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Petit Le Mans: AXR Cadillac wins, Montoya/Cameron seal title

Action Express Racing trio Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran won a thrilling Petit Le Mans after a late yellow, but it wasn’t enough to stop Acura Team Penske’s Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya from winning the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title.

#6 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, DPi: Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron, Simon Pagenaud

#6 Acura Team Penske Acura DPi, DPi: Juan Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron, Simon Pagenaud

Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images

A full-course caution caused by Toni Vilander spinning the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE into the gravel saw the five leading DPi cars make a splash-and-dash.

Following the restart with 24 minutes to go, suddenly the hitherto leader, the #5 AXR Cadillac DPi-V.R of Mike Conway, Filipe Albuquerque and Joao Barbosa pulled in with an exploded brake disc, leaving Derani up front, fending off the Jordan Taylor-steered Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac and Ricky Taylor in the #7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05.

Derani had a late scuffle with the #912 Porsche of Earl Bamber at Turn 10A, but held on for victory in the #31 Cadillac he shared with Nasr and Curran.

But fourth place was still enough for Cameron and Montoya to win the drivers' title by five points ahead of AXR pair Nasr and Derani.

The #77 Mazda RT24-P should have been in the hunt too, having delayed its final stop and having therefore led up until the yellow, but a misfire on the restart left Oliver Jarvis helpless and falling down the field, behind Montoya’s lapped title-winning Acura.

Jarvis eventually finished sixth behind the leading JDC-Miller Cadillac in fifth, while the stricken #5 AXR Cadillac was classified seventh ahead of the CORE autosport Nissan DPi on the team's final outing in the DPi class.

Neither of the two LMP2s were running at the finish, but the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca of Dalton Kellett, Gabriel Aubry and Matt McMurry was credited with class victory.

GTLM: Risi Ferrari wins on IMSA return

In GT Le Mans, James Calado did a brilliant job for Risi Competizione to edge away from Ryan Briscoe in the Ford GT in the closing stages, winning by 7.795sec, having run a similar distance apart the previous side of the yellow.

Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra drove a near-spotless race, staying within range of the Fords when they were at their peak through the middle third of the race with Scott Dixon leading, before Pier Guidi pounced on Dixon’s co-driver, fulltimer Richard Westbrook.

Third place was a great effort by Tom Blomqvist, Connor De Philippi and Colton Herta in the #24 BMW M8 GTE, inching away from the Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen/Mike Rockenfeller-driven #3 Corvette in the C7.R’s swansong outing.

Porsche duo Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor won the GTLM title despite a muted run to fifth place for the #912 along with Mathieu Jaminet, having only needed to finish eighth to be sure of the title, ahead of the #911 driven by Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki.

GTD: Auberlen wins for Turner after late drama

There was last-lap drama in GT Daytona as Felipe Fraga in the Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 ran off the track and out of fuel while Bill Auberlen was on his decklid in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 pushing for the lead.

Victory for the Auberlen/Robby Foley/Dillon Machavern-piloted car meant that Auberlen has now scored 60 IMSA wins – equalling the record held by the now-retired Scott Pruett.

Christopher Mies, Ricky Feller and Daniel Morad came home a close second in the Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS, ahead of the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Scott Hargrove, Zacharie Robichon and Lars Kern.

Meyer Shank Racing pair Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher sealed the title despite the Acura NSX GT3 they shared with Justin Marks dropping out in the first half of the race with engine trouble.

Race results:

Cla Class Num Driver Chassis Laps Time
1 DPi 31 Brazil Felipe Nasr
United States Eric Curran
Brazil Pipo Derani
Cadillac DPi 465
2 DPi 10 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
United States Jordan Taylor
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Cadillac DPi 465 0.996
3 DPi 7 United States Ricky Taylor
Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Graham Rahal
Acura DPi 465 9.842
4 DPi 6 United States Dane Cameron
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
France Simon Pagenaud
Acura DPi 464 1 lap
5 DPi 84 Switzerland Simon Trummer
South Africa Stephen Simpson
United States Chris Miller
Cadillac DPi 464 1 lap
6 DPi 77 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Tristan Nunez
Germany Timo Bernhard
Mazda DPi 463 2 laps
7 DPi 5 Portugal Joao Barbosa
United Kingdom Mike Conway
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Cadillac DPi 459 6 laps
8 DPi 54 United States Jon Bennett
United States Colin Braun
France Romain Dumas
Nissan DPi 457 8 laps
9 DPi 85 Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
France Tristan Vautier
Colombia Juan Piedrahita
Cadillac DPi 446 19 laps
10 GTLM 62 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Brazil Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE 434 31 laps
11 GTLM 67 Australia Ryan Briscoe
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
New Zealand Scott Dixon
Ford GT 434 31 laps
12 GTLM 25 United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United States Connor de Phillippi
United States Colton Herta
BMW M8 GTE 433 32 laps
13 GTLM 3 Denmark Jan Magnussen
Spain Antonio Garcia
Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Corvette C7.R 433 32 laps
14 GTLM 912 New Zealand Earl Bamber
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
France Mathieu Jaminet
Porsche 911 RSR 433 32 laps
15 GTLM 911 France Patrick Pilet
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 911 RSR 432 33 laps
16 GTLM 4 United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Tommy Milner
Switzerland Marcel Fassler
Corvette C7.R 431 34 laps
17 GTLM 66 United States Joey Hand
Germany Dirk Muller
France Sébastien Bourdais
Ford GT 430 35 laps
18 GTD 96 United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
United States Dillon Machavern
BMW M6 GT3 418 47 laps
19 GTD 29 Germany Christopher Mies
Switzerland Richard Feller
Canada Daniel Morad
Audi R8 LMS GT3 418 47 laps
20 GTD 9 Canada Scott Hargrove
Canada Zacharie Robichon
Germany Lars Kern
Porsche 911 GT3 R 418 47 laps
21 GTD 33 United States Ben Keating
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Mercedes-AMG GT3 417 48 laps
22 DPi 50 United States Will Owen
Austria Rene Binder
United States Spencer Pigot
Cadillac DPi 417 48 laps
23 GTD 63 United States Cooper MacNeil
Finland Toni Vilander
United States Jeff Westphal
Ferrari 488 GT3 417 48 laps
24 GTD 48 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Corey Lewis
Germany Marco Seefried
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 417 48 laps
25 GTD 57 United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Brazil Ana Beatriz
Denmark Christina Nielsen
Acura NSX GT3 417 48 laps
26 GTLM 24 Finland Jesse Krohn
United States John Edwards
Austria Philipp Eng
BMW M8 GTE 412 53 laps
27 GTD 44 United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
United States Spencer Pumpelly
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 401 64 laps
28 GTD 14 United States Richard Heistand
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United States Parker Chase
Lexus RC F GT3 329 136 laps
29 GTD 47 United States Brandon Gdovic
United States Don Yount
Japan Shinya Michimi
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 317 148 laps
30 GTD 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Townsend Bell
United States Aaron Telitz
Lexus RC F GT3 219 246 laps
31 GTD 86 Germany Mario Farnbacher
United States Trent Hindman
United States Justin Marks
Acura NSX GT3 201 264 laps
32 LMP2 52 United States Matt McMurry
France Gabriel Aubry
Canada Dalton Kellett
ORECA LMP2 201 264 laps
33 DPi 55 United States Jonathan Bomarito
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
France Olivier Pla
Mazda DPi 196 269 laps
34 LMP2 38 Canada Cameron Cassels
United States Kyle Masson
United States Andrew Evans
ORECA LMP2 65 400 laps

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