicon/UIS Porsche 911 GT3 Cup with Nelson Canache Jr, the title for the GTC category was won by Flying Lizard Motorsports.
