It’s IMSA’s own championship Saturday, with the traditional season finale in Atlanta set to serve up a stormer over the next 10 hours of action as we say farewell to Lamborghini’s SC63, set to be retired after this race.

Saturday saw blistering times, with a new lap record set by the #60 Acura of Tom Blomqvist who started on pole alongside the #31 Cadillac, but they wouldn’t get much of a chance to pull away from the field as heading down to turn five a huge incident occurred in the GTD field with championship implications.

The #34 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Conquest Racing ran wide and spun back across the narrow section of winding track straight into the path of the GTD field, and with nowhere to go the #70 Inception Ferrari of Brendan Iribe slammed straight into it, in a crash that also saw Gradient Racing’s #55 Ford Mustang, the #13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of AWA, Magnus Racing’s #44 Aston Martin Vantage Evo and the #45 Wayne Taylor Lamborghini.

Both thankfully and incredibly every driver was able to exit their car under their own steam, as the wreckage lay strewn across the track. As a result of this incident it virtually handed the Bronze Cup category to AWA’s #13 Corvette – due to the fact both they and their rivals Inception were out – meaning for the second year in a row Orey Fidani’s team will, unless a miracle occurs, have secured their invitation to Le Mans next year.

The implications didn’t stop there, in fact there was one confirmation. As a result of the incident, the #57 Winward Racing crew were crowned back to back GTD champions.

While Blomqvist was leading the race, the sister #93 Acura of Nick Yelloly hit trouble nearly two hours into the race, pulling into the pits to replace its steering wheel after unusual issues and dropping it to the back of the GTP field, however it never got back up to speed and left Acura with only one car in the fight.

Just before the hour was up drama hit the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Lin Hodenius, as the car’s rear left wheel ejected itself from the car and bounced along the racetrack. Luckily it avoided everyone but it ensured the hour would end under an FCY.

So with two hours gone the GTP top four remain unchanged, LMP2 is still led by the #43 of Jeremy Clarke, while GTD Pro is now headed by AO Racing’s #77 Rexy in a special Halloween livery and GTD is now in the hands of Simon Mann’s #Ferrari

For the time being the track was under Full Course Yellow conditions.

The race went back to green with 9:24 on the clock, as Blomqvist wasted no time in building the #60’s lead and Jack Aitken consolidated his #31’s 2nd place. LMP2 was led away by Inter Europol’s #43 of Jeremy Clarke, with GTD Pro and GTD headed by Nicky Catsburg’s #4 Corvette and Ricardo Agonstini’s #021 Triarsi Competition Ferrari.

Thankfully, this getaway was clean and the proper racing could begin.

Chasing Agostini was Lilou Wadoux in the #21 Ferrari of AF Corse, up until she received a drive through penalty for blocking. A new ruling from IMSA after frequent complaints in recent races has seen a crackdown on potentially dangerous overtaking or battling when on track.

Another drive through would be handed to the #52 PR1/Matheson LMP2 of Naveen Rao after contact with the #120 GTD Porsche 911 GT3.R of Wright Motorsports.

An hour and a half into proceedings the first green flag pit stops took place, as a battle emerged between the #60 and #31 as to who would execute their stop better, with a good gap to the rest of the GTP field. Aitken nearly squeezed past on the outside but Blomqvist made his Acura wide to deny the Cadillac the chance of an overtake, and the two resumed at the head of the field as they had all race.

In the meantime PR1/Matheson Racing’s #52 ran wide along the front straight, collecting an advertising board and bringing out an accidental full course yellow for its troubles, benefitting those who were yet to pit.

Pitlane soon saw almost the entire field descend upon it – still under FCY conditions – seeing GTD Pro championship chasing Dragonspeed’s #81 jump between the two Paul Miller Racing BMWs and Kevin Magnussen’s #24 BMW M V8 Hybrid jump up to third with Max Esterson’s #85 JDC Miller Porsche 963 also following in its tracks to climb to fourth. Blomqvist and Aitken still led, but with a virtual energy and tyre disadvantage.

thumbnail credit – Osajus Photography from Oconee, SC, United States, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons