No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP Clinches Patrón Endurance Cup, Leads At Four-Hour Mark In Pe

A pair of Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup championships were decided at the four-hour mark of Saturday’s Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda – the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season finale – held in rainy conditions at Road Atlanta.

Sebastien Bourdais braved the elements and beat Jordan Taylor to lead at the end of the fourth hour, clinching the second consecutive Patrón Endurance Cup for the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Action Express Racing Corvette DP team and co-drivers Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa. Bourdais missed the Watkins Glen round and does not have the same Patrón Endurance Cup points as his co-drivers.

Also clinching the Patrón Endurance Cup in its class at the end of the first segment is the No. 93 TI Automotive/Viper Exchange Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R and drivers Al Carter and Cameron Lawrence in the GT Daytona (GTD) class. The duo is joined this weekend by Marc Goossens, who led the class at the end of the opening segment to score the maximum five points.

The Patrón Endurance Cup is a four-race endurance competition featuring 52 hours of racing at North America’s most prestigious endurance racing events. It includes the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida, Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

Patrón Endurance Cup points are awarded at specific intervals throughout each race – at the four-hour mark, eight-hour mark and finish at Road Atlanta – with the leader at the end of each segment scoring five points, four points for second, three points for third, and fourth place on back receiving two points.

A season-long battle between Corvette Racing’s No. 3 and No. 4 Corvette C7.Rs will continue into the final two Patrón Endurance Cup segments of the season. The No. 4 entry co-driven Oliver Gavin, Tommy Millner and Ryan Briscoe led, closing the gap to three points, 37-34, behind the No. 3 entry of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen.

In the Prototype Challenge (PC) class, Mike Guasch, Tom Kimber-Smith and Andrew Palmer lead in the No. 52 Cuttwood/Spyder PR1/Mathiasen ORECA FLM09, opening the gap to six points, 41-35, over Jon Bennett and Colin Braun and the No. 54 Flex Box/Composite Resources ORECA FLM09 for CORE autosport. The PR1/Mathiasen entry needs to score one more point over the final two segments than the No. 54 CORE autosport entry to clinch the Patrón Endurance Cup in the PC class.

FOX Sports 2 is currently airing the Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda until 7 p.m. ET, with IMSA.com assuming coverage from 7 - 8:30 p.m. ET. FOX Sports 2 will take over until the checkered flag beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET. IMSA.com also has continued coverage throughout the event with race-day live streaming, in-car cameras, timing and scoring and a live IMSA Radio feed.

· A pair of spins in Turn 12 within 30 minutes of each other shortly after the race’s two-hour mark – first by Michael Valiante and later by Mike Rockenfeller on the following restart – has left the points-leading No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Corvette DP entry two laps down in fifth place. The team can clinch the Prototype championship by finishing on the podium.

· It’s been a rough two days for the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR team. After setting the fastest time early in TUDOR Championship qualifying Friday, driver Earl Bamber had an incident later in the session that resulted in chassis damage. The team changed chassis overnight forcing the car to start at the back of the GT grid. Bamber quickly moved back through the field, but had a tire go down 55 minutes into Saturday’s race and slid into the Turn 2 gravel. The car was eighth after four hours, three laps down.

· The No. 54 CORE autosport ORECA FLM09 of Jon Bennett and Colin Braun currently runs fifth in PC. By reaching the minimum drive-time requirement the duo has clinched its second consecutive class championship.

· The No. 007 TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage has run in the top-five for much of the day in the GTD class. Driver Christina Nielsen is attempting to become the first female driver to win a major international sports car championship.

QUOTES

Christian Fittipaldi, Driver – No. 5 Mustang Sampling Corvette DP

“The Patrón Endurance Cup only started last year, so winning the first two in a row is definitely very big; hats off to the team, Chevy and Mustang Sampling. We make up a very solid group, and winning this proves that – being able to be in contention and winning the same championship two years in a row. There’s not much else I can say.”

Al Carter, Driver – No. 93 TI Automotive/Viper Exchange Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R

“That was the longest four hours of my life. I’m happy to wrap this up – now we can focus on the rest of the race. For this Riley/TI Motorsports team to wrap up the Patrón Endurance Cup is a big deal for Cameron (Lawrence) and myself – and the entire team. We put the deal together back in November to run only the four [endurance] races, and we’ve run every segment as if it was the checkered flag.”

John Edwards, Driver - No. 24 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE

“As far as the race goes, the rain isn’t challenging physically, but it is exhausting mentally. Now we have a 10-hour race that is going to end in the night, when the rain will be at its heaviest. That will be on me and I’ll have to survive the last two and a half hours in the rain, in the darkness.”

Contact:

nsiebens@imsa.com

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