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Le Mans / ALMS
ALMS: Rebellion Dominates Petit Le Mans
Anglo-Swiss squad takes commanding overall victory as both Muscle Milk, Dyson hit early trouble in the 1,000-mile enduro at Road Atlanta...
Rebellion Racing scored a dominant victory in Saturday's Petit Le Mans. (Photo: John Dagys)
As a wildcard entrant, Rebellion Racing headed into Saturday's 15th annual Petit Le Mans with only one objective, to claim the overall victory.
The Anglo-Swiss squad did just that, and in dominant fashion in the combined American and European Le Mans Series season-ender.
Neel Jani took his No. 12 Lola B12/60 Toyota across the line a hefty three laps ahead of their nearest competition, in the 1,000-mile Road Atlanta enduro that saw both Muscle Milk Pickett Racing and Dyson Racing hit trouble early.
An accident by Lucas Luhr, who collided with a GTC Porsche in the opening hour, saw the Muscle Milk HPD ARX-03a lose more than an hour for suspension repairs.
The No. 16 Dyson Lola B12/60 Mazda, meanwhile, battled intermittent electrical and fuel-related issues from the third hour, which gave the Rebellion Lola-Toyota of Jani, Nicolas Prost and Andrea Belicchi clear sailing nearly from the onset.
Having started from the pole, Rebellion proved not only to have a pace advantage over the ALMS regulars but the reliability and consistency needed to end up on top.
"I think the start was the toughest part of the race, at least for me," Jani said. "It was a big fight with the Muscle Milk car. He was always on my tail, putting a lot of pressure on me... It looked like he took a little bit too much risk, or something went wrong there. From then on, it was just about bringing the car home and not taking too many risks."
It marked the team's first overall victory in sports car competition, which is in the middle of a busy three-week stretch of races in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Rebellion locked up the FIA WEC LMP1 Privateer's trophy in last weekend's Six Hours of Fuji in Japan.
"It's been a tough three weeks," team manager Bart Hayden said. "If we'd be going off the back of two disastrous weekends going into Shanghai, I think it would have been a tough [job] myself as the team manager to lift everybody.
"Results like this, you don't need to do a lot of work as a manager. The guys have all pulled their weight. They've put the extra hours in they needed to and there has not been a single complaint along the way. I think the team spirit is immense."
Despite having finished a distant third in class, 60 laps behind the overall-winning Rebellion Lola-Toyota, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing clinched the ALMS P1 championship.
Luhr and Klaus Graf became drivers' champions along the way, following a drama-filled season for the Greg Pickett-owned organization.
"Until the race was over, I tried not to think about the championship too much," Graf said. "We won a lot of races this year and certainly deserve it at Muscle Milk Pickett Racing. This is my first championship; I came in second for the last two years, so this is very rewarding for me."
P2, the other ALMS title fight up for grabs heading into Saturday's season finale, went to Level 5 Motorsports and drivers Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut, following a dramatic victory for their No. 95 HPD ARX-03b with third driver Luis Diaz, leading an eventual 1-2 finish for the team.
Championship rivals Conquest Endurance had the race covered until a late-race puncture and pit stop for Martin Plowman, who then was hit with a stop/go penalty for speeding in the pit lane with 14 laps to go.
A win for Plowman and co-drivers David Heinemeier Hansson and Eric Lux, though, would not have changed the championship standings, though, as Level 5 clinched the title by completing 70 percent of the race distance.
"At the end, it was a matter of keep pushing until [Conquest] made a mistake or something happened. And yeah, it happened," said Diaz, who completed the final stint in the winning car. "They had a problem and they made a mistake.
"When you have that kind of pressure, it's not easy. But I think we were the ones who made the least mistakes and stayed on track. I feel really, really good to win this tough race."
The win for Tucker, Diaz and Bouchut marked Level 5's third straight class win at Petit Le Mans also was the team's third ALMS title in succession.
"We had been through this before with our first PC championship where it came down to the last race," Tucker said. "We knew it was going to be tight this year and Conquest were great competitors. We knew what we had to do. Getting to 70 percent is no easy task. We had to take it easy there... My hats off to my teammates. It's a great day for us."
Plowman recovered nearly 20 seconds in the final laps to Diaz, with the final margin being 8.20 seconds at the line. However, the team's No. 37 Morgan-Nissan was later excluded from the results due to one of its drivers going over the maximum drive time.
Level 5's No. 055 HPD of Tucker and brothers Dario and Marino Franchitti was therefore promoted to second, also aided by a last lap splash of fuel for the ELMS class-leading No. 46 TDS Racing Oreca 03 Nissan of Mathias Beche, who ended up third.
However, the result was still good enough to give TDS the ELMS title and an automatic invite to next year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The No. 055 Level 5 entry of the Franchitti brothers and now three-time ALMS champion Tucker appeared to be en route to victory but was handed a stop and hold penalty of 2 minutes and 26 minutes for improper wave-by and passing under a full-course caution with less than two hours to go.
The innovative Nissan DeltaWing, making its race debut on North American soil, came home in an impressive sixth overall and only six laps behind the overall race-winning entry.
