Final IMSA 2022 points standings, results after Petit Le Mans

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship crowned race winners and 2022 series champions after tallying the points in Saturday’s Petit Le Mans season finale at Michelin Road Atlanta.

Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 60 Acura won the final race of the DPi category to capture the championship over Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Acura.

Tom Blomqvist held on for the victory by 4.369 seconds over Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Cadillac. Kamui Kobayashi finished third in the No. 48 Ally Cadillac (which marked the last scheduled prototype race for Jimmie Johnson).

RESULTS: Click here for the finishing order at Petit Le Mans l Results by class

The No. 10 Acura of Wayne Taylor Racing, which entered the season finale leading the championship by 14 points, finished ninth after Filipe Albuquerque made contact with a GT car in the final 14 minutes.

It was the third consecutive runner-up finish in the points standings for WTR, which was trying to win the final championship in DPi after capturing the class’ first title in 2017. After six seasons, the premier category is being rebranded as GTP with new LMDh cars in 2023.

OTHER CLASS WINNERS:

LMP2: Tower Motorsport’s No. 8 clinched the driver and team championship by winning its class in the Petit Le Mans for the third consecutive year.

John Farano, who was driving with Louis Deletraz and Rui Pinto de Andrade, won the championship by 126 points over Era Motorsport’s Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel. Tower won the team title by 79 points over the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, which crashed in the finale.

“Race win, team championship, driver championship, it’s all here tonight,” Farano said. “This is just unbelievable. What a team effort. These guys are really fantastic.

“We’ve won this event three years in a row, which is absolutely awesome. I don’t need to tell you how hard that is to do, but this one here, we really won it in good fashion. The team was fantastic, no mistakes, kept it on track. It was just a beautiful, beautiful race.”

The No. 81 DragonSpeed of Juan Pablo Montoya, Sebastian Montoya and Henrik Hedman finished second.

LMP3: Andretti Autosport scored its first victory this season and first at Petit Le Mans. No. 36 drivers Gabby Chaves, Jarett Andretti and Josh Burdon each earned their first career wins in IMSA LMP3.

“It’s unbelievable,” Andretti said. “This is one of the hardest places to win, and I’m just so proud of everybody here involved with the team.”

CORE autosport’s No. 54 rebounded from a spin for a fifth place in class to win the championship over Riley Motorsports’ No. 74, which also went off course.

GTD Pro: Despite losing the lead late in the race, the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 of Vasser Sullivan was awarded the victory after the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 was relegated to the back of the class because of a drive-time violation when Daniel Serra went over the limit of four hours in a six-hour stretch.

Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat and Kyle Kirkwood were awarded the first IMSA Endurance Cup victory for Vasser Sullivan, which took second place in the GTD Pro points standings.

“It was just wild. I’m just so happy, this has been a long time coming for this team,” Hawksworth said after his ninth career victory. “The guys have worked so hard for it.”

Hawksworth was leading when he was bumped with 21 minutes remaining by the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3, which clinched the class title by starting the race. Hawksworth lost the lead to the No. 62 soon afterward but didn’t lose the race.

“I had more contact in the last 30 minutes of that race than I think I had the whole season, probably my whole IMSA career,” he said. “(Jaminet) tried to pass me in (Turn) 10, we had contact there, and then he hit me three or four more times. God knows how the car is still in one piece.”

Pfaff’s trio of Jaminet, Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr finished third behind the No. 25 BMW of Connor De Phillippi, John Edwards and Jesse Krohn.

GTD: The No. 66 of Gradient Racing scored its first career victory as the trio of Mario Farnbacher, Till Bechtolsheimer and Kyffin Simpson took the Acura to victory after failing to qualify because of a turbocharger problem. After starting last, the car took the lead on a green-flag pit stop sequence with just under an hour remaining.

“After the problem we had in qualifying, the guys tore the whole car apart, made it absolutely perfect for today, and here we are,” Farnbacher said after his 10th career victory and second Petit Le Mans. “I’m so proud of the guys. It means a lot. Ten years ago was my first race in the U.S., at this track. I won back then, and now, exactly 10 years later, I won again. So, there’s a really special connection to this track.”

Roman De Angelis, with co-drivers Maxime Martin and Ian James, won the championship with the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which finished seventh in class after steering problems and an off-course shunt.

POINTS

After the final round of the 2022 season, here are the champions in each division:

DPi: Meyer Shank Racing (Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis)

LMP2: Tower Motorsport (John Farano)

LMP3: CORE autosport (Colin Braun, Jonathan Bennett)

GTD Pro: Pfaff Motorsports (Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell)

GTD: Heart of Racing Team (Roman De Angelis)

Click here for the unofficial standings after Motul Petit Le Mans.

STATS PACKAGE FOR IMSA PETIT LE MANS AT ROAD ATLANTA

Fastest laps by driver

Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)

Fastest laps by driver and class after race

Average distance and speed

Best sector times

ROUND 1: Points and results from the Rolex 24 at Daytona

ROUND 2: Points and results from the Twelve Hours of Sebring

ROUND 3: Points and results from Long Beach

ROUND 4: Points and results from Laguna Seca

ROUND 5: Points and results from Mid-Ohio

ROUND 6: Points and results from Detroit

ROUND 7: Points and results from Watkins Glen

ROUND 8: Points and results from CMTP

ROUND 9: Points and results from Lime Rock

ROUND 10: Points and results from Road America

ROUND 11: Points and results from Virginia International Raceway

NEXT: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will begin the 2023 season and its new GTP category Jan. 28-29 with the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.

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Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

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Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

Final IMSA 2022 points standings, results after the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta

Vicki Golden and 805 Beer tell a unique story from an Inverted Perspective

Read more about SuperMotocross