Trans-Am | Motorsports Photography by Clark McInnis

The 13th Annual Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta turned out to be a great event, after the disappointing rain shortened event from the previous year. Adding to the excitement was the return of the Audi vs. Peugeot battle, the addition of the Le Mans Prototype Challenge and Grand Touring Challenge classes in 2010 by the American Le Mans Series, and Petit Le Mans being included in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. And once again Petit Le Mans is the last race of the American Le Mans Series, which is, in my opinion, as it should be.

Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship

The Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Championship features two classes (Lites 1 and Lites 2) of sports racer prototype chassis.

In Race 1 on Thursday, Charlie Shears started from the pole, but Anthony Nicolosi and Shears’ teammate, Gary Gibson, got by him on the first lap with Nicolosi taking the lead and leading the first 12 laps. Gibson got by Nicolosi on lap 13 and led to the end, taking the win in Lites 1.

John Weisberg started from pole in Lites 2 and Eric Vassian started from the back of the field. Vassian worked his way through the field, and after a full course caution on laps 5 and 6, found himself in striking distance of Weisberg. Vassian kept the pressure on Weisburg for the last few laps and on the last lap made the pass for the lead in the Turn 10 complex to take the win at his home track.

In Race 2 on Friday, Nicolosi once again jumped to the front on the first lap, but this time never looked back and went on to take the Lites 1 win. His first win of the year in the last race of the season.

The Lites 2 Championship went down to the last race of the year. Weisberg started the race 3 points ahead of Lee Alexander. Eric Vassian had pole position for the Lites 2 class, but this time Weisberg passed Vassian for the lead early in the race and went on to win the race and the Lites 2 championship. Charlie Shears had clinched the Lites 1 championship at the previous event at Mosport.

Eric Vassian is an Atlanta Region SCCA member and is the owner of West Race Cars in Buford, GA. All of the cars in Lites 2 are West race cars.


Gary Gibson Core Autosport Elan DP02 Winner in Lites 1 and overall in Race 1. 2nd in Lites 1 and overall in Race 2.	Jon Brownson Eurosport Racing Elan DP02 2nd in Lites 1 and overall in Race 1. 3rd in Lites 1 and overall in Race 2.


Anthony Nicolosi Performance Tech Elan DP02 3rd in Lites 1 and overall in Race 1. Winner in Lites 1 and overall in Race 2.	Eric Vassian WEST Racing West WX10 Winner in Lites 2, 12th overall in Race 1. 2nd in Lites 2, 7th overall in Race 2.


John Weisberg BERG Racing West WR1000 2nd in Lites 2, 13th overall in Race 1. Winner in Lites 2, 6th overall in Race 2.	Jim Garrett WEST Racing West WR1000 3rd in Lites 2, 17th overall in Race 1. 4th in Lites 2, 14th overall in Race 2.


Lee Alexander Factory 48 Motorsports West WX10 6th in Lites 2, 20th overall in Race 1. 3rd in Lites 2, 10th overall in Race 2.

Patron GT3 Challenge by Yokohama

The Patron GT3 Challenge by Yokohama concluded its 6th season at the 2010 Petit Le Mans. The series consists of 2 classes of Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars. The Platinum Cup (GT3P) class features 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars and the Gold Cup (GT3G) class features Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars from 2005 through 2009.

Ross Smith clinched the Platinum Cup Championship at the previous event at Road America. He entered the Petit weekend with the chance to break the record of nine wins in one season. He barely made it into the first race of the weekend. His car was badly damaged in a practice crash, but his team was able to complete the repairs just before the start of the race. Ross started from the third position, was into the lead on the opening lap, and went on to win the race. This win tied the series record with 9 wins in one season. David Hansson won the Gold Cup Class, finishing 6th overall. Henrique Cisneros finished 2nd in Gold Cup which was enough to clinch the Gold Cup Championship.

In Race 2, Darrell Carlisle was the Platinum Cup and overall winner. Ross Smith’s brother Kendall Smith was the Gold Cup Class winner. In Race 2, Ross was unable to break the record of 9 wins in one season, due to a cut tire.


Ross Smith Maxwell Paper Racing Winner overall and in GT3P in Race 1. 10th in GT3P, 17th overall in Race 2.	Brian Wong AASCO Motorsports 2nd in GT3P and overall in Race 1. 4th in GT3P and overall in Race 2.


