Two years ago, AO Racing was another aspiring privateer sports car racing team in a growing sea of other upstarts. Gunnar Jeannette, its team principal and co-founder alongside PJ Hyett, was winding down his driving career that began at the turn of the century. And all that most people within the racing community knew of Hyett, the owner and other co-founder, was his work as the co-founder of software programming repository GitHub.
After Hyett got his first taste of organised racing in SVRA International GT (not International GT Open), he and his new friend/driving coach Jeannette turned up for a one-off entry in the GT World Challenge America round at Watkins Glen – driving a plain, dark green Porsche 911 GT3 R prepared by another team. Two months later, ‘Autumn Oaks Racing’ – named after Hyett’s private car collection in suburban Chicago – was formally established ahead of the 2023 IMSA season.
It’s safe to say that a lot has changed since that weekend at Watkins Glen with the plain green Porsche. With the help of a dinosaur, a dragon, and an ever-growing legion of fans of all ages, AO Racing’s rise to prominence has become one of the best and brightest stories that sports car racing in the 2020s has given us.
In only its second full season, AO Racing’s fun-loving attitude and dedication to success have yielded several victories, podiums – and now a set of championship titles in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Riding aboard “Rexy the GT3 Rawr”, the moniker of AO Racing’s beloved tyrannosaurus-themed Porsche GT3, ace driver Laurin Heinrich and the AO Racing team held on by the tips of its claws to win the GTD Pro Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships in its first year in the category.
In doing so, the team also delivered a GTD Pro Manufacturers’ Championship for Porsche, making it nine IMSA full-season titles for the German marque and its affiliates. And Heinrich, age 23, became the youngest-ever champion of an All-Pro category in IMSA history.
For Heinrich, Michael Christensen, Julien Andlauer, and Rexy, Petit Le Mans on its own wasn’t a happy affair. A gear selection problem caused by a faulty steering wheel connection wreaked havoc on their race. At one-quarter distance, Rexy was already six laps down from the leaders in GTD Pro, and the Safety Cars and wave-arounds they needed to get back in the race didn’t come quick enough.
It left Heinrich and AO vulnerable to attack from Ross Gunn and The Heart of Racing Team, who could have snatched the title in the final 35 minutes had Gunn found a way past Risi Competizione’s Daniel Serra for second place. Serra would hold on to second over Gunn, and by just four points – the difference between qualifying second and fourth in class for one race – Heinrich and AO Racing took the titles.
“I think the race today took at least ten years off my life!” Jeannette laughed after the finish of a gruelling race. “We’ve had incredible reliability all year. And of course, when it mattered, we had a simple issue that put us six or seven laps down! But we managed it how we’ve been managing races all year. We made smart decisions, minimized the loss – and had some luck.
“I’m a big believer in everybody’s well-wishes helping our cause. So to have all of the fans’ support means a whole lot. It’s amazing. I can’t say enough about all of the people here, the organisation, and what we’ve been able to accomplish in this short time.”
This was the apex of what’s been a phenomenal 2024 season for AO Racing on multiple fronts. Hyett shifted his driving focus towards LMP2 and picked it up at a pace well beyond many of his fellow ‘late-starting professional drivers,’ winning four pole positions and two podiums driving “Spike, the LMP2 Dragon” – AO Racing’s #99 ORECA 07.
With the help of TF Sport, AO Racing raced LMP2s in the Asian and European Le Mans Series: Hyett won a couple of poles in the Asian series, Louis Deletraz rode “Spike” to pole position at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, and a stellar line-up of Deletraz, Robert Kubica, and Jonny Edgar won the ELMS race at Spa this summer and are fighting for the class title this weekend.
And then, of course, there’s Rexy: The little T-Rex that captured the hearts of sports car racing fans around the world, from his hatching at the 2023 12 Hours of Sebring to his European vacation at the Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans, to Rexy’s step up from GTD to GTD Pro – with the help of his twin sister Roxy, who stood in during some of the summer rounds.
“It’s amazing. The whole Rexy story is something super unique. Being part of that is such an honour,” Heinrich told DSC after Friday’s Qualifying session – where the young German shattered the previous GT3 course record at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Not only has AO Racing gone from obscurity to a fan favourite in less than two years, but Heinrich has become a prominent figure in his own right
“Driving that beautiful car, seeing all of the fans – and especially the young kids, which I think is really important for our sport, to bring the next generation closer to racing. This weekend, they were able to sign our car, and we had over 250 signatures. So I think, that gave us an extra motivation boost. It’s something really great to see – especially coming from a driver coming across over from Europe.”
When Heinrich returned, just over 24 hours later after a taxing grind to the chequered flag, he recounted the moment in the off-season when he was offered the chance to be a part of the programme.
“Rexy has existed since last year, and I was following, obviously. I got the call, and (Gunnar) asked me, ‘Do you want to drive Rexy in GTD Pro?’ I didn’t have to think twice about it – obviously, I said ‘yes’!
