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| 2016 Petit Le Mans: Championship Results | |
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|  | | October 02 2016 10:00:12 PM EST | Team Chevy |
| 2016 has been one of the most challenging seasons Corvette Racing has ever faced. Certainly since the GT1 glory days against Aston Martin. Ford came out of the gate and set a new benchmark for GTLM/GTE performance. Ferrari has been a top performer in every race. and BMW and Porsche are always competitive.
As usual in the GTLM class, it goes down to the final round at Petit Le Mans. The #4 Corvette lead the drivers championship by 7 points. All they had to do was finish 7th or higher, regardless of what the #67 Ford did. For the Manufactures championship, all they had to do is start the race. The #4 also lead the North American Endurance Championship by 1 point over the #67 Ford.
Qualifying for the 2016 Petit Le Mans was one of the closest in history. In GTLM, 1st through 10th were separated by 0.735 seconds. #67 Ford on pole, #3 Corvette 2nd, #4 Corvette 7th.
Photo by Michelin Alley
Race Day:
After about 1.5hr, there was a FCY. All GTLM cars made a pit stop. The #3 had to make a 2nd pit stop under the yellow for a last minute change in tire compounds, pushing them to the back of the field. After another 30 minutes, the #3 had a throttle motor issue and went behind the wall for emergency service. Luckily it was a quick fix and they only lost 2 laps.
At with 7.5hrs still on the clock, the #67 spun the #100 and had to serve a drive through penalty. Moments later the #67 started smoking and quickly went behind the wall. This effectively handed the championship to the #4 Corvette as the #67 had to win the race in order to have any shot.
At the 3.5hr mark the #912 Porsche caused a FCY due to heavy contact with a GTD Audi in Turn 2. Heavy track cleanup was needed. The #912 also received a stop plus 60 second penalty for working in a closed pit lane. There was also some track surface damage that track officials needed to inspect in Turn 3. While under this FCY the GTLM field made pit stops and the #4 crew did their magic to get out ahead of the #66 Ford and into P2 and quickly fought into the lead after the restart.
At the 4hr mark, the #4 was still leading and earned max points for current track position in the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Championship.
Shortly after the 4hr mark, a FCY was called for a track inspection. The track surface damage from earlier in the race was getting worse. Some surface patchwork was in order while pit stops went on. The #62 Ferrari managed to beat the #4 Corvette out this time. The #100 BMW also experienced an electrical issue and went behind the wall for repair. This FCY last 1 hour 5 minutes.
With 4 hours remaining, a PC car made contact with the #911 Porsche and both cars made a heavy impact with the tire wall in T4. The Porsche was able to get back but with extensive damage. This also caused a FCY for tire wall repair.
With 3.5 hours left, Marcel Fassler in the #4 Corvette went off in T1, collected a few advertisement signs and a radiator full of grass. He managed the brake hard and eject most of the grass out of the radiator in T10, but went down to P5. Meanwhile the #3 Corvette had gained a few laps back after the FCY's and was in P6 only 1 lap down.
With just over 2 hours to go the #68 Ferrari had a massive fire in the pits. Cleanup put them 2 laps down. The #67 had more issues with the drivers door not staying shut, and the #100 BMW went behind the wall with issues.
With 14 minutes to go there was a quick yellow for the #70 prototype catching fire. The race went green and Oliver Gavin gave it his best effort, even doing to fender banging with the 66 Ford, but it wasn't to be.
The #62 Ferrari won Petit Le Mans, with the #66 Ford P2, #4 Corvette P3, and #3 Corvette P4 1 lap down having fought back and regained 3 laps throughout the race.
Photo by Michelin Alley
Chevrolet and it's Corvette teams cleaned house with the championships this year.
Prototype Manufacture's Championship
Prototype Team Championship (#31 Corvette DP)
Prototype Driver's Championship (Dane Cameron & Eric Curran)
Prototype Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup (#5 Corvette DP)
GTLM Manufacture's Championship
GTLM Team Championship (#4 Corvette C7.R)
GTLM Driver's Championship (Tommy Milner & Oliver Gavin)
GTLM Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup (#4 Corvette C7.R)
Photo by Tommy Milner
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