This weekend’s 10-hour Petit Le Mans finale will be a shootout between Porsche, Acura, BMW and Cadillac with all three GTP titles up for grabs between multiple contenders at Road Atlanta.
The factory Porsche 963 squad has won three of the eight GTP events so far, with Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet leading its charge – despite having a race victory at Watkins Glen taken away in post-race scrutineering.
They are in third place in the drivers’ championship, five points behind the championship-leading Action Express Cadillac of Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani, and two points behind Wayne Taylor Racing's Acura of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor – with the best placed of that trio of crews in this weekend's race likely to secure the title.
“We’re in a winner takes all situation, which is the way we like it,” PPM boss Jonathan Diuguid told Motorsport.com. “We do this to succeed together and that’s what we’ll try to do this weekend.
“We’ve obviously looked at all the different scenarios with respect to that, whether it’s manufacturers’, teams’ or drivers’ points, and to be honest all the scenarios line up to one thing: We need to finish ahead of our competitors.
“In the manufacturers’ championship, we need a Porsche in front of all the Cadillacs, and then we’ll be able to achieve that. As far as the teams’ and drivers’ goes, we need the #6 car [Tandy and Jaminet] primarily, based off points, in front of Cadillac, Acura and BMW.
“All points lead to one end, and that’s to win the race. And that’s our focus. We can finish 1-2 in any order, and it doesn’t matter.
“So the only team order will be to finish 1-2 and we’ll work it out from there.”
Porsche leads the constructors’ championship by eight points from Cadillac, while the Action Express-run Whelen Engineering Caddy heads the teams’ points by three points from WTR’s Acura, with Porsche in third but, again, only five points off the top spot.
Diuguid stated that Porsche gives no priority to any of the three available titles, but admitted that the manufacturers’ crown has been at the forefront of its thinking in recent events.
“In terms of applying weight on the championships, they’re all available to win,” he added. “Obviously the manufacturers’ championship has been our focus for the last few events, and now we’ve found ourselves in a position to win them all.
“If you look at the last two events we’ve performed at a very high level with both cars. We just hope to continue that into Atlanta and we’ll take the scenarios as they come.”
IMSA GTP drivers' championship entering Petit Le Mans:
| Pos | Drivers | Points | Races | |||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||
| 1 | Alexander Sims (#31 Cadillac) | 2460 | 285 | 385 | 284 | 328 | 320 | 270 | 285 | 303 |
| 1 | Pipo Derani (#31 Cadillac) | 2460 | 285 | 385 | 284 | 328 | 320 | 270 | 285 | 303 |
| 2 | Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Acura) | 2457 | 350 | 310 | 275 | 306 | 250 | 352 | 328 | 286 |
| 2 | Ricky Taylor (#10 Acura) | 2457 | 350 | 310 | 275 | 306 | 250 | 352 | 328 | 286 |
| 3 | Mathieu Jaminet (#6 Porsche) | 2455 | 252 | 328 | 375 | 352 | 220 | 282 | 264 | 382 |
| 3 | Nick Tandy (#6 Porsche) | 2455 | 252 | 328 | 375 | 352 | 220 | 282 | 264 | 382 |
