The 2009 Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda6 was the twelfth running of the Petit Le Mans and the ninth round of the 2009 American Le Mans Series season. It took place at the Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Georgia, on September 26, 2009. Originally scheduled to run for a distance of or a time of ten hours, the race was stopped after four hours due to heavy rains. The race was not restarted and the results were determined from the final lap prior to the stoppage.

When race officials decided to not restart the event Nicolas Minassian and Stéphane Sarrazin of the #08 Peugeot were declared the winners, leading their team car #07. Audi, who had won this race every year since 2000, finished in third and fourth places. This race was the first time Audi lost at Petit Le Mans since its first run since 2000. This was also the first time that neither of the Volkswagen Group marques (Audi and Porsche) won (or finished in the top two, in all cases) its classes. In the LMP2 category Dyson Racing Team won their second race of the season with the #20 Lola-Mazda of Marino Franchitti, Ben Devlin, and Butch Leitzinger ranking 13th overall and 29 laps ahead of their nearest class competitor. The GT2 category was won by Risi Competizione Ferrari leading the Rahal Letterman Racing BMW and Farnbacher-Loles Porsche on the podium.

During Thursday practice on September 24, which took place in dry, sunny conditions, Scott Sharp had a violent crash in the Acura ARX-02a exiting turn one after making contact with the Farnbacher-Loles Porsche entry, which was leaving the pits. Sharp's car turned on its left side, hit the fence, then barrel-rolled three-and-a-half times before landing right-side up. Sharp walked away from the incident. On Friday, September 25, at 9:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time, a new tub arrived from the Honda Performance Development Center in Los Angeles.– Scott Sharp Incredible Wreck Petit Le Mans 9-24-09 The Highcroft Racing team then spent the next 24 hours rebuilding the car, getting some assistance from archrival de Ferran Motorsports. The team only used 10 percent of the parts from the original car, and were forced to start the race from pit road.

Report

Qualifying

Qualifying result Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.

Pos Class Team Qualifying Driver Lap Time 1 LMP1 #07 Team Peugeot Total Nicolas Minassian 1:06.937 2 LMP1 #08 Team Peugeot Total Franck Montagny 1:07.160 3 LMP1 #2 Audi Sport Team Joest Rinaldo Capello 1:08.200 4 LMP1 #1 Audi Sport North America Lucas Luhr 1:08.228 5 LMP1 #66 de Ferran Motorsports Simon Pagenaud 1:08.348 6 LMP1 #7 Team Oreca Matmut AIM Nicolas Lapierre 1:09.566 7 LMP1 #37 Intersport Racing Jon Field 1:09.685 8 LMP2 #20 Dyson Racing Team Marino Franchitti 1:10.152 9 LMP1 #88 Drayson Racing Jonny Cocker 1:10.552 10 LMP2 #6 Team Cytosport Klaus Graf 1:11.405 11 LMP2 #15 Lowe's Fernández Racing Adrian Fernández 1:11.758 12 LMP1 #12 Autocon Motorsports Chris McMurry 1:12.676 13 GT2 #40 Robertson Racing David Murry 1:20.819 14 GT2 #28 LG Motorsports Tom Sutherland 1:20.877 15 GT2 #4 Corvette Racing Olivier Beretta 1:20.912 16 GT2 #92 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Dirk Müller 1:20.981 17 GT2 #90 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Joey Hand 1:21.219 18 GT2 #45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Patrick Long 1:21.299 19 GT2 #3 Corvette Racing Johnny O'Connell 1:21.491 20 GT2 #21 Panoz Team PTG Dominik Farnbacher 1:21.648 21 GT2 #87 Farnbacher-Loles Racing Wolf Henzler 1:21.760 22 GT2 #62 Risi Competizione Jaime Melo 1:22.718 23 GT2 #17 Team Falken Tires Bryan Sellers 1:23.081 24 GT2 #11 Primetime Race Group Chris Hall 1:23.121 25 GT2 #44 Flying Lizard Motorsports Seth Neiman 1:25.601 – LMP1 #9 Patrón Highcroft Racing Did Not Participate – LMP1 #10 ECO Racing Did Not Participate – UNC #16 Dyson Racing Team Did Not Participate – LMP2 #19 van der Steur Racing Did Not Participate

Race

Race result Class winners are marked in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance are marked as Not Classified (NC).

