Porsche Finally Takes IMSA Petit Le Mans Overall Win

 

RACE RESULTS

When Porsche claims its first top-class victory in one of sports car racing’s crown jewel events, it’s a historic day.

That’s what unfolded Saturday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta as Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre, and Matt Campbell guided the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 to the top spot in the 29th annual Motul Petit Le Mans. The victory represented overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class triumphs in the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale.

Porsche famously took the overall Motul Petit Le Mans win in 2015 with a GT Le Mans class Porsche 911 RSR entry on a day when torrential rain and bespoke tires were key determining factors in nullifying the speed advantage typically enjoyed by faster prototype classes.

Wet weather impacted the proceedings again this year, contributing to a record 16 full course cautions and a 27-minute stoppage due to nearby lightning. But there was no anomaly in terms of the result.

The Penske-prepared factory Porsches took control of the second half of the race, but Felipe Nasr suffered a heavy crash in the No. 7 car he shared with Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich with 90 minutes remaining in the 10-hour endurance contest.

Vanthoor in the No. 6 passed Earl Bamber (No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R) for the lead with 49 minutes on the clock, then bested Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 in a tense duel over the final half hour.

Vanthoor crossed the line 1.205 seconds ahead of van der Linde, whose co-drivers were Dries Vanthoor and Robin Frijns. The No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R driven by Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz, and Colton Herta moved up to the final podium position on the final lap. Tom Blomqvist had to pit the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 for energy replenishment at the white flag, dropping the entry that also featured Colin Braun and Scott Dixon to fourth.

Porsche owns 21 overall wins at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, 20 at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and 19 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – the event that inspired the late Don Panoz to create the Motul Petit Le Mans. It’s unfathomable to think that one of sports car racing’s most successful manufacturers hadn’t cracked the overall code with a prototype at Michelin Raceway.

That all changed Saturday for the No. 6 car, though Heinrich’s bid in the No. 7 to steal the GTP driver’s championship fell short. Jack Aitken, supported by Bamber and Frederik Vesti, earned that title in the No. 31 Cadillac by simply rolling off the grid for the season finale. Additionally, the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen won the team championship, and Cadillac clinched the manufacturer championship.

Aitken is the first driver to be crowned solo champion in IMSA’s top class since Jorg Bergmeister won the Daytona Prototype crown under GRAND-AM sanction.

“It’s a bit of a weird feeling winning a championship rolling to the green, but obviously it’s been a fantastic year – the incredible consistency we’ve had as a brand and as a team,” Aitken said. “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates, and it does feel a little bit bittersweet that they all couldn’t be sharing it with me.”

Porsche scored its fourth GTP class victory of the season, and the first for Penske’s outfit since Nasr, Andlauer and Heinrich opened the season with wins at Daytona and Sebring. Of note, that trio did claim the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTP title with Porsche.

The win was the first in IMSA competition for Estre, while Campbell and Vanthoor both claim 14 victories. Campbell is a three-time winner at Motul Petit Le Mans, though this was his first overall.

“There are multiple reasons why we wanted to win this race,” reflected Vanthoor. “Our sights were set on that, and it was all or nothing. It was absolutely fun, and it feels good because we had a tough year in the No. 6 car, not what we hoped for. Results didn’t always reflect the good work we were doing behind the scenes, which nobody really saw besides the people in the team.

“This is a very nice way to end the season,” he smiled. “We ticked a lot of boxes for Porsche, for Penske, and for the three of us. For me, it was a dream to win in America. I dreamed of winning Daytona, Sebring, and Petit Le Mans, and that dream is achieved. It’s an incredible day.”

Van der Linde put heavy pressure on Vanthoor in the closing stages, and at one stage, Vanthoor struggled to maintain control of his sliding Porsche through the iconic Esses. But he held on and was able to eke out a small margin in the run to the flag.

“I came really close in Turn 1 once with about 20 minutes to go when (Vanthoor) got stuck in GT traffic,” van der Linde related. “I thought I got lucky there, but he saw me coming and closed the door at the very last minute. That was probably the best shot we had.

“Laurens made no mistakes, and took a lot of risk in traffic, which was needed for both of us to try and get this win today,” he added. “Hats off to him. It’s not every day that you see drivers taking so much risk while still keeping the cars on track, keeping it fair and safe.”

The variable conditions and end-of season championship pressure contributed to high attrition, with just six of 11 GTP competitors running at the finish.

