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Marshall Pruett

IMSA: Indy Car Champions, Indy 500 Winners Highlight Petit Le Mans Finale

Having the defending Indy 500 winner entered at Petit Le Mans is a rarity. Having consecutive Verizon IndyCar Series champions in attendance is even more remarkable occurrence. And with nearly 25 percent of the drivers on the 2014 IndyCar grid set to compete at the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season finale at Road Atlanta, the stars of open-wheel racing are expected to make their presence felt during the 10-hour endurance event.

Scott Dixon (3-time IndyCar Series champion, 2008 Indy 500 winner), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2012 IndyCar Series champion, 2014 Indy 500 winner), Sebastien Bourdais (4-time Champ Car champion), Ryan Briscoe (8-time race winner) and Jack Hawksworth (promising rookie) will drive for their respective teams Prototype, PC and GT Le Mans.

The fourth and final TUDOR Championship class will see Townsend Bell (25th at this year's Indy 500) and James Davison (finished 16th on his Indy 500 debut in May) represented in GT Daytona. Martin Plowman (23rd as an Indy 500 rookie this year) will race in PC and count Hawksworth as one of his class rivals.

Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates) and Bourdais (Action Express Racing) will battle in Prototype while RHR (SRT Dodge Viper) and Briscoe (Corvette Racing) duel on behalf of theirmanufacturers in GTLM. Dixon, Bourdais, RHR, Briscoe and Bell all have championships on the line, adding to the pressure and expectations they'll face.

In an interesting footnote, Dixon was the first reigning Indy 500 winner to compete at Petit Le Mans in 2008 (LEFT, Marshall Pruett photo), and with his big win at the Speedway earlier this year, RHR becomes the second Indy 500 winner to earn the distinction.

All totaled, the open-wheel drivers at Petit Le Mans will bring eight Indy car championships, two Indy 500 victories and 88 wins to the field.

"It's been a while since I raced at Petit Le Mans, and obviously with our team, it makes racing there rather seamless," Dixon told RACER. "Having already raced with them earlier in the year, all I have to do it just turn up and drive; my helmet will be there, my suit will be there, so it's pretty nice that way and it's a fun track, the racing's always good and I'm obviously excited to be there with all the other IndyCar drivers.

"There's a good group of us who do the long races; I'd love to do the 6 Hours of the Glen, too, and Petit is always a good, hard fight. I'll get to see Briscoe and see how they're getting on with the new baby, Hunter-Reay will be there, Bourdais, Hawksworth – a group of really strong drivers. It's going to be cool."

the IndyCar-on-IndyCar scraps to look forward to this weekend, these two could be the featured players among the open-wheel interlopers.

"I'm really looking forward to getting back with the Viper team; we came close to a win at Daytona together (RIGHT), they've got a championship on the line, and I'm stoked to be one of the six SRT viper drivers on a mission this weekend," said RHR. "It's great to roll into Petit with an Indy 500 win, and closing things out this year with a sports car championship on the line is something I'm thankful for.

"The Dodge team deserves it and I'm prepared to do everything in my power to help make it happen. And it's also cool to have a bunch of IndyCar guys there, and with the merged TUDOR series, there seems to be more opportunities for us than we've had in a few years."

Townsend Bell and teammate Bill Sweedler (LEFT) led the GTD class for most of the year and will have a significant challenge ahead to reclaim the top spot at Road Atlanta. According to Bell, who also serves as one of NBCSN's IndyCar TV analysts, his fellow IndyCar drivers could be in for a surprise when many step into theirsports cars for the first time since the 12 hours of Sebring in March.

"We're in a tough position in our championship with some of the Balance of Performance changes we were hit with recently, but for the guys like Dixon and Hunter-Reay who haven't raced these cars since the beginning of the year, I think they'll be really surprised with how far they've come in terms of development," he said.

"Jumping in at the end of the season could actually be a pretty cool experience for some of them because they cars have gotten faster, they're better sorted, and that's the kind of stuff you want when you're getting drafted in to deliver with no real testing or preparation. These guys are some of the best in the business, and while their cars aren't as fast as Indy car, they're really interesting on a technical basis. And the racing's just been fun. We always have the BoP stuff to complain about, but I think my boys from IndyCar will really like what they find this weekend."