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Tire Laps Engine 1 LMP1 08 Team Peugeot Total Franck Montagny Stéphane Sarrazin Peugeot 908 HDi FAP 184 Peugeot HDi 5.5 L Turbo V12(Diesel) 2 LMP1 07 Team Peugeot Total Nicolas Minassian Pedro Lamy Peugeot 908 HDi FAP 184 Peugeot HDi 5.5 L Turbo V12(Diesel) 3 LMP1 2 Audi Sport Team Joest Allan McNish Rinaldo Capello Audi R15 TDI 184 Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V10(Diesel) 4 LMP1 1 Audi Sport North America Marco Werner Lucas Luhr Audi R15 TDI 183 Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V10(Diesel) 5 LMP1 7 Team Oreca Matmut AIM Nicolas Lapierre Olivier Panis Romain Dumas Oreca 01 181 AIM YS5.5 5.5 L V10 6 LMP1 9 Patrón Highcroft Racing David Brabham Scott Sharp Dario Franchitti Acura ARX-02a 180 Acura AR7 4.0 L V8 7 UNC 16 Dyson Racing Team Chris Dyson Guy Smith Lola B09/86 177 Mazda MZR-R 2.0 L Turbo I4(Butanol) 8 GT2 62 Risi Competizione Jaime Melo Pierre Kaffer Mika Salo Ferrari F430GT 170 Ferrari F136 4.0 L V8 9 GT2 92 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Tommy Milner Dirk Müller Jörg Müller BMW M3 GT2 169 BMW S65 4.0 L V8 10 GT2 87 Farnbacher-Loles Motorsports Wolf Henzler Dirk Werner Porsche 997 GT3-RSR 169 Porsche M97/74 4.0 L Flat-6 11 GT2 4 Corvette Racing Oliver Gavin Olivier Beretta Marcel Fässler Chevrolet Corvette C6.R 169 Chevrolet 6.0 L V8 12 GT2 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister Marc Lieb Porsche 997 GT3-RSR 169 Porsche M97/74 4.0 L Flat-6 13 LMP2 20 Dyson Racing Team Butch Leitzinger Marino Franchitti Ben Devlin Lola B08/86 168 Mazda MZR-R 2.0 L Turbo I4 14 GT2 3 Corvette Racing Johnny O'Connell Jan Magnussen Antonio García Chevrolet Corvette C6.R 168 Chevrolet 6.0 L V8 15 GT2 44 Flying Lizard Motorsports Darren Law Seth Neiman Johannes van Overbeek Porsche 997 GT3-RSR 162 Porsche M97/74 4.0 L Flat-6 16 GT2 28 LG Motorsports Tom Sutherland Tomy Drissi Matt Bell Chevrolet Corvette C6 157 Chevrolet LS3 6.3 L V8 17DNF LMP1 37 Intersport Racing Jon Field Clint Field Lola B06/10 152 AER P32C 4.0 L Turbo V8 18 GT2 21 Panoz Team PTG Ian James Dominik Farnbacher Panoz Esperante GT-LM 152 Ford (Élan) 5.0 L V8 19DNF LMP1 12 Autocon Motorsports Bryan Willman Chris McMurry Tony Burgess Lola B06/10 144 AER P32C 4.0 L Turbo V8 20 GT2 40 Robertson Racing David Robertson Andrea Robertson David Murry Ford GT-R Mk. VII 142 Ford 5.0 L V8 21 LMP2 15 Lowe's Fernández Racing Adrian Fernández Luis Díaz Acura ARX-01B 139 Acura AL7R 3.4 L V8 22 LMP2 6 Team Cytosport Greg Pickett Klaus Graf Sascha Maassen Porsche RS Spyder Evo 136 Porsche MR6 3.4 L V8 23 GT2 17 Team Falken Tire Bryan Sellers Dominic Cicero Porsche 997 GT3-RSR 136 Porsche M97/74 4.0 L Flat-6 24 LMP1 66 de Ferran Motorsports Gil de Ferran Simon Pagenaud Scott Dixon Acura ARX-02a 136 Acura AR7 4.0 L V8 25 GT2 90 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Bill Auberlen Joey Hand Andy Priaulx BMW M3 GT2 133 BMW S65 4.0 L V8 26DNF GT2 11 Primetime Race Group Joel Feinberg Chris Hall Dodge Viper Competition Coupe 129 Dodge Viper 8.3 L V10 27NC LMP1 88 Drayson Racing Paul Drayson Jonny Cocker Rob Bell Lola B09/60 123 Judd GV5.5 S2 5.5 L V10 DNS LMP1 10 ECO Racing Hideki Noda José Manuel Balbiani Dion von Moltke Radical SR9 – ECO (AER) 5.0 L Turbo V10(Diesel) DNS LMP2 19 van der Steur Racing Gunnar van der Steur Adam Pecorari Robbie Pecorari Radical SR9 – AER P07 2.0 L Turbo I4

References