For ten hours in Georgia, the greatest GT and prototype race cars in the US battled for the final win of the American Le Mans Series season. It was the Petit Le Mans and as you can see, it was utterly fantastic.
Normally we'd miss the great Audi and Peugeot LMP1 battles of the past, but there were a few key features of this race that kept us busy.
First of all, we've always known that Road Atlanta is a beautiful track, but the pictures we've gotten back from Trevor Andrusko of Track Nine Media have blown our minds. Amazing.
Second of all, while we don't have the massive Audi and Peugeot factory teams, we did see two truly great cars on the track.
There was the SRT Viper, which is starting to show some real speed. The buildup to the Viper reveal and waiting to hear its V10 on the circuit was agonizing. The promise is finally coming good.
Then we had the DeltaWing. It was punted off track in practice, but the Highcroft Racing team worked furiously to get the car back on track overnight. It all paid off. The DeltaWing recorded a fifth place overall finish, which is just outstanding. We can't say how much we love this car, the most radical racer in decades.
If you're looking for the winners, the Rebellion Lola Toyota got the P1 victory. The overall season win went to the Muscle Milk Honda, but they got hit by the exact same Porsche driver who hit the DeltaWing, putting them down to third. In GT, the season had already gone to Corvette, but the chrome Ferrari won the race.
But don't worry so much about the results. Racing cars are interchangeable. The results can be forgotten. The beauty of this race should be remembered.
Photo Credit: Trevor Andrusko/Track 9