Motul Petit Le Mans Entry List Notebook

October 2, 2019
Staff Report
IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It all comes down to this one.
Ten hours of racing on the ultra-fast, ultra-competitive 2.54-mile Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta circuit with IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup titles on the line, in front of a national television audience.
It’s the 22nd Annual Motul Petit Le Mans on Saturday, Oct. 12. The entry list revealed today includes 34 entries across four classes of competition, with 11 Daytona Prototype international (DPi) machines, two LMP2s, a nine-car GT Le Mans (GTLM) field and 12 GT Daytona (GTD) entries.
Television coverage of the 2019 Motul Petit Le Mans begins on the NBC Network at noon ET on Saturday, Oct. 12. The broadcast shifts exclusively to the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com from 3:00-5:30 p.m. ET. NBCSN takes over the broadcast from that point until its dramatic conclusion on Saturday night. The NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com also will have live flag-to-flag coverage.
As always, IMSA Radio will have live coverage throughout the race week on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com, with a live race broadcast airing on SiriusXM Radio.
Tickets are available now at RoadAtlanta.com
And with that, let’s take a peek at who has enjoyed success in the 10-hour race over the past 21 years:

No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R driver Oliver Gavin has the most Motul Petit Le Mans wins of any active driver with five class wins (2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010). He is one win ahead of a two-way tie for second between No. 3 Corvette driver Jan Magnussen (2004, 2005, 2008, 2010) and No. 77 Mazda Team Joest RT-24P DPi driver Timo Bernhard (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007).

No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 driver Jeroen Bleekemolen has the most Motul Petit Le Mans pole positions among active drivers with three (2010, 2011, 2016). However, the Gold-rated driver will not be eligible for a fourth this year as GTD class rules require Bronze- or Silver-rated drivers only to qualify.

Only four other drivers have multiple pole positions at Motul Petit Le Mans. Drivers with two each include No. 54 CORE autosport Nissan DPi driver Romain Dumas (2004, 2007), No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-06 DPi driver Dane Cameron (2011, 2013), No. 63 WeatherTech/Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 driver Toni Vilander (2012, 2016) and No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT driver Richard Westbrook (2015, 2016).

Corvette Racing is the winningest active team at Motul Petit Le Mans with eight victories in the 10-hour race. The team won three consecutive between 2000 and 2002 and returned to victory lane for back-to-back wins in 2004 and 2005, as well as 2007 and 2008. The team’s most recent Motul Petit Le Mans win came in 2010.

Porsche is the winningest manufacturer in the field with an even 20 victories since 1998. Audi is second with 11, followed by Chevrolet in third with 10 Motul Petit Le Mans victories.

Previous Motul Petit Le Mans Winning Drivers in 2019 Field (29)
Oliver Gavin (5) – ALMS GTS – 2002, 2004; ALMS GT1 – 2005, 2007; ALMS GT2 – 2010 
Jan Magnussen (4) – ALMS GTS – 2004; ALMS GT1 – 2005, 2008; ALMS GT2 – 2010 
Timo Bernhard (4) – ALMS GT – 2003, 2004; ALMS P2 – 2006, 2007 
Nick Tandy (3) – ALMS GT – 2013, GTLM/Overall – 2015, GTLM – 2018 
Bill Auberlen (2) – ALMS GT – 2001, GTLM – 2017 
Romain Dumas (2) – ALMS GT – 2003, ALMS P2 – 2007 
Ryan Briscoe (2) – ALMS P2 – 2008, 2013 
Joao Barbosa (2) – ALMS P2 – 2011, P – 2015
Jeroen Bleekemolen (2) – ALMS GTC – 2011, GTD – 2016 
Toni Vilander (2) – ALMS GT – 2012, GTLM – 2016 
Bryan Sellers (2) – ALMS GT – 2013, GTLM – 2014 
Spencer Pumpelly (2) – ALMS GTC – 2013, GTD – 2015 
Jordan Taylor (2) – P/Overall – 2014, 2018 
Renger van der Zande (2) – PC – 2014, P/Overall – 2018 
Patrick Pilet (2) – GTLM/Overall – 2015, GTLM – 2018
Dirk Mueller (1) – ALMS GT – 1999 
Helio Castroneves (1) – ALMS P2 – 2008 
Simon Pagenaud (1) – ALMS P2 – 2010
Mario Farnbacher (2) – ALMS GTC – 2012  
Ricky Taylor (1) – P/Overall – 2014
Sebastien Bourdais (1) – P – 2015  
Olivier Pla (1) – P/Overall – 2016 
James Calado (1) – GTLM – 2016 
Ben Keating (1) – GTD – 2016 
Connor De Phillippi (1) – GTD – 2017
Christopher Mies (1) – GTD – 2017 
Frederic Makowiecki (1) – GTLM – 2018  
Daniel Serra (1) – GTD – 2018 
Cooper MacNeil (1) – GTD – 2018 

Previous Motul Petit Le Mans Pole-Winning Drivers in 2019 Field (17)
Jeroen Bleekemolen (3) – ALMS GTC – 2010, 2011; GTD – 2016 
Romain Dumas (2) – ALMS GT – 2004, ALMS P2 – 2007 
Dane Cameron (2) – ALMS PC – 2011, 2013
Toni Vilander (2) – ALMS GT – 2012, GTLM – 2017 
Richard Westbrook (2) – P/Overall – 2015, GTLM – 2016 
Bill Auberlen (1) – ALMS GT3 – 1998 
Dirk Mueller (1) – ALMS GT – 1999 
Oliver Gavin (1) – ALMS GTS – 2004 
Ryan Briscoe (1) – ALMS P2 – 2008 
Spencer Pumpelly (1) – ALMS GTC – 2013 
Nick Tandy (1) – GTLM – 2014 
Jack Hawksworth (1) – PC – 2014 
Earl Bamber (1) – GTLM – 2015 
Helio Castroneves (1) – P/Overall – 2017 
Pipo Derani (1) – P/Overall – 2018 
John Edwards (1) – GTLM – 2018 
Daniel Serra (1) – GTD – 2018

Previous Motul Petit Le Mans Winning Teams in 2019 Field (13)
Corvette Racing (8) – ALMS GTS – 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004; ALMS GT1 – 2005, 2007, 2008; ALMS GT2 – 2010 
Risi Competizione (4) – WSC/Overall – 1998 (Doyle-Risi); ALMS GT2 – 2008, 2009; GTLM – 2016 
Penske (3) – ALMS P2 – 2006, 2007, 2008 
PR1-Mathiasen Motorsports (3) – ALMS PC – 2011; PC – 2015, 2016 
CORE autosport/Porsche GT Team (3) – ALMS PC – 2012, GTLM/Overall – 2015; GTLM – 2018 
Wayne Taylor Racing (2) – P/Overall – 2014, 2018 
Paul Miller Racing (1) – GTD – 2014 
Action Express Racing (1) – P – 2015 Shank (1) – P/Overall – 2016 
Riley (1) – GTD – 2016 
BMW Team RLL (1) – GTLM – 2017 
Montaplast by Land Motorsport (1) – GTD – 2017 
Scuderia Corsa (1) – GTD – 2018 

Previous Motul Petit Le Mans Winning Manufacturers in 2019 Field (9)
Porsche – 20
Audi – 11
Chevrolet – 10 
Ferrari – 9 
BMW – 2 
Cadillac – 1
Mazda – 1
Nissan – 1 
Ford – 1
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