The 1998 Petit Le Mans was a sportscar race for the 1998 IMSA GT Championship season, then known as the Professional SportsCar Racing series. It also served as a prelude to the first American Le Mans Series race held at Sebring in 1999. Don Panoz's American Le Mans Series was developed with the backing of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), the ruling body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It took place at the Road Atlanta race track near Braselton, Georgia on October 11, 1998. [1]
Following the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1992, sportscar racing was left without a major worldwide series in which to compete. The 24 Hours of Le Mans remained a remnant, still competed by a large number of sportscars, but mostly on a single race basis. Various sportscar leagues had sprung up since the WSC's demise, including the International Motor Sports Association's replacement for their Camel GTP series, the Prototype SportsCar Racing series. In Europe, two series were also developed, the FIA Sportscar Championship and the FIA GT Championship, although they were not combined like IMSA's series.
The Automobile Club de l'Ouest, wanting to create a new worldwide series, made an agreement with Don Panoz, owner of the Road Atlanta racing course. The ACO would agree to lend the Le Mans name out to Panoz for the creation of an event called the Petit Le Mans (French for little Le Mans). The race would be similar to the 12 Hours of Sebring, in that it did not run a full 24 hours like Le Mans. Instead, the race would be 10 hours or 1,000 miles (1,600 km), whichever came first. The series would become an experiment for the ACO, in which if enough teams showed interest in Petit Le Mans, the ACO would look into developing a series around the same formula. In order to help drive interest, the ACO promised that the winners of Petit Le Mans would earn automatic invitations to the 24 Hours of Le Mans without having to apply or earn favor with the ACO. This custom continues to be utilized in the Petit Le Mans, despite American Le Mans Series champions also receiving invites.
IMSA, which normally ran at Road Atlanta during their seasons, agreed to allow a joint race for their series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans competitors. However, each series ran slightly different formulas for their competitors, thus forcing the organizers to create seven different classes. LMP1, LMGT1, and LMGT2 for the ACO compliant cars, and WSC, GT1, GT2, and GT3 for IMSA's competitors. Even though both organizers used the GT1 and GT2 names the classes were not actually the same, which is why the ACO classes are preceded by LM.
Class winners are marked W.
| Pos | Class | W | No | Team | Drivers | Chassis | Tyre | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engine | ||||||||
| 1 | LMP1 | W | 7 |  Doyle-Risi Racing |  Eric van de Poele  Wayne Taylor  Emmanuel Collard | Ferrari 333 SP | P | 391 |
| Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12 | ||||||||
| 2 | LMP1 | 77 |  Porsche AG Joest Racing |  Michele Alboreto  Stefan Johansson Jörg Müller | Porsche LMP1-98 | M | 391 | |
| Porsche Type-935 3.2 L Turbo Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 3 | LMGT1 | W | 38 | Champion Motors | Thierry Boutsen Bob Wollek Ralf Kelleners | Porsche 911 GT1 Evo | M | 381 |
| Porsche 3.2 L Turbo Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 4 | WSC | W | 8 | Transatlantic Racing Services | Butch Leitzinger Scott Schubot Henry Camferdam | Riley & Scott Mk III | D | 378 |
| Ford 5.0 L V8 | ||||||||
| 5 | WSC | 88 | Dollahite Racing | Bill Dollahite Mike Davies Anthony Lazzaro | Ferrari 333 SP | Y | 365 | |
| Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12 | ||||||||
| 6 | LMP1 | 63 |  AutoExe Motorsports Downing Atlanta | Yojiro Terada Jim Downing Howard Katz | AutoExe (Kudzu) AE99 | G | 349 | |
| Mazda 2.6 L 4-Rotor | ||||||||
| 7 | LMGT2 | W | 81 | Freisinger Motorsport | Michel Ligonnet Lance Stewart | Porsche 911 GT2 | P | 337 |
| Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 8 | GT1 | W | 4 | Panoz Motorsports | Scott Pruett Éric Bernard  Andy Wallace  David Brabham | Panoz Esperante GTR-1 | M | 335 |
| Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8 | ||||||||
| 9 | GT3 | W | 76 | Team A.R.E. | Peter Argetsinger Richard Polidori Angelo Cilli | Porsche 911 Carrera RSR | Y | 335 |
| Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 10 | GT3 | 6 | Prototype Technology Group |  Ross Bentley Darren Law Jeff Schafer David Besnard | BMW M3 | Y | 328 | |
| BMW 3.2 L I6 | ||||||||
| 11 | LMGT2 | 72 | Konrad Motorsport |  Franz Konrad  Jan Lammers | Porsche 911 GT2 | D | 322 | |
| Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 12 | LMGT1 | 07 | Panoz Motorsports | Doc Bundy  John Nielsen Christophe Tinseau | Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Q9 | M | 317 | |
| Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8 Zytek Hybrid Electric | ||||||||
| 13 | GT2 | W | 04 | CJ Motorsport | John Morton Ron Fellows John Graham | Porsche 911 GT2 | P | 311 |
| Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 14 | LMGT2 | 00 | Larbre Compétition | Patrice Goueslard Stéphane Ortelli Jack Leconte | Porsche 911 GT2 | M | 311 | |
| Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 15 | GT2 | 75 | Pettit Racing | Cameron Worth Scott Sansone | Mazda RX-7 | ? | 294 | |
| Mazda 2.0 L 3-Rotor | ||||||||
| 16 | GT3 | 1 | Prototype Technology Group | Peter Cunningham Brian Simo Terry Borcheller  Javier Quiros | BMW M3 | Y | 289 | |
| BMW 3.2 L I6 | ||||||||
| 17 DNF | GT3 | 10 | Prototype Technology Group | Bill Auberlen Mark Simo Andy Pilgrim | BMW M3 | Y | 281 | |
| BMW 3.2 L I6 | ||||||||
| 18 DNF | WSC | 39 | Matthews-Colucci Racing | David Murry Jim Matthews Hurley Haywood | Riley & Scott Mk III | P | 273 | |
| Ford 5.0 L V8 | ||||||||
| 19 | GT3 | 86 | G&W Motorsport | Steve Marshall Danny Marshall Sylvain Tremblay | Porsche 911 Carrera RSR | ? | 271 | |
| Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 20 DNF | LMGT1 | 26 | Porsche AG | Allan McNish Uwe Alzen Yannick Dalmas | Porsche 911 GT1-98 | M | 235 | |
| Porsche 3.2 L Turbo Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 21 DNF | WSC | 28 | Intersport Racing | Jon Field Jeret Schroeder Joaquin DeSoto John Mirro | Riley & Scott Mk III | G | 229 | |
| Ford 5.0 L V8 | ||||||||
| 22 DNF | LMGT2 | 73 | Konrad Motorsport | Angelo Zadra Peter Kitchak Charles Slater | Porsche 911 GT2 | D | 157 | |
| Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 | ||||||||
| 23 DNF | GT3 | 12 | T.C. Kline | Randy Pobst Pete Halsmer Shane Lewis | BMW M3 | ? | 96 | |
| BMW 3.2 L I6 | ||||||||
| 24 DNF | GT3 | 96 |  Team Ecuador | Henry Taleb Xavier Collado Rob Wilson | Nissan 240SX | Y | 63 | |
| Nissan 2.4 L I4 | ||||||||
| 25 DNF | WSC | 27 | Doran Enterprises | Didier Theys  Fredy Lienhard Mauro Baldi | Ferrari 333 SP | Y | 59 | |
| Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12 | ||||||||
| 26 DNF | GT2 | 68 | Charles Coker Jr. | Charles Coker Jr. Joe Varde Joe Foster Dave White | Porsche 968 Turbo RS | P | 50 | |
| Porsche 3.0 L Turbo I4 | ||||||||
| 27 DNF | LMGT2 | 59 | Marcos Racing International | Cor Euser Christian Vann Harald Becker | Marcos Mantara LM600 | D | 49 | |
| Chevrolet 6.0 L V8 | ||||||||
| 28 DNF | WSC | 29 | Intersport Racing | Sam Brown Ken Dromm Simon Gregg Jacek Mucha | Riley & Scott Mk III | G | 31 | |
| Ford 5.0 L V8 | ||||||||
| 29 DNF | GT3 | 23 | Alex Job Racing | Kelly Collins Darryl Havens Cort Wagner | Porsche 911 Carrera RSR | P | 0 | |
| Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6 | ||||||||
| DNS | GT1 | 5 | Panoz Motorsports | Johnny O'Connell Jamie Davies Éric Bernard | Panoz Esperante GTR-1 | M | - | |
| Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8 | ||||||||
| DNS | LMP1 | 21 | Solution F | Philippe Gache Anthony Beltoise Jérôme Policand | Riley & Scott Mk III | P | - | |
| Ford 5.0 L V8 |
With a total of 31 entrants, including a large number of European teams, the ACO considered the race a success. The only downside was that BMW, who had initially entered their V8-powered Riley & Scott Mk IIIs, did not show up for the race. That car tested after the race, alongside the new Lola B98/10. The ACO and Don Panoz pushed ahead with their plans and announced the American Le Mans Series for 1999. IMSA, whose own racing series was faltering, decided to take instead take over as sanctioning body for the new American Le Mans Series.
The #26 Porsche 911 GT1, which had won the pole position for the race, did not finish the race; the car, piloted by Yannick Dalmas, infamously flipped in a blowover between turns 8 and 9. This incident, as well as similar blowover incidents to the BMW V12 LMR during the 2000 Petit Le Mans and the Mercedes-Benz CLR during the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, resulted in Champion Racing not racing a GT1-98 and new regulations introduced in 2004 that changed the cars' geometry and reduced the chance of blow-overs. [2]
The ACO would repeat later this kind of one-off experimental race in preparation for new series, with the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km, the 2000 Race of a Thousand Years, the 2003 1000km of Le Mans and the 2009 1000 km of Okayama.