Following the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, invitations to the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans grid were extended to the winners of the Jim Trueman Award and Bob Akin Award. These awards are given to the top-ranked Bronze driver in the respective LMP2 and GTD categories in IMSA this season.
AO Racing team owner and Bronze driver PJ Hyett won the Trueman Award in parallel with the IMSA WeatherTech LMP2 Championship, alongside co-driver Dane Cameron.
Hyett took his first major sports car racing victory when he won the LMP2 Pro/Am class at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, joined by Cameron and Louis Delétraz.
Winning this year’s Trueman Award ensures Hyett will have the opportunity to win LMP2 Pro/Am at Le Mans again. Hyett, Cameron, and Delétraz can also win the 2025 ELMS LMP2 Pro/Am title for AO Racing by TF Sport this coming week in Portimão, a prize that includes a separate automatic invitation to Le Mans.
AWA driver Orey Fidani retained the Akin Award after a season-long, head-to-head duel with Inception Racing’s Brendon Iribe, which was disappointingly settled when Iribe crashed out on the first lap of the finale.
Fidani brought Ontario, Canada-based team AWA (Andrew Wojteczko Autosport) to Le Mans for the first time earlier this year and finished tenth in LMGT3 alongside Matt Bell and Lars Kern.
“I couldn’t be happier or more proud of the way we performed this season,” Fidani said after the race. “We knew from the get-go that we wanted to go back to Le Mans, and we knew we would have to work incredibly hard to achieve it, but that’s exactly what we set out to do. We all have an immense amount of respect for everyone at Inception Racing, and we had a great time going up against them this season.
“I’m thrilled that we’re going back to France, and now with some extra knowledge and experience on our side, we’ll be ready to put up a good fight with Chevrolet.”
Fidani’s return to Le Mans also coincides with the news that he will now be the owner of the #13 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R entered in next year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. As revealed on Thursday, the new name of the team will be 13 Motorsports.
Fidani and Bell were also confirmed as 13 Motorsports’ full-time drivers in 2026, and Kern will also stay on as the team’s Michelin Endurance Cup driver. Bell and Kern have also confirmed their intentions to return to Le Mans alongside Fidani.
While it no longer owns the entry, AWA, led by founder Andrew Wojteczko, will continue to provide operational and technical support to 13 Motorsports, out of a new headquarters in Toronto.
“I’m really excited for this new venture with 13 Motorsports,” Fidani said earlier in the week. “We’ve built a great group over the past few seasons, and I’m grateful to have everyone returning. You don’t change a winning team. With the move to our new, more spacious shop in Toronto, it feels like the perfect time to take the next step and keep pushing forward together.”
Porsche Penske Motorsport won the 2026 IMSA GTP Championship and also earned an invitation to Le Mans, but its participation depends on whether the Porsche 963 will be run with a two-car customer team in next year’s FIA World Endurance Championship, in order to preserve its eligibility to race at Le Mans.
Prior to Petit Le Mans, Swiss outfits Kessel Racing and CLX Motorsport secured automatic invitations to enter the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours via success in GT World Challenge Europe and the ELMS.
SRO’s headline European series offers an invitation to the best entry in the Bronze Cup, across both its Endurance and Sprint disciplines, and Kessel’s Ferrari stood out all season.
Kessel is still in contention for a further two invitations. It sits fourth in the European Le Mans Series LMGT3 Teams’ standings with one race to go, and will field two cars in the Asian Le Mans Series’ GT class over the winter.
CLX Motorsport, meanwhile, was crowned ELMS LMP3 Champion with a race to spare back at Silverstone and travels to this weekend’s finale in Portugal with the pressure lifted.
The next batch of invitations will be handed out to the ELMS LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, and LMGT3 title winners this weekend, before the final pair go up for grabs over the winter in the Asian Le Mans Series for the LMP2 and GT champions.
Images © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
