Blomqvist Leads First Hour; First-Lap Drama in GTD

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Tom Blomqvist led the opening hour of Motul Petit Le Mans for Acura Meyer Shank Racing, in which a significant incident on the opening lap took out multiple GTD cars.

Blomqvist, piloting the No. 60 Acura ARX-06, withstood pressure from the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken and held an advantage of just under a second after an hour of racing.

Aitken has remained in the hunt for the race lead despite a scare that saw him run over the wing mirror of Lilou Wadoux’s No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, although that has not appeared to have had any further consequences.

Race control called a full course caution to recover the debris, which resulted in a round of stops under caution that saw Blomqvist, Aitken, Felipe Nasr, Ross Gunn and Filipe Albuquerque elect not to pit and stay out.

As a result, they made up the top five at the end of the first hour, with the sixth-placed No. 93 Acura the first of the cars to pit in sixth place.

Matt Campbell’s No. 7 Porsche 963 ran in seventh place ahead of the pair of BMW M Hybrid V8s of Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde.

Notably, Porsche Penske Motorsport has had to make a late lineup change for its GTP lineup, with Julien Andlauer ruled out of the No. 6 machine due to a medical emergency.

Laurens Vanthoor will now pull double duty across both cars, having already been entered aboard the No. 7 machine.

Jeremy Clarke has maintained the lead in LMP2 aboard the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 Gibson, ahead of AO Racing’s PJ Hyett and AF Corse driver Luis Perez Companc.

Nicky Catsburg captured the lead of GTD Pro after not pitting under caution in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, followed by Vasser Sullivan’s Aaron Telitz on the same strategy.

This allowed both drivers to jump ahead of pole-sitter Dan Harper in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO, who held third.

Triari Competizione ran in 1-2 formation at the front of the GTD field, with the No. 021 Ferrari of Riccardo Agostini in front of the Kenton Koch-driven No. 023 sister car.

The opening hour in GTD was marred by a significant incident on the opening lap that eliminated several cars.

Manny Franco, piloting the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari, lost control in the Esses and spun across the track, after which he was collected by Brendan Iribe in the No. 70 Inception Racing machine.

In the melee that followed, the No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3 in the hands of Joey Hand, Trent Hindman’s No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of John Potter, also suffered significant damage, with the latter being confirmed as a retirement since.

The No. 45 car, however, has returned to the track after repairing a broken driveshaft.

Franco was confirmed to have been taken to a local hospital for further evaluations, while all other involved drivers were checked and released from the on-site care center.

The crash has had major implications for both the GTD championship as well as the battle for the Bob Akin Award.

As a result of the retirements for the No. 34 Ferrari and No. 44 Aston Martin, Winward Racing has been crowned champions in class as they can now no longer be overhauled in the standings.

Meanwhile, Iribe’s early exit from the race means Orey Fidani will take the Bob Akin Award for the best Bronze-rated driver in GTD for the second straight year.

Iribe and Fidani entered the final race level on points, but although Fidani’s No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R was nearly involved in the incident, he managed to continue unharmed.

Source: Sports Car 365