New Zealanders Scott Dixon and Hunter McElrea have stood atop the podium in their respective classes in IMSA’s final endurance race of the season; Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Dixon and co-drivers Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais came back from two laps down to win the GTP (hypercar) class and finish the 27th edition of the race first overall in the #01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, operated by Chip Ganassi Racing.
The victory comes in the team’s final outing with Cadillac after four seasons together.
A pair of early drive through penalties put the team on the backfoot in the opening hour, but they fought their way back to the lead lap with four hours remaining.
Van der Zande hunted down Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Penske Porsche at Turn 1 in the final 15 minutes of the 10 hour race for the team to hit the front for the first time.
Flickering headlights in the Atlanta night put the team at risk of being ordered to pit lane in the closing minutes if both lights remained off, but van der Zande was able to get one or both lights to stay on intermittently until the checkered flag
Tandy, joined by Mathieu Jaminet and Kevin Estre in the #06 Penske Porsche 963, followed van der Zande home 2.948 seconds later.
Third place for the #07 Penske Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron, who were joined by Australia’s Matt Cameron, was enough for them to clinch the GTP team, driver and manufacturers championships for the full season and the Endurance Cup.
The Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Kiwi Tom Blomqvist, Jack Aitken and Pipo Derani, which had qualified on pole, finished fourth overall.
There was heartbreak for the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06, which New Zealander Brendon Hartley shared with Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor.
With just under one hour remaining, Taylor was working through lapped traffic but came across the #55 Ford Mustang GT3 of Corey Lewis, which was facing the wrong way after a spin at Turn 5.
The team were just half a second off the lead at the time, and on track to take the position. Taylor admitted he didn’t even see the stricken GT3 until the impact, which detroyed the left side of the GTP machine.
In LMP2, McElrea and co-drivers Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen were victotious in the #11 TDS Racing Oreca LMP2 07.
The trio entered the round tied on Endurance cup points with Inter Europol’s Nick Boulle, Jakub Smiechowsk, and Tom Dillmann, but clinched the title with their win, while their rivals finished fourth.
Jensen pulled away from the field off the fifth and final restart, which came with 35 minutes remaining, to bring the car home 17 seconds clear in their class, in eighth overall.
Earl Bamber, Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner finished 12th in the GTD Pro class in Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Milner was at the wheel early in the second hour when he came into contact with Ben Keating’s spun LMP2 #2. The contact ripped the rear bodywork off Keating’s car and sent Milner into the barriers.
They would return later in the race but finished a distant 56 laps behind GTD Pro winners Mirko Bortolotti, Jordan Pepper and Franck Perera in Iron Lynx’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2.
The 2025 IMSA season begins with the Rolex 24 at Daytona on January 25-26.