Chris Cumming World Speed Motorsports 3rd in GT3P and overall in Race 1. 5th in GT3P, 6th overall in Race 2.	David Hansson AASCO Motorsports Winner in GT3G, 6th overall in Race 1. 6th in GT3G, 14th overall in Race 2.


Henrique Cisneros NGT Motorsport 2nd in GT3G, 8th overall in Race 1. DNF in Race 2.	Carlos Eduardo NGT Motorsport 3rd in GT3G, 9th overall in Race 1. DNF in Race 2.


Darrell Carlisle Kelly-Moss Racing 4th in GT3P and overall in Race 1. Winner in GT3P and overall in Race 2.	Amadeo Quiros AASCO Motorsports 6th in GT3P, 7th overall in Race 1. 2nd in GT3P and overall in Race 2.


Tim Rosengrant Tim’s Auto Body 8th in GT3P, 12th overall in Race 1. 3rd in GT3P and overall in Race 2.	Kendall Smith Maxwell Paper Racing 4th in GT3G, 11th overall in Race 1. Winner in GT3G, 5th overall in Race 2.


Ludovico Manfredi NGT Motorsport 7th in GT3G, 16th overall in Race 1. 2nd in GT3G, 8th overall in Race 2.	Rich Walton Mercer Motorsports 6th in GT3G, 15th overall in Race 1. 3rd in GT3G, 11th overall in Race 2.

USF2000 National Championship Powered by Mazda

The USF2000 National Championship is the 1st step on the “Road to Indy” ladder system. The series consists of 2 classes. The top class is the Championship (CHP) class and is only open to Van Diemen chassis. The other class is the National (NAT) class and any car that meets the SCCA rules for Formula Continental is eligible.

Coming into the Petit Le Mans weekend, the championship for the top class was down to Sage Karam and Patrick McKenna. Fifteen year old Karam dominated the weekend by taking the pole and leading every lap to win in both races. He also set 2 qualifying lap records and 2 race lap records and won the Rookie of the Year award.

Ardie Greenamyer won the National Class championship.


Sage Karam Andretti Autosport Winner in CHP and overall in Race 1 and Race 2.	Zach Veach Andretti Autosport 2nd in CHP and overall in Race 1. 4th in CHP and overall in Race 2.


Patrick McKenna Cape Motorsports 3rd in CHP and overall in Race 1. 5th in CHP and overall in Race 2.	Ardie Greenamyer AcceleRace Motorsports Winner in NAT, 6th overall in Race 1. 2nd in NAT, 9th overall in Race 2.


J.R. Smart Pabst Racing Services 2nd in NAT, 7th overall in Race 1. Winner in NAT, 8th overall in Race 2.	Felix Serralles Liberty Motorsports 5th in CHP and overall in Race 1. 2nd in CHP and overall in Race 2.


Luke Ellery JDC Motorsports DNF in Race 1. 3rd in CHP and overall in Race 2.

BF Goodrich/Skip Barber National Series Presented by Mazda

All Spencer Pigot had to do to win the championship was finish on the podium in Race 1. On the final lap he was not even running in a podium position, but in the final turns of the race he took the lead to win the race and the championship.

Race 2 was an exciting race with many lead changes and the race was not decided until the last lap. Nick Andries started the race in 8th place, worked his way up, and on the last lap took his first win of the season.

Felix Serralles had a good weekend with 2 podium finishes in the Skip Barber races and a 2nd in the USF2000 National Championship race.


Spencer Pigot (#40) Winner in Race 1, 4th in Race 2.	Dennis Trebing 2nd in Race 1, 5th in Race 2.


Felix Serralles 3rd in Race 1, 2nd in Race 2.	Ashley Freiberg 3rd in Race 2.

Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear

The Star Mazda Championship is the 2nd step on the “Road to Indy” ladder system. The series celebrated its 20th season in 2010.

Conor Daly, son of Derek Daly, had already clinched the championship with a victory at the previous race at Mosport.

Connor De Phillippi started from pole and led every lap to win his first race of the season and also won the Rookie of the Year award. For the first part of the race, Conor Daly ran 2nd with Martin Scuncio in 3rd. This was Scuncio’s first start in the series and he was hanging with Daly until an exciting spin at Turn 12, which dropped him to 6th. This gave 3rd position to Anders Krohn and Krohn didn’t waste any time catching up to Daly. Near the end, Krohn and Daly were nose to tail and Daly aggressively defended his position as Krohn made a pass attempt going into 10A. Krohn ended up spinning, but didn’t lose a position. Daly and Krohn finished 2nd and 3rd on the track, but officials deemed Daly’s defense of Krohn’s pass attempt as blocking and penalized Daly one position. Scuncio finished 4th.


