International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2017.[2] It was the fifth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the 21st annual running of the race. The race was the final of 2018's twelve scheduled IMSA automobile endurance races, and the last of four Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup (NAEC) events.[3] The race was held at the twelve-turn, 2.540-mile (4.088 km) Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, on October 15, 2018.[3] The 2018 Petit Le Mans marked the first IMSA race after the passing of American Le Mans Series founder Don Panoz on 11 September 2018.[4] The DeltaWing and Panoz Esperante GTR-1 did 1 demonstration lap before the race start on Saturday in tribute of Panoz.[5]
As the final race for the 2018 season, the race marked the final event for Continental Tire being the official tire supplier of the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Beginning in 2019, Michelin would take over as the sole tire supplier of the series.[7]
The P class made its final appearance as Daytona Prototype International and LMP2 would split into two classes in 2019.[8]
On October 3, 2018, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event.[11] In P, the Acura ARX-05 received an increase in turbo boost and gained 2 liters of fuel capacity. The LMP2 cars gained 3 liters of fuel capacity while the Mazda RT24-P gained 1 liter of fuel capacity. In GTLM, the Porsche 911 RSR received a 0.7 mm larger air restrictor and got a 15 kilogram weight increase. Additionally, the car gained 1 liter of fuel capacity. The BMW M8 GTE received a fuel capacity reduction of 6 liters. In GTD, the Acura NSX GT3 received a 10 kilogram weight increase. The Audi R8 LMS received a 1 mm smaller air restrictor and a fuel capacity reduction of 2 liters.
There were four practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, three on Thursday and one on Friday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Thursday morning and afternoon. The third held later that evening ran for 90 minutes; the fourth on Friday morning lasted an hour.[24]
The second practice session took place at 3:15 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Colin Braun topping the charts for CORE Autosport, with a lap time of 1:11.669.[27]
The night practice session took place at 7:30 pm ET on Thursday and ended with Norman Nato topping the charts for Tequila Patrón ESM, with a lap time of 1:11.457.[29]
The fourth and final practice session took place at 11:15 am ET on Friday and ended with Oliver Jarvis topping the charts for Mazda Team Joest, with a lap time of 1:10.786.[31]
Friday afternoon's 65-minute qualifying session was divided into three groups.[24] All three categories had 15-minute individual sessions, and regulations stipulated teams to nominate a single driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order with the grid arranged to put the Prototype and GTLM cars ahead of all GTD entries.[33]
Qualifying results
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.
1 The No. 54 CORE Autosport entry was moved to the back of the P field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified.
2 The No. 44 Magnus Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field after the team elected to change tires after qualifying.
3 The No. 73 Park Place Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field after the team elected to change tires after qualifying.
4 The No. 58 Wright Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified.
Race
Post-race
Curran, and Nasr took the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 277 points. They were 3 points ahead of Bennett, and Braun in second position. Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande followed in third place with 270 points, ahead of Goikhberg and Simpson in fourth with 252 points and Cameron and Montoya in fifth with 251 points.[36] García and Magnussen took the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 322 points. They were 6 points ahead of Briscoe and Westbrook in second position. Gavin and Milner followed in third place with 310 points, ahead of Hand and Müller with 308 points in fourth and Bamber and Vanthoor in fifth with 308 points.[36] With 333 points, Sellers and Snow won the GTD Drivers' Championship, 4 points ahead of Legge in second. Bleekemolen and Keating were in third position with 299 points and MacNeil was fourth with 295 points.[36] Cadillac, Ford, and Lamborghini won their respective Manufactures' Championships while Whelen Engineering Racing, Corvette Racing, and Paul Miller Racing won their respective Teams' Championships.[36]