The Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda was the 2016 edition of the Petit Le Mans automotive endurance race, held on October 1, 2016, at the Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Georgia, United States. It was the 12th and final race of the 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, [1] and the third Petit Le Mans run since the formation of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2014.
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2015. [2] It was the third consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the 19th Petit Le Mans. [2] The Petit Le Mans was the last of twelve scheduled automobile endurance races of 2016 by IMSA, and the last in the four round North American Endurance Cup (NAEC). [2] The race took place at the 12-turn, 2.540-mile (4.088 km) Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia on October 1, 2016. [2]
There were four practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third held later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour. [3]
The first practice session took place at 11:15 am ET on Thursday and ended with Olivier Pla topping the charts for Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian, with a lap time of 1:14.157. [4]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | Olivier Pla | 1:14.157 | _ |
| 2 | P | 55 | Mazda Motorsports | Jonathan Bomarito | 1:14,696 | +0.539 |
| 3 | P | 31 | Action Express Racing | Eric Curran | 1:14.842 | +0.685 |
| Source: [5] | ||||||
The second practice session took place at 3:25 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Oswaldo Negri Jr. topping the charts for Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian, with a lap time of 1:13.923. [6]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | Oswaldo Negri Jr. | 1:13.923 | _ |
| 2 | P | 70 | Mazda Motorsports | Joel Miller | 1:14.192 | +0.219 |
| 3 | P | 55 | Mazda Motorsports | Tristan Nunez | 1:14.366 | +0.443 |
| Source: [7] | ||||||
The night practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Olivier Pla topping the charts for Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian, with a lap time of 1:13.541. [8]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | Olivier Pla | 1:13.541 | _ |
| 2 | P | 55 | Mazda Motorsports | Jonathan Bomarito | 1:14.037 | +0.496 |
| 3 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | João Barbosa | 1:14.215 | +0.674 |
| Source: [9] | ||||||
The fourth and final practice session took place at 10:15 am ET on Friday and ended with Olivier Pla topping the charts for Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian, with a lap time of 1:10.786. [10]
| Pos. | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | Olivier Pla | 1:12.618 | _ |
| 2 | P | 55 | Mazda Motorsports | Tristan Nunez | 1:13.511 | +0.893 |
| 3 | P | 2 | Tequila Patrón ESM | Pipo Derani | 1:13.654 | +1.036 |
| Source: [11] | ||||||
In Friday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM and GTD cars. [12] [3]
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡. All Prototype and Prototype Challenge cars were grouped together on the starting grid, regardless of qualifying position.
| Pos | Class | No. | Team | Driver | Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 60 |  Michael Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian |  Olivier Pla | 1:13.061 | _ | 1‡ |
| 2 | P | 55 |  Mazda Motorsports | Tristan Nunez | 1:13.520 | +0.459 | 2 |
| 3 | P | 31 | Action Express Racing | Dane Cameron | 1:13.903 | +0.842 | 3 |
| 4 | P | 70 | Mazda Motorsports | Tom Long | 1:14.061 | +1.000 | 4 |
| 5 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing |  Christian Fittipaldi | 1:14.160 | +1.099 | 5 |
| 6 | P | 90 | VisitFlorida Racing |  Ryan Dalziel | 1:14.276 | +1.215 | 6 |
| 7 | P | 2 | Tequila Patrón ESM | Johannes van Overbeek | 1:14.360 | +1.299 | 7 |
| 8 | P | 0 | Panoz DeltaWing Racing | Andy Meyrick | 1:14.446 | +1.385 | 8 |
| 9 | P | 10 | Wayne Taylor Racing | Ricky Taylor | 1:14.533 | +1.472 | 16 1 |
| 10 | PC | 52 | PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports | Robert Alon | 1:16.411 | +3.350 | 9‡ |
| 11 | PC | 8 | Starworks Motorsport |  Alex Popow | 1:16.470 | +3.409 | 10 |
| 12 | PC | 20 | BAR1 Motorsports | Johnny Mowlem | 1:16.495 | +3.434 | 15 2 |
| 13 | PC | 38 | Performance Tech Motorsports | Kenton Koch | 1:16.640 | +3.579 | 11 |
| 14 | PC | 7 | Starworks Motorsport |  Stefano Coletti | 1:16.858 | +3.797 | 12 |
| 15 | PC | 85 | JDC-Miller Motorsports | Chris Miller | 1:17.205 | +4.144 | 13 |
| 16 | GTLM | 67 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Richard Westbrook | 1:18.131 | +5.070 | 17‡ |
| 17 | GTLM | 3 | Corvette Racing |  Antonio García | 1:18.283 | +5.222 | 18 |
| 18 | GTLM | 62 | Risi Competizione |  Toni Vilander | 1:18.294 | +5.233 | 19 |
| 19 | GTLM | 66 | Ford Chip Ganassi Racing | Joey Hand | 1:18.327 | +5.266 | 20 |
| 20 | GTLM | 68 | Scuderia Corsa | Daniel Serra | 1:18.349 | +5.288 | 21 |
| 21 | GTLM | 100 | BMW Team RLL | John Edwards | 1:18.382 | +5.321 | 22 |
| 22 | GTLM | 4 | Corvette Racing | Tommy Milner | 1:18.468 | +5.407 | 23 |
| 23 | GTLM | 912 | Porsche North America |  Earl Bamber | 1:18.712 | +5.651 | 24 |
| 24 | GTLM | 25 | BMW Team RLL | Bill Auberlen | 1:18.752 | +5.691 | 25 |
| 25 | GTLM | 911 | Porsche North America | Nick Tandy | 1:18.866 | +5.805 | 26 |
| 26 | PC | 88 | Starworks Motorsport | Mark Kvamme | 1:19.407 | +6.346 | 14 |
| 27 | GTD | 33 | Riley Motorsports |  Jeroen Bleekemolen | 1:21.305 | +8.244 | 27‡ |
| 28 | GTD | 73 | Park Place Motorsports | Matt McMurry | 1:21.765 | +8.704 | 28 |
| 29 | GTD | 23 | Team Seattle / Alex Job Racing |  Mario Farnbacher | 1:21.898 | +8.837 | 29 |
| 30 | GTD | 63 | Scuderia Corsa |  Christina Nielsen | 1:22.103 | +9.042 | 30 |
| 31 | GTD | 9 | Stevenson Motorsports | Lawson Aschenbach | 1:22.114 | +9.053 | 31 |
| 32 | GTD | 6 | Stevenson Motorsports | Robin Liddell | 1:22.139 | +9.078 | 32 |
| 33 | GTD | 48 | Paul Miller Racing | Madison Snow | 1:22.143 | +9.082 | 33 |
| 34 | GTD | 16 | Change Racing | Corey Lewis | 1:22.231 | +9.170 | 34 |
| 35 | GTD | 96 | Turner Motorsport | Bret Curtis | 1:22.421 | +9.360 | 35 |
| 36 | GTD | 27 | Dream Racing Motorsport |  Paolo Ruberti | 1:22.680 | +9.619 | 36 |
| 37 | GTD | 44 | Magnus Racing | John Potter | 1:22.950 | +9.889 | 37 |
| 38 | GTD | 97 | Turner Motorsport | Michael Marsal | 1:20.904 | +11.111 | 38 |
| Sources: [13] [14] | |||||||
Class winners are denoted in bold and with ‡ [15]
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