Gunnar Jeannette and Lucas Ordonez enjoyed a trouble-free run to record the car's first-ever finish following an early retirement at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
PHOTOS: Petit Le Mans Gallery
The Anglo-Swiss squad did just that, and in dominant fashion in the combined American and European Le Mans Series season-ender.
Neel Jani took his No. 12 Lola B12/60 Toyota across the line a hefty three laps ahead of their nearest competition, in the 1,000-mile Road Atlanta enduro that saw both Muscle Milk Pickett Racing and Dyson Racing hit trouble early.
An accident by Lucas Luhr, who collided with a GTC Porsche in the opening hour, saw the Muscle Milk HPD ARX-03a lose more than an hour for suspension repairs.
The No. 16 Dyson Lola B12/60 Mazda, meanwhile, battled intermittent electrical and fuel-related issues from the third hour, which gave the Rebellion Lola-Toyota of Jani, Nicolas Prost and Andrea Belicchi clear sailing nearly from the onset.
Having started from the pole, Rebellion proved not only to have a pace advantage over the ALMS regulars but the reliability and consistency needed to end up on top.
"I think the start was the toughest part of the race, at least for me," Jani said. "It was a big fight with the Muscle Milk car. He was always on my tail, putting a lot of pressure on me... It looked like he took a little bit too much risk, or something went wrong there. From then on, it was just about bringing the car home and not taking too many risks."
It marked the team's first overall victory in sports car competition, which is in the middle of a busy three-week stretch of races in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Rebellion locked up the FIA WEC LMP1 Privateer's trophy in last weekend's Six Hours of Fuji in Japan.
"It's been a tough three weeks," team manager Bart Hayden said. "If we'd be going off the back of two disastrous weekends going into Shanghai, I think it would have been a tough [job] myself as the team manager to lift everybody.
"Results like this, you don't need to do a lot of work as a manager. The guys have all pulled their weight. They've put the extra hours in they needed to and there has not been a single complaint along the way. I think the team spirit is immense."
Despite having finished a distant third in class, 60 laps behind the overall-winning Rebellion Lola-Toyota, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing clinched the ALMS P1 championship.
Luhr and Klaus Graf became drivers' champions along the way, following a drama-filled season for the Greg Pickett-owned organization.
"Until the race was over, I tried not to think about the championship too much," Graf said. "We won a lot of races this year and certainly deserve it at Muscle Milk Pickett Racing. This is my first championship; I came in second for the last two years, so this is very rewarding for me."
P2, the other ALMS title fight up for grabs heading into Saturday's season finale, went to Level 5 Motorsports and drivers Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut, following a dramatic victory for their No. 95 HPD ARX-03b with third driver Luis Diaz, leading an eventual 1-2 finish for the team.
Championship rivals Conquest Endurance had the race covered until a late-race puncture and pit stop for Martin Plowman, who then was hit with a stop/go penalty for speeding in the pit lane with 14 laps to go.
A win for Plowman and co-drivers David Heinemeier Hansson and Eric Lux, though, would not have changed the championship standings, though, as Level 5 clinched the title by completing 70 percent of the race distance.
"At the end, it was a matter of keep pushing until [Conquest] made a mistake or something happened. And yeah, it happened," said Diaz, who completed the final stint in the winning car. "They had a problem and they made a mistake.
"When you have that kind of pressure, it's not easy. But I think we were the ones who made the least mistakes and stayed on track. I feel really, really good to win this tough race."
The win for Tucker, Diaz and Bouchut marked Level 5's third straight class win at Petit Le Mans also was the team's third ALMS title in succession.
"We had been through this before with our first PC championship where it came down to the last race," Tucker said. "We knew it was going to be tight this year and Conquest were great competitors. We knew what we had to do. Getting to 70 percent is no easy task. We had to take it easy there... My hats off to my teammates. It's a great day for us."
Plowman recovered nearly 20 seconds in the final laps to Diaz, with the final margin being 8.20 seconds at the line. However, the team's No. 37 Morgan-Nissan was later excluded from the results due to one of its drivers going over the maximum drive time.
Level 5's No. 055 HPD of Tucker and brothers Dario and Marino Franchitti was therefore promoted to second, also aided by a last lap splash of fuel for the ELMS class-leading No. 46 TDS Racing Oreca 03 Nissan of Mathias Beche, who ended up third.
However, the result was still good enough to give TDS the ELMS title and an automatic invite to next year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The No. 055 Level 5 entry of the Franchitti brothers and now three-time ALMS champion Tucker appeared to be en route to victory but was handed a stop and hold penalty of 2 minutes and 26 minutes for improper wave-by and passing under a full-course caution with less than two hours to go.
The innovative Nissan DeltaWing, making its race debut on North American soil, came home in an impressive sixth overall and only six laps behind the overall race-winning entry.
Gunnar Jeannette and Lucas Ordonez enjoyed a trouble-free run to record the car's first-ever finish following an early retirement at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
PHOTOS: Petit Le Mans Gallery
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