Taylor team wins battle, Action Express War

The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype, driven by Jordan Taylor (left), Ricky Taylor (left center) and Max Angelelli (right), celebrate their victory with team owner Wayne Taylor (right center)

Richard Prince for Chevy Racing

Wayne Taylor Racing may have won the race, but it was too little, too late to prevent the Action Express pairing of Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi from bringing home the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship hardware with their Corvette Prototype at Road Atlanta in the 17th annual Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda.

Jordan Taylor took the lead from Fittipaldi with approximately 90 minutes to go and pulled away before a full-course caution when Prototype Challenge (PC) class leader Sean Rayhall crashed, bunching the field with 17 minutes to go. After the clean-up, the track went green for one final dash to the checkered flag. Jordan Taylor held off Barbosa by 11 seconds, leading a Corvette 1-2 sweep.

The victory for Wayne Taylor Racing came 16 years after owner Wayne Taylor won the initial Petit Le Mans back in 1998. The pairing of Jordan and Ricky Taylor, combined with their teammate and mentor Max Angelelli bookended two eras, as Angelelli was a long-time teammate of Wayne from the late 1990s through his retirement from full-time driving after the 2007 season.

Action Express Corvette won the title

In addition, Jordan and Ricky Taylor became the first American drivers to win overall at Petit Le Mans.

"My dad always said that to win at Petit Le Mans was special, that it ranked right up with his wins at Daytona, Le Mans and Sebring," Jordan Taylor said. "Now to hear that we are the first U.S. drivers to win the race overall makes it all the more special."

The Chip Ganassi Racing Ford EcoBoost/Riley, driven by Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and IndyCar driver Scott Dixon, finished third overall. The car sustained a damaged rim late in the race after being tagged by GT traffic, dropping them off the lead lap and preventing a late charge for the win.

The DeltaWing DWC 13 of Katherine Legge, Andy Meyrick and Gabby Chavez led twice for 19 laps, but fell back to an eventual fourth-place finish, five laps back.

In PC, 8Star Motorsports' Rayhall was leading until the late incident. That left the race to be settled between the Starworks Motorsport, CORE autosport and PR1/Mathiasen teams. In the short dash, it was Renger van der Zande bringing it home for his Starworks teammates, Mirco Schultis and Alex Popow.

CORE autosport swept PC championships – Colin Braun and team owner Jon Bennett taking the TUDOR Championship season-long titles, with James Gue sharing the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup. The team dominated that four-race competition, winning the three previous races and finishing second at Petit Le Mans.

The GT Le Mans (GTLM) class was a tumultuous. A crash in pit lane before halfway eliminated the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari, as well as hampering the efforts on the championship contending No. 3 Corvette and the No. 911 Porsche.

The class came down to a four-car shootout toward the end, but the No. 4 Corvette, which was on an alternative fuel strategy, fell out of the battle. That left the final dash to defending race champion Wolf Henzler in the Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR, the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR with Michael Christensen and Marc Goossens in the 91 SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R. \

Henzler, a factory driver for Porsche, was able to hold off the challenges and bring the Porsche home, which he shared with Atlanta-resident Bryan Sellers and German Marco Holzer.

The one-two finish secured the TUDOR Championship GTLM manufacturer title, while the driver championship went to Kuno Wittmer of SRT Motorsports.

The GT Daytona class saw the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS team of Matthew Bell, Christopher Haase and Bryce Miller prevail by three seconds over the No. 58 Dempsey Racing Porsche 911 GT America of Madison Snow and Jan Heylen. It was the first victory for both Paul Miller Racing and Audi in the TUDOR Championship.

Dane Cameron brought the Turner Motorsport BMW home fourth in class, which was enough to bring him the TUDOR Championship drivers' title.

The GTD Patron Endurance Cup team and drivers title went to AIM Autosport and drivers Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell.

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