The 1998 Petit Le Mans was a sportscar 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 at the Road Atlanta race track near Braselton, Georgia on October 11, 1998. Premiere Petit Le Mans, 1000 Miles at Road Atlanta Racing Sports Cars. Retrieved 1 December 2022

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 , 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 are marked 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 391 Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12 2 LMP1 77 Porsche AG Joest Racing Michele Alboreto Stefan Johansson Jörg Müller Porsche LMP1-98 391 Porsche Type-935 3.2 L Turbo Flat-6 3 LMGT1 38 Champion Motors Thierry Boutsen Bob Wollek Ralf Kelleners Porsche 911 GT1 Evo 381 Porsche 9R1 3.2 L Turbo Flat-6 4 WSC 8 Transatlantic Racing Services Butch Leitzinger Scott Schubot Henry Camferdam Riley & Scott Mk III 378 Ford 5.0 L V8 5 WSC 88 Dollahite Racing Bill Dollahite Mike Davies Anthony Lazzaro Ferrari 333 SP 365 Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12 6 LMP1 63 AutoExe Motorsports Downing Atlanta Yojiro Terada Jim Downing Howard Katz AutoExe AE99 (Kudzu) 349 Mazda 2.6 L 4-Rotor 7 LMGT2 81 Freisinger Motorsport Michel Ligonnet Lance Stewart Porsche 911 GT2 337 Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 8 GT1 4 Panoz Motorsports Scott Pruett Éric Bernard Andy Wallace David Brabham Panoz Esperante GTR-1 335 Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8 9 GT3 76 Team A.R.E. Peter Argetsinger Richard Polidori Angelo Cilli Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 335 Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6 10 GT3 6 Prototype Technology Group Ross Bentley Darren Law Jeff Schafer David Besnard BMW M3 328 BMW S52 3.2 L I6 11 LMGT2 72 Konrad Motorsport Franz Konrad Jan Lammers Porsche 911 GT2 322 Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 12 LMGT1 07 Panoz Motorsports Doc Bundy John Nielsen Christophe Tinseau Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Q9 317 Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8Zytek Hybrid Electric 13 GT2 04 CJ Motorsport John Morton Ron Fellows John Graham Porsche 911 GT2 311 Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 14 LMGT2 00 Larbre Compétition Patrice Goueslard Stéphane Ortelli Jack Leconte Porsche 911 GT2 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 289 BMW S52 3.2 L I6 17DNF GT3 10 Prototype Technology Group Bill Auberlen Mark Simo Andy Pilgrim BMW M3 281 BMW S52 3.2 L I6 18DNF WSC 39 Matthews-Colucci Racing David Murry Jim Matthews Hurley Haywood Riley & Scott Mk III 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 20DNF LMGT1 26 Porsche AG Allan McNish Uwe Alzen Yannick Dalmas Porsche 911 GT1-98 235 Porsche 3.2 L Turbo Flat-6 21DNF WSC 28 Intersport Racing Jon Field Jeret Schroeder Joaquin DeSoto John Mirro Riley & Scott Mk III 229 Ford 5.0 L V8 22DNF LMGT2 73 Konrad Motorsport Angelo Zadra Peter Kitchak Charles Slater Porsche 911 GT2 157 Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6 23DNF GT3 12 T.C. Kline Randy Pobst Pete Halsmer Shane Lewis BMW M3 ? 96 BMW S52 3.2 L I6 24DNF GT3 96 Team Ecuador Henry Taleb Xavier Collado Rob Wilson Nissan 240SX 63 Nissan KA24DE 2.4 L I4 25DNF WSC 27 Doran Enterprises Didier Theys Fredy Lienhard Mauro Baldi Ferrari 333 SP 59 Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12 26DNF GT2 68 Charles Coker Jr. Charles Coker Jr. Joe Varde Joe Foster Dave White Porsche 968 Turbo RS 50 Porsche 3.0 L Turbo I4 27DNF LMGT2 59 Marcos Racing International Cor Euser Christian Vann Harald Becker Marcos Mantara LM600 49 Chevrolet 6.0 L V8 28DNF WSC 29 Intersport Racing Sam Brown Ken Dromm Simon Gregg Jacek Mucha Riley & Scott Mk III 31 Ford 5.0 L V8 29DNF GT3 23 Alex Job Racing Kelly Collins Darryl Havens Cort Wagner Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 0 Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6 DNS GT1 5 Panoz Motorsports Johnny O'Connell Jamie Davies Éric Bernard Panoz Esperante GTR-1 - Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8 DNS LMP1 21 Solution F Philippe Gache Anthony Beltoise Jérôme Policand Riley & Scott Mk III - 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, 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 later organised further one-off experimental races 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.

References

External links 1998 Petit Le Mans results (WSRP) 1998 Petit Le Mans results (WSPR-Racing) 1998 Petit Le Mans Photos and News