IMSA - Schedules, entry list, BoP, broadcasts... Our Petit Le Mans 2023 guide

This is it! This weekend, we will finally get to know the first IMSA champion of the GTP era! The 26th edition of Le Petit Le Mans, the North American classic invented by Don Panoz in 1998, has quickly established itself as a key event on the world endurance calendar.

As well as being the finale of the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship season, it is also the final round of the Michelin Endurance Cup.

Although it was a Ferrari 333 SP that opened the record books, it is Audi - with nine wins - that remains the benchmark brand ahead of Peugeot and Cadillac, both credited with two wins on the Michelin Racewey at Road Atlanta. As for the drivers, Rinaldo Capello won five times compared to Allan McNish's four. Of the drivers taking part this year, the most prolific is Jordan Taylor, winner in 2014 and 2018.

Relatively short at just 4.008km, this circuit in Braselton (Georgia) has undergone a number of changes over the years, most notably when it was bought by Don Panoz in 1996. Owned by IMSA Holdings since September 2012, it is very popular with drivers thanks to its old-school, hilly layout ; twelve curves, no track limits debates as mistakes can be costly.

Since 2008, the track record has been held by Christian Klien in a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. To get a better idea, we invite you to take a ride in the Mazda RT24-P with Oliver Jarvis.

PROGRAMME (CET)

THURSDAY 12 OCTOBER

• Free Practice 1 : 15h50-17h20

📰 Full report on Endurance-Info.com

• Free Practice 2 : 20h35-22h20

📰 Full report on Endurance-Info.com

FRIDAY 13 OCTOBER

• Free Practice 3 : 01h30-03h00

📰 Full report on Endurance-Info.com

• Qualifying : 21h20-22h30

📺 Live streaming on Endurance-Info.com

📰 Full report on Endurance-Info.com

SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER

• Start : 5h40 (French time)

📺 Live streaming on Endurance-Info.com

📰 Full report on Endurance-Info.com

Entry List

On top of the wealth of world-class drivers competing yearlong in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, a host of top pilots from other racing disciplines are expected to join teams for Motul Petit Le Mans. They include past Formula One champion Jenson Button (JDC-Miller MotorSports), 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden (Porsche Penske Motorsport), four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian) and six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon (Cadillac Racing) in GTP, this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans overall winners Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado in GTD PRO, and blossoming IndyCar stars Scott McLaughlin (Tower Motorsports) and Kyle Kirkwood (Vasser Sullivan) in LMP2 and GTD PRO, respectively.

All five competition classes – three in prototypes and two in GT3-spec cars – will be in the 10-hour race on the fast and challenging 2.54-mile road course. The Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class has embraced its first season with hybrid-powered cars to the fullest, with six entries still in title contention. Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) has three cars clustered within 100 points. The Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class, meanwhile, will complete a three-year run as part of the WeatherTech Championship.

A full slate of 54 cars and nearly 160 drivers are on the pre-event ENTRY LIST and the BoP is HERE.

challenges

• GTP – The innovative Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class has been an unqualified success in its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. GTP prototypes feature hybrid-electrified powertrains paired with internal combustion engines in each car. Each of the four competing manufacturers – Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche – has won this season and each has at least one entry in the championship hunt. The top three cars are separated by just five points, with the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R in first place ahead of the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 (by three points) and the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 (by five points).

  

The No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 is still in the mix at 38 points back, as are the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 (73 points behind) and the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 (127 points behind). The GTP manufacturer battle is between Porsche (2752 points) and Cadillac (2744 points). Whichever finishes better in the race takes the 2023 honors.  

• LMP2 – The championship picture in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class is almost as murky. The No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07 leads the standings by 20 points over the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA and by 100 over the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA. Even the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA, which is 133 points from the lead, has an outside chance to repeat as the LMP2 team champion.

• LMP3 / GTD / GTD Pro - The championship in the GT Daytona (GTD) class has already been clinched by Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3, while titles in Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) and GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) will be sewn up when the class-leading cars start the race on Oct. 14. Gar Robinson and the No. 74 Riley Ligier JS P320 are poised to take their second LMP3 crown in three years while Ben Barnicoat, Jack Hawksworth and the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 will claim their first IMSA championships when the green flag waves at Motul Petit Le Mans.

• Jim Trueman Bronze Cup - The Jim Trueman Bronze Cup in LMP2 and Bob Akin Bronze Cup in GTD are both still on the line, with the top Bronze-rated driver in each category earning a prized invitation to race next year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Unbelievably, the Trueman standings find a three-way tie at the top among Steven Thomas (No. 11 TDS Racing), George Kurtz (No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR) and Ben Keating (No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports) heading to Michelin Raceway.

• Bob Akin Bronze Cup - The Akin standings in GTD find Brendan Iribe (No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO) 160 points ahead of Alan Brynjolfsson (No. 77 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R) and 240 ahead of Sheena Monk (No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3).

  

• IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Championships: Along with the season titles earned, the Motul Petit Le Mans is also the last of the four longer races that make up the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. Using a different scoring system with points awarded at designated junctures throughout the race, the honors in all five classes of this prized competition are still undecided heading into the race. No team or driver leads their class by more than seven points, so these titles will all go down to the checkered flag.

