1998 Petit Le Mans

The 1998 Petit Le Mans was the seventh 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 on October 11, 1998.

The Track map of Road Atlanta

Development

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.

Official results

Class winners in bold.

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
					Engine
1	LMP1	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	38	Champion Motors	Thierry Boutsen Bob Wollek Ralf Kelleners	Porsche 911 GT1 Evo	M	381
					Porsche 3.2 L Turbo Flat-6
4	WSC	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	81	Freisinger Motorsport	Michel Ligonnet Lance Stewart	Porsche 911 GT2	P	337
					Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6
8	GT1	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	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	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

Statistics

• Pole Position - Allan McNish (#26 Porsche AG) - 1:13.754
• Fastest Lap - Allan McNish (#26 Porsche AG) - 1:15.239
• Average Speed - 164.62 km/h

Post-Race

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.

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.

External links

• 1998 Petit Le Mans results (WSRP)
• 1998 Petit Le Mans results (WSPR-Racing)
• 1998 Petit Le Mans Photos and News Archived 2010-10-08 at the Wayback Machine