Credit: LAT Images / Copyright: © 2023 Jake Galstad
After six hours of racing, Scott Dixon in the #01 Cadillac V Series.R is situated at the front of the field at Road Atlanta, as the race headed into the second half of the 10-hour length.
Four hours of racing marked a continuation of the drama and action of the 26th running of Petit Le Mans, and further to the six-hour mark saw the general classification settle compared to the incident-filled start.
The fifth hour of racing, however, began in drama for the GTD Pro championship-winning #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 after it ran off the track and into a sponsor banner, which was held down by sandbags. The bodywork caught onto a curb and ripped off the whole front end at Turn 4.
With debris at the ‘esses’ and down the hill to Turn 10, a Full Course Yellow was deployed.
Philipp Eng in the #24 BMW Team RLL GTP lead the race through the pit stop cycle, where some pitted and others stayed out.
Reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden in the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport followed the leading #01 Cadillac V Series.R of van der Garde at the restart, asserting a strong start to his maiden GTP race stint.
Meanwhile, the #60 was forced to serve a drive-through penalty after their mechanics worked outside the pit box in an earlier stop.
Harry Tincknell in the #59 Proton Competition Porsche 963 had a brief off-track excursion, though made it back onto the circuit although lost his third place to Eng.
Mikkel Jensen in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 extended a confident lead in the LMP2 class over the #04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR with Nolan Siegal.
Despite Tincknell’s earlier off-track moment, he turned out a strong form of pace in his Porsche as he chased down Newgarden and took third back with a move into the Turn 10 braking zone on the #7.
Soon enough, Tincknell kept the fight on Nick Yelloly’s #25 BMW M V8 Hybrid for second place, although the BMW RLL driver was able to keep him a
The positions largely remained the same, albeit with drivers running close to one another, and that BMW Team RLL swapped the two BMW M Hybrid V8s which struggled to match their rivals throughout the next stint.
As the sixth hour began, misfortune continued for Vasser Sullivan’s #12 Lexus which went behind the wall.
GTD Pro leader Tommy Milner lost drive in his #3 Corvette C8.R and ground to a halt at Turn 3, as a flatbed truck retrieved it during a deployed caution period. It was later understood that it was a transmission issue which hampered their winning chances to race retirement before the Z06 GT3.R package next year.
In the #5 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche, former Formula 1 champion and NASCAR Garage 56 driver Jenson Button marked his maiden IMSA race stint in positive form, setting the quickest lap of his GTP after a few laps out.
After a period of prolonged, settled race running, the #38 LMP3 was in the wall at Turn 4 after making contact with a #023 Triarsi Competizione GTD Ferrari 296, who were awarded a drive-through for incident responsibility.
Indycar 2023 runner-up Scott Dixon led the way in the #01 Cadillac, followed by Jack Aitken in the #31 and Ricky Taylor in the #10 pole-sitter Wayne Taylor Acura ARX-06.
In the LMP2 class, Ben Hanley led in the #04 Crowdstrike Racing with APR, followed by Huffaker in the #11 TDS Racing and Paul-Loup Chatin’s #52 PR1 Mathiasen.
LMP3 was being led by Dakota Dickerson’s #30 Jr Three Ligier, with Josh Burdon in the #74 Riley in second, and Lars Kern in third with the #13 AWA.
GTD Pro was led by Franck Perera’s #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, followed by the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Daniel Juncadella, and the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin of David Pittard.
Finally in GTD, the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3.R was in the class-lead with Zacharie Robichon at the wheel, followed by two Mercedes-AMGs behind – Phillip Ellis for #57 Winward Racing and Michel Grenier in the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsport machine.
Keyword: Dixon at the front as Petit Le Mans surpasses halfway running