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.

Results

Pos CPos Cls No Drivers Laps Diff Make Status
1 1 P 10 (R.Taylor*)/J.Taylor/Angelelli 400 -.— Corvette DP Running
2 2 P 5 (Barbosa)/Fittipaldi*/Bourdais 400 11.062 Corvette DP Running
3 3 P 01 Pruett*/(Rojas)/Dixon 399 1 Laps Ford EcoBoost/Riley Running
4 4 P 0 Meyrick*/(Legge)/Chaves 395 5 Laps DeltaWing DWC13 Running
5 1 PC 8 Schultis/(van der Zande*)/Popow 395 5 Laps ORECA FLM09 Running
6 2 PC 54 Bennett/(Braun*)/Gue 395 5 Laps ORECA FLM09 Running
7 3 PC 52 (Jeannette*)/Montecalvo 395 5 Laps ORECA FLM09 Running
8 4 PC 08 (Hawksworth*)/Cumming/Mitchell 394 6 Laps ORECA FLM09 Running
9 1 GTLM 17 Henzler/(Sellers*)/Holzer 391 9 Laps Porsche 911 RSR Running
10 2 GTLM 912 P.Long/(Christensen*)/Bamber/P 391 9 Laps Porsche 911 RSR Running
11 3 GTLM 91 (Wittmer)/Goossens*/Hunter-Rea 391 9 Laps Dodge Viper SRT Running
12 4 GTLM 4 Gavin/(Milner*)/Briscoe 391 9 Laps Chevrolet Corvette C7.R Running
13 5 GTLM 911 (Tandy*)/Bergmeister/Pilet/Christ 390 10 Laps Porsche 911 RSR Running
14 6 GTLM 93 (Bomarito*)/D.Farnbacher/R.Bell 389 11 Laps Dodge Viper SRT Running
15 5 P 31 Curran*/(Said)/Papis 388 12 Laps Corvette DP Running
16 7 GTLM 56 (Müller*)/J.Edwards/Werner 388 12 Laps BMW Z4 GTE Running
17 8 GTLM 3 Magnussen/(Garcia*)/Briscoe 388 12 Laps Chevrolet Corvette C7.R Running
18 5 PC 7 (Fuentes)/Jo.Martin/Merzon/Ever 385 15 Laps ORECA FLM09 Running
19 6 PC 85 (C.Miller)/Simpson*/Goikhberg 384 16 Laps ORECA FLM09 Running
20 7 PC 25 Rayhall/(Lux)/Kimber-Smith* 383 17 Laps ORECA FLM09 Not Running
21 9 GTLM 57 (Krohn)/Jonsson/Bertolini* 383 17 Laps Ferrari F458 GT Running
22 6 P 60 (Negri Jr.*)/Pew 383 17 Laps Ford EcoBoost/Riley Running
23 7 P 90 Westbrook*/Valiante/(Rockenfell 381 19 Laps Corvette DP Running
24 1 GTD 48 Haase*/(B.Miller)/Ma.Bell 376 24 Laps Audi R8 LMS Running
25 2 GTD 58 Ma.Snow/(Heylen*)/Dempsey 376 24 Laps Porsche 911 GT America Running
26 3 GTD 44 (Potter)/Lally*/Seefried 376 24 Laps Porsche 911 GT America Running
27 4 GTD 94 Cameron*/(Palttala)/Nygaard 376 24 Laps BMW Z4 Running
28 5 GTD 23 James/(M.Farnbacher*)/Riberas 375 25 Laps Porsche 911 GT America Not Running
29 6 GTD 51 Lathouras/(Griffin)/Rugolo* 375 25 Laps Ferrari 458 Italia Running
30 8 PC 87 (Plowman*)/Drumwright/Drissi 375 25 Laps ORECA FLM09 Running
31 7 GTD 555 Sweedler/(To.Bell*)/Grunewald 375 25 Laps Ferrari 458 Italia Running
32 8 GTD 22 MacNeil/(Keen*)/Stanton 375 25 Laps Porsche 911 GT America Running
33 9 GTD 63 (Balzan*)/Westphal/B.Davis/Mar 373 27 Laps Ferrari 458 Italia Running
34 10 GTD 007 (J.Davison*)/Nielsen/Block 373 27 Laps Aston Martin V12 Vantage Running
35 11 GTD 81 Barker/(Faulkner*)/Eng 367 33 Laps Porsche 911 GT America Running
36 12 GTD 35 (Neiman*)/von Moltke/Latif 366 34 Laps Audi R8 LMS Running
37 13 GTD 73 Lindsey/(Siedler)/Estre*/Skeen 346 54 Laps Porsche 911 GT America Running
38 9 PC 09 (Ende)/Junqueira*/Heinemeier H 283 117 Laps ORECA FLM09 Not Running
39 14 GTD 45 (Canache Jr.)/Pumpelly*/Palmer 260 140 Laps 7:27:40.499 Audi R8 LMS Not Running
40 8 P 70 (Tremblay)/T.Long*/Devlin 255 145 Laps 7:03:37.608 Mazda Prototype Not Running
41 15 GTD 19 (Kvamme)/Lloyd*/Pegram 225 175 Laps 10:02:43.265 Porsche 911 GT America Running
42 9 P 42 Yacaman/(Brundle)/Tung 187 213 Laps 4:55:33.441 Ligier JS P2/Honda Not Running
43 16 GTD 49 (Perazzini)/Cioci*/Cheever III 181 219 Laps 5:30:45.510 Ferrari 458 Italia Not Running
44 10 PC 38 (Ostella*)/French/Mee 171 229 Laps 5:17:21.921 ORECA FLM09 Not Running
45 17 GTD 33 (J.Bleekemolen*)/Keating/S.Blee 166 234 Laps 4:36:12.096 Dodge Viper SRT Not Running
46 10 P 9 Br.Frisselle*/(Bu.Frisselle)/Fogart 134 266 Laps 3:50:04.615 Corvette DP Not Running
47 11 PC 88 Papadopoulos/(Mowlem*)/D.Che 108 292 Laps 2:52:20.209 ORECA FLM09 Not Running
48 10 GTLM 55 (Auberlen*)/Priaulx/Hand 99 301 Laps BMW Z4 GTE Not Running
49 18 GTD 27 Dempsey/(A.Davis*)/Foster 99 301 Laps Porsche 911 GT America Not Running
50 11 GTLM 62 (Fisichella*)/Kaffer/Beretta 95 305 Laps Ferrari F458 Italia Not Running
51 11 P 07 Joel.Miller/(Nunez*)/Vautier 47 353 Laps Mazda Prototype Not Running
52 19 GTD 18 DNS 0 400 Laps Porsche 911 GT America DNS
53 20 GTD 30 Nielsen/Giermaziak/Bamber 0 400 Laps Porsche 911 GT America DNS
54 21 GTD 71 DNS 0 400 Laps Porsche 911 GT America DNS