Corvette Racing finishes fifth in class, third in driver points at 2022 Road Atlanta finale
(words & pics by Dave Ferguson)
Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta hosted its 25th Motul Petit Le Mans on October 1st.
The threat posed by Hurricane Ian did not materialize and the 10-hour race was run in near perfect weather under blue skies that faded into the night.
However fifth place for the # 3 C8.R driven by Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg was disheartening to say the least.
GTD-PRO, in its first year with new rules has proved extremely competitive. The only difference between the GTD and GTD-PRO cars is determined by the FIFA rating of the drivers.
The 7 cars entered in GTD-PRO, all from different manufacturers, were evenly matched. They qualified within 1.1 seconds of each other and their fastest race laps spanned just 0.698 seconds. Except for the Corvette, each of these manufacturers were also represented in GTD which consisted of 14 cars. It is not impossible and in fact, 5 GTD cars finished ahead of GTD-PRO cars in a longer race over a shorter circuit like Road Atlanta.
Endurance racing has an element of chess in it. With the cars so close in speed, team strategy takes on a huge importance. So does luck. Lead changes were numerous, with the Corvette leading its share of laps. But teams need to find that fraction of a second to win. The # 14 Vasser/Sullivan Lexus RC F was able to find it. The # 3 C8.R was not.
About 75 minutes before the race ended, Daniel Serra in the # 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari knocked Antonio Garcia off at turn 10b. There was no apparent damage to the Corvette, but it did remove the team from the sharp point of the GTD-PRO class.
With but twenty minutes left in the race, the # 14 Lexus led the # 25 RLL BMW, the # 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche and the # 62 Risi Ferrari into turn 10a. As they came out of turn 11, the Ferrari was in the lead! Serra went on to lead the group to the finish, followed by the Lexus, the BMW and the Porsche. The scrutineers ruled that Serra had driven more than the allotted time for a driver, and the team was penalized to a seventh in class, giving the win to Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood in the Lexus.
The series championship had already been won by Pfaff Motorsports in their Porsche 911 GTR3. Corvette Racing lost the runner up title to the Vasser/Sullivan Lexus.
As driver Jordan Taylor summed up, “We put ourselves in some good spots today but we just didn’t have the pace to battle guys. After that last restart we were once again in a position to fight but got motored on by. That was pretty much our season in one race. Hopefully we can figure out all we learned and come back stronger next year.”
Throngs of Corvette fans like those at Petit Le Mans have kept the Corvette Racing Team number one in popularity since its inception in 1999.
The Meyer Shank # 60 Acura DPi was the overall winner in a heated battle with Wayne Taylor’s # 10 Acura DPi that hit a slower GTD car. The # 01 and # 02 Cadillac DPi cars also gave chase and crashed out in the final minutes, ending the race under the yellow flag. Road Atlanta marked the end of the DPi giving way to a new generation called GTP (Grand Touring Prototype), a name first coined by IMSA.
A big thank you goes out to Dave Ferguson.
