The 19th annual Petit Le Mans started with some history as Christina Nielsen became the first female driver to win a major full-season professional sports car championship in North America and ended with a perfect final bow from 60-year-old John Pew, winner of the Petit Le Mans in his 250th and final career race.
For Nielsen, she only needed to complete the mandatory 3-hour drive time to clinch the GT Daytona Class Championship in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series, a credit to the strong season Nielsen and teammate Alessandro Balzan have had up to this point, and after completing the first three hours of this 10-hour endurance race, Nielsen was a champion.
“I think a lot of drivers dream about getting to this point,” said Nielsen, a native of Denmark. “So to have my name up there with a lot of legendary drivers definitely means a lot, and I’m happy as a female to have my name up there to show that we also belong up on the ranks like the boys for a championship like this.
“I definitely hope this inspires some young girls and just women in general and also, perhaps, opens the minds of some men that we can compete on equal terms and that we can compete with them and against them.”
With history having been made early in Braselton, there was still seven hours of racing left on the day and, for one driver, in his career.
Michael Shank Racing was able to send Pew off with the storybook ending, as teammates Olivier Pla, Oswaldo Negri Jr., and Pew took the checkered flag for the 19th annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in their Prototype class Honda.
“It feels great,” Pew said. “After the practice sessions and qualifying, I knew we had a car that could win, and it was actually possible.
“And when you realize that, you just think every little squeak you hear, something’s going to go wrong, so it was a very tense 10 hours, but I knew we had a car that could do it.”
Next up for Pew is a little time off. He’s going to take a sabbatical for a couple months to think about what to do next. The same can’t be said for 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series Champion Simon Pagenaud.
Two weeks after winning an IndyCar title in Sonoma, California, Pagenaud traveled to Braselton to help Eric Curran and Dane Cameron capture the Prototype Class Championship in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series.
After winning two major motorsport series championships in two weeks, Pagenaud is set to embark on a media tour with several sponsor appearances in the States and in France (Pagenaud’s home country).
“I think I’ll get some rest in November,” Pagenaud said. “But that’s OK, I can wait.”
The other two WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series Class Champions were Renger van der Zande and Alex Popow in the Prototype Challenge class, and Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner in the GT Le Mans class.
The other class winners for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta were Robert Alon, Jose Gutierrez and Tom Kimber-Smith in the Prototype Challenge class, Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and James Calado in the GT Le Mans class and Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Marc Miller in the GT Daytona class.
