BRASELTON, Ga. – Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s pit crew proved to be the difference Saturday night (Oct. 1). They were able to get Tom Blomqvist out ahead of Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque on the final round of stops. From there, Blomqvist was able to hold on to not only win the Motul Petit Le Mans for himself, Helio Castroneves and Oliver Jarvis, but also win the final DPi championship for himself and Jarvis.
Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist led from the pole, but quickly ended up in a battle with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Earl Bamber. Meanwhile, DPi points leader Ricky Taylor made a stop at the end of the first lap to change tires and dropped way down the order. Why? If you remember, Taylor spun his Acura ARX-05 at turn 5 during qualifying on Friday.
Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque entered the weekend with a 19-point lead over Blomqvist and Jarvis, less than the difference between first and second-place points. Blomqvist winning the pole dropped that margin to 14. Had Wayne Taylor Racing elected to change the damaged tires, they would have been stripped of the 30 points that they earned for qualifying third. They would have unofficially lost the points lead before the race even started.
Bamber was able to snatch the away on lap 6 and pulled away to a decent advantage. He then nearly threw it away when he had contact with AF Corse’s Simon Mann, who ended up off-course. Bamber ended up with a warning from the stewards.
The early part of the race was a bit caution-plagued. CarBahn Motorsport with Peregrine Racing’s Robert Megennis stalled on-track early on to draw the first caution. Unfortunately, that issue could not be fixed, resulting in the No. 39 Lamborghini being out after completing 22 laps. The yellow more or less bailed out Taylor, who was able to catch up.
The Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillacs seemed to have the most speed and led comprehensively early in the race. However, they also used more fuel, which caused problems as the race went on.
Another team that was on the ball as well was JDC-Miller MotorSports with their Cadillac. The team led the race overall with Richard Westbrook behind the wheel. Shortly after Loic Duval got in the car, he came across the GTD Lexus of VasserSullivan’s Aaron Telitz. Duval made an aggressive move to get past and contact was made. As a result, both drivers spun down the hill and went hard into the tire barrier. Both…
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