Connor De Phillippi JDC Motorsports Winner	Anders Krohn Andersen Racing 2nd Place


Conor Daly Juncos Racing 3rd Place

SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series

The SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series visited Road Atlanta for the 14th time, this year as a support race for Petit Le Mans.

Tony Ave needed 4 points to win the championship. In qualifying Mike Skeen took his first career Trans-Am pole position and Ave took the 6 points for 2nd on the grid to clinch the championship.

In the race Ave jumped to the lead on lap 1, but Skeen retook the lead on lap 5. Skeen led until lap 26 when he came upon a lapped car and he got on the brakes too hard going into Turn 10A and looped it. This gave Ave the lead and the win. Skeen recovered to finish 2nd. Doug Harrington moved up from his 9th place starting position and benefited from Bobby Sak’s problems to finish on the podium in 3rd. It was a good weekend for the Corvette brand, taking the top 6 positions.

This race featured the new Trans-Am 2 (TA2) and Trans-Am 3 (TA3) classes, run as an exhibition. Bob Stretch won the TA2 class and Jeff Dernehl, from Woodstock, GA., was the only TA3 in the field.

Along with Jeff Dernehl, the Monette family (Bob, Paige, and Zach) are Atlanta Region SCCA members. The Monette’s are pictured below in “family” finishing order.


Bob	Paige	Zach


Tony Ave Chevrolet Corvette Winner	Mike Skeen Chevrolet Corvette 2nd Place


Doug Harrington Chevrolet Corvette 3rd Place	Bob Stretch Chevrolet Monte Carlo Winner in TA2, 13th overall.


Jeff Dernehl Mazda RX-7 Winner in TA3, 10th overall.

Petit Le Mans Powered by Mazda2 Race for the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron

The American Le Mans Series’ Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta was the 2nd of 3 races in the newly formed Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in 2010. Peugeot won the first round at Silverstone and the battle between Peugeot and Audi continued at Road Atlanta. It looked like it might be a pretty good battle until a bizarre situation took the #7 Audi out of contention. Rinaldo (Dindo) Capello pitted from the lead because his helmet lining and balaclava came down over his eyes, obstructing his view. The Audi of Capello, Allan McNish, and Tom Kristensen lost a lap, giving the lead to the #08 Peugeot of Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin, and Pedro Lamy. The #08 went on to win with the #07 of Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz, and Anthony Davidson completing the Peugeot 1 – 2. The #7 Audi finished 3rd.

Simon Pagenaud, David Brabham, and Marino Franchitti took the P2 win, wrapping up the LMP driver’s championship for Pagenaud and Brabham and the team championship for Patron Highcroft Racing.

In GT2, the Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GT of Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni ran out of fuel with 2 turns remaining on the last lap to give Corvette Racing its first win of the season. Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long won the GT driver’s championship. Rahal Letterman BMW won the team championship in GT.


Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin, Pedro Lamy Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 Winner in P1 and overall.	Simon Pagenaud, David Brabham, Marino Franchitti Patron Highcroft Racing Honda Performance Development ARX-01c Winner in P2, 4th overall.


Marco Werner, Scott Tucker, Burt Frisselle Level 5 Motorsports Oreca FLM09 Winner in LMPC, 16th overall.	Jan Magnussen, Oliver Gavin, Emmanuel Collard Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Winner in GT2, 10th overall.


Andy Lally, Henri Richard, Duncan Ende TRG Future Electronics Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Winner in GTC, 22nd overall.

Officials and Workers

Racing could not take place without the officials, safety teams, and volunteer workers who volunteer their time to make it possible for the teams and drivers to come out and race safely.

Of all the specialties, Flagging and Communications is one of the biggest groups of volunteers. At the 2010 Petit, there were 111 F&C volunteers. Most of these volunteers are members of the Sports Car Club of America, with 26 SCCA regions represented. There were 49 volunteers from the host Atlanta Region SCCA and 6 International volunteers; 3 from the UK, 2 from Canada, and 1 from the Netherlands. To join in the action as either a racer or volunteer worker JOIN THE SCCA.