Pole-sitter Ben Keating ignited the crew’s drama after spinning the #52 ORECA LMP2 07 late within the opening hour of the 10-hour race.
Regardless of recovering to run among the many frontrunners, with roughly two hours remaining Keating and co-driver Paul-Loup Chatin had been left watching with agony after endurance team-mate Alex Quinn appeared stranded within the gravel at Flip 10.
Quinn desperately pounded the gasoline in an try to spin the tires to seize sufficient traction to propel him out of the limitless sea of rocks, which managed to work, albeit slowly.
Quinn handed off to Chatin, who was in a position to safe the third and closing spot on the rostrum, which bested race winners CrowdStrike by APR by 37 factors to assert the championship.
“It is simply magical,” mentioned Keating, who will drive for United Autosports subsequent yr. “I wasn’t planning on doing the total season. Once I began the season, Pat Kelly was going to do the dash races.
“He wasn’t in a position to do it, so I stepped in and we had a extremely good race after which we had one other good race, and so we simply saved going with it till the top. Simply unbelievable.
“I like the blokes at PR1 Mathiasen Racing. They have been such a fantastic crew. I have been with it for 4 years. You recognize, we received the championship in ’21, we received the championship in ’23.
“We received the North American Endurance Cup final yr. So, we have received the whole lot we have got down to win and it has been unbelievable.”
#04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR, ORECA LMP2 07, LMP2: George Kurtz, Ben Hanley, Nolan Siegel, #52: PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, ORECA LMP2 07, LMP2: Ben Keating, Paul-Loup Chatin, Alex Quinn, #35: TDS Racing, ORECA LMP2 07, LMP2: Giedo van der Garde, John Falb, Josh Pierson, podium
Photograph by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Quinn, who will be a part of Keating at United Autosports in 2024, added, “It is an incredible end result. We labored so onerous all yr.
“Clearly, the 2 guys, Paul-Loup and Ben have accomplished an incredible job after I have not been on the observe as properly.
“It has been nice and clearly, trying ahead to being with Ben subsequent yr as properly. He is a good man. Actually quick and, and satisfying to work with.”