The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Cooper MacNeil, Gunnar Jeannette and Daniel Serra earned their first victory of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the season-closing Motul Petit Le Mans on Saturday, but also celebrating were the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini duo of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, who’s third place finish brought them the GT Daytona class title.
The #63 started from pole position but was behind the #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Alvaro Parente heading into the final hour, however Serra was able to find a way passed the Portuguese racer to claim the victory and give the trio a good ending to the season.
Parente was hoping to help Katherine Legge claim the GT Daytona drivers crown but the second-place finish for the #86 they shared with Trent Hindman, coupled with the podium finish for Sellers, Snow and Corey Lewis, saw the title go the way of Paul Miller Racing.
It was the first title for both Sellers and Snow, for Paul Miller Racing and for Lamborghini in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but their consistency throughout the season was superb, with only one result outside the top four, which was a sixth place at Virginia International Raceway.
A late race pass by Robert Renauer on Townsend Bell gave the #58 Wright Motorsports Porsche he shared with Patrick Long and Christina Nielsen fourth place on the day, with the #64 Scuderia Corsa of Bell, Frankie Montecalvo and Bill Sweedler being forced to settle for fifth. The #58 had been in contention for the win but a drive-through penalty for hitting the #63 Ferrari left them down the field.
Another team that will be thinking they should have achieved a better result will be the #29 Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi trio of Christopher Mies, Sheldon van der Linde and Daniel Morad, who were forced to settle for sixth in class despite having race-winning potential. Unfortunately, they were hampered by not one but two separate punctures that left them needing to fight back through the field.
The #71 P1 Motorsports Mercedes of JC Perez, Felipe Fraga and Maximilian Buhk claimed seventh ahead of the #33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Luca Stolz, while the #44 Magnus Racing Audi and #15 3GT Racing Lexus completed the top ten.
