Petit Le Mans

So that's going to be our main conversation today.

Have we forgotten to race for fun? We've also got a packed iRacing Pulse this week, Petit Le Mans, the Aston Martin Valkyrie making its mark in one of iRacing's biggest endurance events, GT3 regional tours, some old iRacing cars being given another reason to exist, and we're going to look back at the first American Sim Racing Expo in Charlotte and then ahead to something much closer to home.

the Sim Global Expo at the NEC Birmingham in January 2027.

And finally, Steve, who's a regular writer to The Agony Uncle, has sent us another blinder.

We'll be right back with this week's The Pulse.

Right, time for the Pulse, and we've got quite a bit to get through this week.

Let's start with one of iRacing's major endurance events, Petit Le Mans.

Ten hours around Michelin Raceway, Road Atlanta.

...

Petit Le Mans.

Two races.

You're gonna talk two races? Oh, we didn't, we didn't do a show after Indy?

[laughs]

So, all right.

Let's get to Petit Le Mans.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, IMSA news.

In another road Atlanta wreck fest in the IMSA season finale with a record 16 full course cautions, the 29th annual Petit Le Mans was finally claimed overall by Porsche, as after 21 prior Rolex 24 at Daytona overall wins, 20 at the 12 Hours of Sebring, and 19 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, they finally claimed the crown jewel they were missing in the race that was inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

If you don't know, Petit is just tiny in French, and it's a 10-hour race instead of the full 24-hour race that happens in France.

Uh, Lawrence VanThoor, Kevin Estre, and Matt Campbell guided the number six Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 to not only the overall victory, but also top honors in the grand touring prototype GTP class.

RS1.Earlier on this afternoon, had the opportunity to speak to the WEC Hypercar program manager for Ford, Dan Sayers, and Matt Campbell was in on the call as well.

He's been part of the development driver team, having swapped over from Porsche, and had a particularly successful, uh, weekend, of course, at Motul Petit Le Mans.

Now the last time I had a proper chat with Dan was at Le Mans in June, and he was getting ready to take the challenge of getting the car running.

So it made sense that that was the first question.

L- let me talk-

You want to talk about some sports cars.

I wanna talk about Motul Petit Le Mans, the twenty-ninth running of Petit Le Mans.

Um, it's the big one next year.

So he was pretty chuffed with himself.

Also in America, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

Now that, of course, is a 10-hour race.

And it was a big weekend for Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken because...

Some great scenes.

I don't want to!

Also at Petit Le Mans was Ryan Yardley in the Porsche.

It was a late call-up for him and they were running really well.

And so we're hoping that i- if there's any rain, it can be spaced out a little bit, and hopefully not dampen our racing too much, like it did at Road Atlanta.

There was a, there was a red flag due to lightning, and they raced in wet conditions for a good bit at last weekend's Motul Petit Le Mans.

Was it Motul this year? It was the Petit Le Mans, for sure.

Did that...

May...