“I say it every time, but it’s really important for our sport to get the next generation close to our sport, to get them engaged and interested. It’s so cool in less than two years, what the team has built.”
Not only has AO Racing gone from obscurity to a fan favourite in less than two years, but Heinrich – who was unknown in America to all but the most hardcore sports car racing followers – has become a prominent figure in his own right.
He recalls: “One time I raced in the United States, I was at passport control – and I told the officer that I’m driving Rexy. And he knew Rexy – he went completely crazy! It’s incredible!”
At Daytona, second-generation driver Seb Priaulx captured the GTD Pro pole position aboard Rexy – a sight that would have seemed unfathomable the year before for any Porsche GT customer team. And with the team racing in loving memory of five-year-old Rexy fan Anthony Putnam, AO Racing finished second in GTD Pro, exceeding expectations in its first Pro outing.
From there, Rexy took his first IMSA win in Laguna Seca with a masterful drive to the front, then followed it up with a win on the rough-and-tumble streets of downtown Detroit. The team had turned the corner from ‘novelty act’ to ‘championship contender’.
But for Heinrich, Indianapolis was the team’s finest hour. Priaulx had already stepped aside some time ago to honour other commitments with Multimatic. AO Racing brought back Christensen and brought in Andlauer plus Klaus Bachler into the fold to finish the year – while Heinrich and AO Racing looked to protect a shrinking championship points lead.
Heinrich thought he’d won his first IMSA pole position at Indianapolis, but had it taken away when his car didn’t meet the minimum ride height requirements. Moved to the pack of the combined GT class starting grid, Heinrich and Christensen drove through torrential rain – and the rest of the pack – to the lead and the win, their third of the season.
“When everyone came Sunday morning to the track at Indy, I didn’t see any team member who was still upset about what happened the day before. They were all so motivated and focused that we could score a good result in the race,” Heinrich said.
“I never had that before, and I think that really also flipped a switch in me. We shouldn’t give up, and in the end, we proved that. We won and we were the best on that day. I think that will be the most memorable win in that season, and also in my still young racing career.”
It was that win that put Heinrich and AO Racing back in front by 99 points ahead of Petit Le Mans, but his record run to the pole ended up being the ultimate decider in the championship standings: Heinrich earned 35 points for the pole, Gunn earned 30 points for qualifying third in class, – and that five-point difference was just one more than the final margin between Heinrich and Gunn at the top of the table.
“After the issue in the first hour, it was a race where we can’t do anything anymore. We were five laps down. We just had to finish and hope for the best,” Heinrich recalled. “I think it was a proper test for me and my mind to withstand this – because it’s a pure nightmare. It’s horror! You’re just driving the car. You can do nothing.
“I didn’t leave the pit for the whole race because I couldn’t. I was checking our race, which was quite uneventful, checking the race at the front and where the 23 was. That was, for me, probably the hardest part.
“Once I crossed the line – I completely freaked out. “I took the fan in the car and I shook it so much that it ripped off. I had it in my hand. It was crazy! My engineer was speaking to me and saw it live (on the in-car camera). He was like, ‘Dude, you’re going to pay for that!’
“There was a big queue up the pit lane, and I had to park on top of the hill under the bridge coming out of (Turn) 10B, and I could see the fireworks. Even if I was alone, it was so romantic.”
GTD Pro honours were the peak of it all, but AO Racing’s accolades didn’t end there when IMSA held its post-season awards banquet on Sunday.
PJ Hyett’s class-leading four LMP2 pole positions were honoured, and so were the mechanics servicing the #77 Porsche, for being the fastest-working pit crew in GTD Pro. IMSA also christened a new team marketing achievement Award, recognising AO Racing’s one-of-a-kind fan engagement strategy in 2024 – and fittingly accepted by a team representative in full Rexy costume.
AO Racing has already had to work hard to meet the demands of a ravenous fanbase that wants anything with Rexy, Spike, or Roxy on it – from shirts, hats, and stickers, to plush toys and model cars. The team’s autograph queue was the longest in the paddock area on Friday afternoon before qualifying and certainly, the autograph session for Rexy and Spike’s drivers was the liveliest. And that demand will only grow stronger after this championship victory.
Even Heinrich is a fan. “My phone is full of Rexy, and I open Instagram, and I only see Rexy. I think my whole life is around Rexy. I sleep in the bed with this,” he said, clutching one of the hotly-demanded Rexy plush toys, then adding – “I also have Roxy too!”
Rexy and Spike will be back to frolic in GTD Pro and LMP2 respectively next season, and AO Racing intends to capture the imagination of more young fans along the way. This story, which started with such humble and unassuming origins, appears destined to continue with many more happy memories along the way…
Images © Juergen Tap / Porsche, Jack Webster / Dailysportscar.com