LMP2: CrowdStrike Wins Race, Titles; Kurtz Claims Jim Trueman Award

The path to the WeatherTech Championship’s Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class championship wasn’t always easy for George Kurtz, Alex Quinn, Toby Sowery, and the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR team.

Nor was their class victory in the 29th annual Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The trio overcame an early drive-through penalty for incident responsibility that put the entry a lap down, then recovered from contact by its closest championship competitor – Tom Dillmann in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07 he shared with Jeremy Clarke and Bijoy Garg – that required changing the car’s rear clip.

Sowery, the team’s Michelin Endurance Cup driver, drove a masterful stint on slicks during a rainy portion of the race to make up the deficit from the early penalty. Quinn sealed the deal, holding off a hard-charging Dillmann by 0.666 seconds at the checkered flag after 10 hours of racing.

It was the fourth IMSA LMP2 class win for Kurtz (fifth total) and the second for Quinn and Sowery, as well as the first championship for all three. Kurtz becomes the first repeat winner of the IMSA Jim Trueman Award, which includes an entry in the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans for the top-ranked Bronze-rated LMP2 driver. He also won the Jim Trueman Award in 2023. Kurtz, Quinn and Heinrich shared the LMP2 Pro/Am class-winning CrowdStrike by APR entry in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Additionally, the trio also won the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup LMP2 title over rivals AO Racing, who were only one point behind entering the day.

“This is incredibly special because it was really a team effort,” Kurtz said. “My co-drivers were just phenomenal, the team gave us a great car, and there was so much adversity we had to overcome – for the entire season, but obviously, for this race. It was up and down, up and down. It really was a shootout with the No. 43.

“From my perspective, this is probably one of the best seasons I’ve ever had.”

As the team’s lead driver, Quinn felt the championship pressure.

“We were so happy and so relieved in some ways to win the championship,” he said. “I honestly totally forgot we won the race! When you realize you’ve done it, it does make it extra special because this is such a unique race and such an intense race – especially this one, the way it panned out.

“Such an amazing day and it rounds off an amazing year.”

Car Blanche Wins Motul Petit Le Mans in First IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD PRO Start

In a race and championship with more plot twists than an Agatha Christie “whodunit” thriller, Mattia Drudi and the No. 68 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo charged to the lead in the final hour of the Motul Petit Le Mans and claimed their first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory. Drudi shared the car with Valentin Hasse Clot and Marco Sorensen as one of IMSA’s newest teams stepped up to Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) midseason and made its first IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup race start in GTD PRO at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The race plot twist came alongside the battle for the GTD PRO championship, which went the way of Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. They finished third, co-driving with Dan Harper, to secure the full-season driver and team championships and IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD PRO titles.

Plot twists? Consider 13 of 14 starters led at least one lap and at various times no fewer than six cars remained mathematically in the mix for the GTD PRO championship. From those 13 race leaders, the final half hour boiled down to a four-way contest between Ben Barnicoat in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, Harry King’s No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, Thomas Preining’s No. 911 Manthey Porsche and Drudi’s Aston Martin.

Preining went off road at Turn 10, then Barnicoat slowed in an effort to coax his low-on-energy Lexus to the finish even as Drudi worked his way around King. A late full course caution set-up a dash to the 10:10 p.m. finish although it aided those trying to ensure they made it home on energy. Drudi never put a wheel wrong while conserving as much energy as possible and led King across the finish line.

“To be fair, I don’t really know what happened in that last hour,” Drudi said. “So many things happened, it’s difficult to realize. I was just driving the saving energy game and waiting for something to happen at the front. I was behind the two Porsches and the Lexus. First Preining went off, and then the Lexus had contact in Turn Five and I just went through and found myself leading. And then I was the target, and I was just saving as much as we could, trying to keep the lead. We were really, really, really tight because the last lap of the race would have been our last, but luckily the GTPs went through and saved us a lap.”

The championships were equally in doubt until the final hour of the race. Having led the points races for much of the season, De Phillippi and Verhagen, PMR and BMW came to Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in second spot behind Nicky Catsburg, Tommy Milner and the No. 4 Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R after they were knocked out of the lead of the previous race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Although pre-race speculation focused on those two protagonists, the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3, both the No. 64 and 65 Ford Racing Mustang GT3s, the AO Racing Porsche and the Vasser Sullivan Lexus were mathematically in the mix as well.

