The 18th Annual petit Le Mans presented by Mazda was the 2015 version of the Petit Le Mans automotive endurance race, was held on October 1–3 2015 at the Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Georgia. This was the second Petit Le Mans in the United SportsCar Championship. The race was rain shorted for the second time with only eight hours of racing instead of the maximum 10 hours. The race was won overall by Richard Lietz, Patrick Pilet, and Nick Tandy in the #911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR. Originally scheduled to run for 10 hours, the race was concluded after 8 hours (199 laps) were completed due to heavy rain, darkness, visibility, and hydroplaning.[1] This marked the first time in the event's history that a GT car won overall.[2] [3]
The official entry list consisted of 37 cars, including 9 in prototype, 8 in prototype challenge, 8 in GTLM and 12 in GTD.[4]
There were four practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, 3 on Thursday and one on Friday.[5]
The first practice session took place at 11:10 am ET on Thursday and ended with Oswaldo Negri Jr. topping the charts for Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian, with a lap time of 1:15.163.[6]
| Class | Team | Driver | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | Oswaldo Negri Jr. | 1:15.163 | _ |
| 2 | P | 01 | Chip Ganassi Racing | Scott Pruett | 1:15.627 | +0.464 |
| 3 | P | 0 | DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/TracFone | Katherine Legge | 1:15.757 | +0.594 |
| Source:[7] | ||||||
The second practice session took place at 3:35 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Joey Hand topping the charts for Chip Ganassi Racing, with a lap time of 1:16.937.[8]
| Class | Team | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 01 | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:16.937 | _ |
| 2 | P | 0 | DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/TracFone | 1:17.155 | +0.218 |
| 3 | P | 31 | Action Express Racing | 1:17.352 | +0.415 |
| Source:[9] | |||||
The night practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Jordan Taylor topping the charts for Wayne Taylor Racing, with a lap time of 1:29.369.[10]
| Class | Team | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 10 | Wayne Taylor Racing | 1:29.369 | _ |
| 2 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | 1:29.436 | +0.067 |
| 3 | P | 01 | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:29.421 | +2.052 |
| Source:[11] | |||||
The fourth and final practice session took place at 10:05 am ET on Friday and ended with João Barbosa topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:23.262.[12]
| Class | Team | Driver | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | João Barbosa | 1:23.262 | _ |
| 2 | P | 01 | Chip Ganassi Racing | Scott Pruett | 1:23.626 | +0.394 |
| 3 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche North America | Nick Tandy | 1:24.015 | +0.783 |
| Source:[13] | ||||||
Richard Westbrook secured overall pole for the event. [14]
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by .
| Class | Team | Driver | Time | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 90 | VisitFlorida.com Racing | Richard Westbrook | 1:27.860 | _ | 1 |
| 2 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | Christian Fittipaldi | 1:28.920 | +1.060 | 2 |
| 3 | P | 01 | Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates | Joey Hand | 1:29.627 | +1.767 | 3 |
| 4 | GTLM | 912 | Porsche North America | Earl Bamber | 1:30.304 | +2.444 | 4 |
| 5 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche North America | Nick Tandy | 1:30.398 | +2.538 | 5 |
| 6 | P | 10 | Wayne Taylor Racing | Ricky Taylor | 1:30.621 | +2.761 | 6 |
| 7 | P | 31 | Action Express Racing | Dane Cameron | 1:30.884 | +3.024 | 7 |
| 8 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Oliver Gavin | 1:31.685 | +3.825 | 8 |
| 9 | GTLM | 24 | BMW Team RLL | Lucas Luhr | 1:31.763 | +3.903 | 9 |
| 10 | LMPC | 52 | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | Tom Kimber-Smith | 1:32.378 | +4.518 | 10 |
| 11 | LMPC | 16 | BAR1 Motorsports | Johnny Mowlem | 1:32.924 | +5.064 | 11 |
| 12 | GTLM | 62 | Risi Competizione | Giancarlo Fisichella | 1:32.989 | +5.129 | 12 |
| 13 | GTLM | 25 | BMW Team RLL | Bill Auberlen | 1:33.680 | +5.820 | 13 |
| 14 | GTLM | 3 | Corvette Racing | Antonio García | 1:33.773 | +5.913 | 14 |
| 15 | PC | 88 | Starworks Motorsport | Alex Popow | 1:33.903 | +6.043 | 15 |
| 16 | PC | 11 | RSR Racing | Chris Cumming | 1:35.825 | +7.965 | 16 |
| 17 | PC | 85 | JDC-Miller MotorSports | Chris Miller | 1:36.838 | +10.260 | 17 |
| 18 | PC | 8 | Starworks Motorsport | Mirco Schultis | 1:38.120 | +10.260 | 18 |
| 19 | GTD | 93 | Riley Motorsports | Cameron Lawrence | 1:38.295 | +10.435 | 19 |
| 20 | GTD | 73 | Park Place Motorsports | Spencer Pumpelly | 1:38.886 | +11.026 | 20 |
| 21 | GTD | 22 | Alex Job Racing | Leh Keen | 1:38.899 | +11.039 | 21 |
| 22 | P | 0 | Claro/TracFone DeltaWing Racing | Katherine Legge | 1:39.618 | +11.758 | 22 |
| 23 | GTD | 45 | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Guy Cosmo | 1:41.604 | +13.744 | 23 |
| 24 | GTD | 33 | Riley Motorsports | Ben Keating | 1:41.698 | +13.838 | 24 |
| 25 | GTD | 63 | Scuderia Corsa | Jeff Segal | 1:41.750 | +13.890 | 25 |
| 26 | GTD | 64 | Scuderia Corsa | Daniel Serra | 1:42.627 | +14.767 | 26 |
| 27 | PC | 54 | CORE Autosport | Anthony Lazzaro | 1:42.775 | +14.915 | 27 |
| 28 | GTD | 007 | TRG-AMR | Christina Nielsen | 1:42.911 | +15.051 | 28 |
| 29 | GTD | 48 | Paul Miller Racing | Dion von Moltke | 1:43.620 | +15.760 | 29 |
| 30 | GTD | 23 | Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing | Mario Farnbacher | 1:44.320 | +16.460 | 30 |
| 31 | GTD | 44 | Magnus Racing | John Potter | 1:47.000 | +19.140 | 31 |
| 32 | GTLM | 17 | Team Falken Tire | Bryan Sellers | No time | _ | 32 |
| 33 | P | 07 | Mazda Motorsports | None | No time | _ | 33 |
| 34 | PC | 38 | Performance Tech Motorsports | None | No time | _ | 34 |
| 35 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | None | No time | _ | 35 |
| 36 | P | 70 | Mazda Motorsports | None | No time | _ | 36 |
| 37 | GTD | 97 | Turner Motorsport | None | No time | _ | 37 |
| Source:[15] | |||||||
Class winners denoted in bold and with .