There were winners and losers this past Saturday at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA. The loser was my monopod. About five minutes into the race, the stem snapped, leaving the mounting screw stuck in my camera so that I could not even use my camera strap. I carried backups of everything except my monopod. I was fortunate to borrow pliers from a mechanic and remove the screw. I fastened my strap, but would need to handhold all of my panning shots, quite a challenge with the long lenses used in motorsports photography, especially at dusk and into the evening.
A great tradition of the Petit Le Mans is allowing fans access to the drivers and their cars prior to the race. The grid is open for an hour for fans to view the cars from inches away and have a chance to talk to their favorite drivers.
The Nissan Delta Wing was the most photographed car on the course, and yours truly was as guilty as anyone. Looking at the car, it is hard to believe that the Delta Wing can steer through corners. At half the weight and half the horsepower of the average prototype, it is an amazing feat of engineering that is very kind to the tires. It finished sixth, and during the race, ran as high as third. The crew deserves kudos for repairing the badly damaged rear end after the crash on Wednesday.
The Nissan Delta Wing is put through the paces coming out of turn one.
When the Number 8 car got into the back of the Number 25 car, it pushed it around and off the track into the barriers. The driver managed to
scrub off enough speed to minimize the damage, as the car drove off under
its own power.
Race winners are listed below. The fans were the biggest winners to experience the race on an absolutely beautiful Southern
autumn day. Fabulous weather, exciting racing and scrumptious bratwurst. It doesn't get any better than that. And now for some race shots and results:
The P1 winner was the Number 12 Rebellion Racing Lola driven by Andrea Belicchi, Neel Jani, and Nicolas Prost.
The P2 category winner was the Number 95 Level 5 Motorsports HPD-ARX driven by Luis Diaz, Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchet.
The Prototype Challenge (PC) class was won by the Number 06 CORE Autosport with Alex Popow, Ryan Dalziel, and Mark Wilkens guiding the Orca FLM09 around the track.
The Extreme Motorsports Ferrari was the top car in the GT class piloted by Scott Sharp, Johannes Van Oberbeek, and Toni Vilandander.
The GT Challenge category (GTC) saw the Number 30 NGT Motorsport Porsche leading the way with Henrique Cianero, Marino Farnbacher and Kakub Giermaziak at the wheel.
The crew is on overtime as Number 91 receives service with the sun setting on the track.
A crowd favorite was the Number 27 Dempsey Racing Lola (P2). Yes, Patrick Dempsey was one of the drivers along with Dane Cameron and Lawrenceville, Georgia native Joe Foster. Unfortunately, the car left the race early after a couple of contacts with other cars.
It was a tremendous day of racing excitement, fun, and beautiful weather. Next year's race date is October 19th. If you are in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend making Road Atlanta one of your stops.
Enjoy the day,
George
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