The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series finale, Motul Petit Le Mans, will feature 54 cars, the maximum number that Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta can accommodate. The 10-hour race, set for Oct. 12 on the 2.54 mile, 12-turn circuit, will determine not only the full-season champions in every category, but the Michelin Endurance Cup winners as well.
That number includes 13 cars in the GTD PRO category, as many entries as the class has seen and a number matched by GTD PRO entries in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis. Aside from the usual suspects, that number includes a Ferrari 296 GT3 entry from DragonSpeed, which entered GTD at Indy and has declared its intent to run GTD for 2025. Toni Vilander is the only driver listed on the entry so far.
In addition, Heart of Racing is once again promoting its GTD squad to GTD PRO in order to bolster its chances for drivers, team and manufacturers championships. Zacharie Robichon, Mario Farnbacher and Marco Sorensen will pilot the No. 027 Aston Martin Vantage Evo. Meanwhile, Roman De Angelis, who has been the lead driver for the GTD entry this season, moves to the No. 23, joining Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas.
Throughout the rest of the field, which increases by two cars over last year’s Petit Le Mans, the regular full-season and Michelin Endurance Cup entries include the Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 in GTP that showed so well at Indy. That brings the GTP total to 11, along with Iron Lynx’s GTD PRO and GTD entries. The Rolex 24-winning Risi Competizione No. 62 Ferrari 296 returns, looking to bounce back from an unmemorable race at Indy.
The GTP championship is almost certainly going to fall to Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 after the post-Indy penalty for the sister car changed what had been a dead heat to a 124-point gap, although it’s certainly possible for Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy to overcome the deficit at Road Atlanta. The Michelin Endurance Cup is a three-way fight between the No. 7 PPM Porsche, the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R and the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing entry. The No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 and the No. 6 PPM squad also have a shot.