DSC photographer Jack Webster was at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the 28th Petit Le Mans, capturing some of the sights around the paddock.
The first was AO Racing’s new skeleton liveries for Rexy and Spike. Spike was seen wearing a spare floor as a hat, while Rexy was still taking his time to emerge from his hauler.
Both cars retain their gold accessories – fangs to celebrate Rexy’s 2024 title and 2025 race wins at Sebring and Laguna Seca, and Spike’s golden tail for winning his class at Le Mans.
If you’re in the fan zone at Road Atlanta, you’ll also see the 2024 title-winning version of Rexy on display; the car held on to win the GTD PRO titles despite mechanical issues which put them out of contention for the win early on.
Julien Andlauer will be in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 this weekend, in the role that had been occupied at Daytona and Sebring by Kévin Estre.
“Kevin was initially not really available for that race, and the management put the trust into Julian, which we also do,” said co-driver Mathieu Jaminet, who’ll be fighting for the GTP Championship this weekend alongside Matt Campbell. “He’s been doing a fantastic job in WEC this year, every single race he’s done. So there is no reason why this would change.
“Going to Atlanta, he knows the race well, he raced last year in GTD PRO (with AO Racing), so it made all sense to have him on board. He’s also a good match as a person with Matt and myself, being pretty chill and laid back. So I think it’s gonna work well.”
It’ll be a weekend of two significant partnerships coming to an end: BMW M Team RLL’s last race together after 17 years…
…and the last race for the Lamborghini Squadra Corse SC63 for at least the next year.
Romain Grosjean said ahead of the SC63’s sabbatical: “The car behaviour at Indianapolis was a big, big improvement and to find ourselves fighting inside the top five for most of the day was a lot of fun. It’s clear that with the new suspension, we made a lot of progress and fighting with the big boys of IMSA was a good step. Hopefully we can put it all together at Petit Le Mans and finish on a high.”
He’ll share the car with Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara, who both drove the car full-time in the FIA World Endurance Championship last year.
“I’ve been part of the project since day one and, although we have had some struggles, we also had some successes such as in Le Mans last year where we managed to finish the race in the top ten, and then got into Hyperpole at Fuji,” said Kvyat. “Of course, we’ve always had some limitations with the car which we are starting to address. I am sure that, if we decide to come back in the future, we can unlock even more potential in this car.”
“The journey for me in the SC63 started last year in Qatar but it was unfortunately quite a difficult season in WEC,” added Mortara. “We got a bit more competitive at the end of the year, but nevertheless there have been a couple of highlights such as at Le Mans which I started. In IMSA at Indianapolis, we showed great form and ran in the top five all race pretty much which was great, and we can take a lot of positives from that weekend into the final race of the year. We hope to be competitive with the new suspension which seems to be working well, so we hope for a good result.”
Riley Motorsports confirmed its future IMSA plans with yesterday’s announcement of its Ford Mustang GT3 programme for 2026.
Over in GTD, Triarsi Competizione confirmed its driver line-up for the #021 Ferrari 296 GT3 at the last minute: It’ll be AJ Muss, Riccardo Agostini, and Robert Megennis sharing the white and red Ferrari.
Agostini has driven for the team three times in the last two years, as recently as Laguna Seca, when he shared the #023 car with Onofrio Triarsi Jnr. Megennis recently completed a GTD Sprint Cup campaign for Gradient Racing in their #66 Ford Mustang GT3.
More to come today as the 2026 entry list is revealed…