Balance of Performance

In GTP, the changes compared to The Battle of the Bricks, the penultimate round contested at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, are minor. The Acura ARX-06 is one kilo lighter, while the BMW M Hybrid V8, the Cadillac V-Series.R and the Porsche 963 benefit from 1 kW more maximum power.

But all in all, the BoP is similar to the one at Indianapolis, and simply adapted to the specific characteristics of Road Atlanta's Michelin Raceway.

In GTD and GTD Pro, the differences are more notable. The Ferrari 296 GT3 will be 20kg heavier, compared with 15kg for the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 and the Mercedes-AMG GT3. On the other hand, the avert power delta of the BMW M4 GT3 has been reduced by 3.3 kW.

You can find the two BoP tables HERE.

Who’s Hot?

• Porsche Penske Motorsport - The Penske Porsche 963s have won the past two GTP races. The No. 7 with drivers Matt Campell and Felipe Nasr won at Road America and the No. 6 with Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy won at Indianapolis (with the No. 7 taking second place).

• Riley Motorsports - Gar Robinson and the No. 74 Riley Ligier won four straight races, then finished second in the most recent outing at Indy to all but wrap up the LMP3 title. Robinson has done it with either Felipe Fraga or Josh Burdon (or both) as co-drivers, and the trio is together again for Motul Petit Le Mans.

• Paul Miller Racing - By winning three of the last five GTD races, the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 crew wrapped up the class season championship with a race remaining and clinched their second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup title. With a strong and consistent performance at Motul Petit Le Mans, they would also claim Michelin Endurance Cup honors in GTD.

  

Track records :

• DPi: Dane Cameron (Acura ARX-05) - 1'08''412 / 2020
• LMP2: Colin Braun, (Oreca 07) - 1'10''634 / 2020
• LMP3: Kay van Berlo (Ligier JS P320) ) 1'15''517 / 2022
• GTD Pro: Jack Hawksworth (Lexus RC F GT3) - 1'18''835 / 2022
• GTD: Madison Snow (BMW M4 GT3) - 1'19''118 / 2022

2022 Petit Le Mans winners :

• DPi:  Jarvis-Blomqvist-Castroneves (Acura ARX-05-Meyer Shank Racing)
• LMP2: Farano-Delétraz-Andrade (Oreca 07-Tower Motorsports)
• LMP3: J. Andretti-Chaves-Burdon (Ligier JS P320-Andretti Autosport)
• GTD PRO: Hawksworth-Barnicoat-Kirkwood (Lexus RC F GT3-Vasser Sullivan)
• GTD: Simpson-Bechtolsheimer-Farnbacher (Acura NSX GT3-Gradient Racing)

Petit Le Mans drivers winners

5 – Rinaldo Capello (2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008)

4 – Allan McNish (2000, 2006, 2007, 2008)

3 – Franck Montagny (2009, 2010, 2011), Emanuele Pirro (2001, 2005, 2008), Stéphane Sarrazin (2009, 2010, 2011)

2 – Frank Biela (2001, 2005), Neel Jani (2012, 2013), Oliver Jarvis (2021, 2022), JJ Lehto (2003, 2004), Nicolas Prost (2012, 2013), Jordan Taylor (2014, 2018), Renger van der Zande (2018, 2020)

1 – Emmanuel Collard (1998), Wayne Taylor (1998), Eric van de Poele (1998), David Brabham (1999), Eric Bernard (1999), Andy Wallace (1999), Tom Kristensen (2002), Johnny Herbert (2003), Marco Werner (2004), Pedro Lamy (2010), Alexander Wurz (2011), Andrea Belicchi (2012), Nick Heidfeld (2013), Ricky Taylor (2014), Max Angelelli (2014), Richard Lietz (2015), Patrick Pilet (2015), Nick Tandy (2015), Oswaldo Negri Jr (2016), Olivier Pla (2016), John Pew (2016), Ryan Dalziel (2017), Brendon Hartley (2017), Scott Sharp (2017), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2018), Felipe Nasr (2019), Pipo Derani (2019), Eric Curran (2019), Ryan Briscoe (2020), Scott Dixon (2020), Jonathan Bomarito (2021), Harry Tincknell (2021), Tom Blomqvist (2022), Helio Castroneves (2022).

Petit Le Mans teams winners

6 – Audi Sport North America (2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008)

3 – ADT Champion Racing (2003, 2004, 2005), Team Peugeot Total (2008, 2009, 2010), Wayne Taylor Racing (2014, 2018, 2020)

2 – Rebellion Racing (2012, 2013), Michael Shank Racing / Meyer Shank Racing (2016, 2022)

1 – Doyle-Risi Competizione, Panoz Motorsports (2015), Porsche North America, Tequila Patron ESM (2017), Action Express Racing (2019), Mazda Motorsports (2021)

Petit Le Mans manufacturers winners

9 – Audi (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)

3 – Peugeot (2009, 2010, 2011), Cadillac (2018, 2019, 2020)

2 – Lola (2012, 2013)

1 – Ferrari (1998), Panoz (1999), Chevrolet (2014), Porsche (2015), Ligier (2016), Nissan (2017), Mazda (2021), Acura (2022)