But although the No. 65 Mustang, the Pfaff Lamborghini and the Vasser Sullivan Lexus kept their slim title hopes alive most of the race, in an eventful day and night of changing fortunes brought on by a downpour, a red flag for nearby lightning strikes, more than a dozen full course yellows and differing fuel and tire strategies, the title boiled down to the Corvette and the BMW.

Verhagen and the PMR BMW took over a tenuous championship lead when they slotted into third ahead of Catsburg’s sixth-placed Corvette after a round of pit stops during a caution period with less than 90 minutes remaining. But even then, the title was by no means secure. At least not until the No. 64 Mustang of Dennis Olsen shouldered the Corvette into the Turn 10 sand trap, which cost Catsburg a lap before rejoining the race.

“The last couple of rounds being the championship leader, we were always the ones having to be a little more cautious and people were taking advantage of that and laying the bumpers on us,” Verhagen said. “And finally being the hunters today, we knew we had nothing to lose. Yeah, finally a bit of luck fell our way.

“For sure that’s not the way we want to end the championship. We want to be able to race it on the track and, you know, I’m very good friends with Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner off the track. But I feel, if you look at our last four or five races and how everyone raced us, we were finally on the lucky side today. And from then on it was pretty clear we just had to stay ahead of the Pfaff Lambo and win the championship.”

The championship marked a fitting conclusion to a season that began with a win in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and which saw them score five more top five finishes.

“Starting off with a strong Daytona is huge,” De Phillippi said. “And from there we just went race-to-race. We maximized what we had each race on each given weekend. I think driver-wise, Neil and I made the least amount of mistakes between everyone in the field and, team-wise, we made the least mistakes. More often than not we didn’t have the fastest car on the given weekend, but we always had a car we knew we could be competitive with. And if we played our cards right, we could fight for the podium. That was always our mindset and when there was more to grab, we took it.”

So while the podium may not have been in the cards at Motul Petit Le Mans, there was indeed more for Verhagen, De Phillippi, Harper, PMR and BMW to grab. And they took it.

GTD: Winward Racing Powers to Historic Third Straight Championship

All eyes in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) fixated on the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and its slim championship lead entering the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finale. By day’s end, Philip Ellis, Russell Ward and Indy Dontje had delivered Winward’s first Motul Petit Le Mans victory and a third consecutive GTD championship.

Winward secured the class title early, owing in large part to misfortune hitting their rivals. But the race win remained uncertain until the closing minutes. Riccardo Pera pressured Ellis in the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R for second place, but Ellis resisted. On Lap 320, he muscled past Lilou Wadoux to take the GTD lead.

Wadoux had returned the No. 21 Af Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO to contention after a stop-plus-60-second penalty involving co-driver Antonio Fuoco dropped it to 10th in class. A late full-course caution then eased the GTD leaders’ fuel-saving demands, allowing Ellis to manage the final laps and secure Winward’s maiden Petit Le Mans win.

Ellis and team owner-driver Ward form the core of Winward’s Mercedes-AMG program, with Dontje joining for endurance races. Over the final five rounds, Ellis and Ward earned four victories and a runner-up finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, erasing their deficit and completing the second largest championship comeback since IMSA introduced its restructured points system in 2021.

Winward’s third straight title is the longest active championship streak by a program in any IMSA class, and the result also helped Mercedes-AMG claim the manufacturer crown. The victory further established Winward as one of GTD’s defining teams, but Ward credited the crew’s resolve after a difficult race at Watkins Glen for setting the tone.

“Hats off to the dedicated group of people,” Ward said. “When we got taken out at Watkins Glen, involved in the incident between the 70 car and the 13, I mean, us three drivers were pretty sorry in the paddock, looking at the car, watching the mechanics just jump all over it.
“From our standpoint we thought the race was done, let’s pack this thing up, move on to the next. Those guys were like: Hell, no. We need to get out there and capitalize on points. They really set the tone for the second half of the season. We can’t quit, keep pushing as hard as we can.

“We went on a five-race streak with podiums, four wins and a second in Indianapolis, which very well could have been a win as well. Could have been five wins in a row. That really just set us up.”

Winward’s championship bid received an early boost before the green flag. The No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo entered the weekend 116 points behind the leading Mercedes, but an overnight engine change forced Zacharie Robichon to start from pit lane. The car eventually joined the race more than 60 laps behind and later retired.