Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, and Matt Campbell prevailed to win a wild 29th running of the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
The #6 Porsche 963 completes the team and manufacturer’s sweep of IMSA’s three crown jewel enduros, in a dramatic race that set a somewhat unflattering record with 16 Full Course Yellow interventions (plus a red flag for inclement weather) – with five in the final two hours of the race alone.
Vanthoor drove the #6 Porsche to the lead with an hour and three minutes to go when he passed the #10 WTR Cadillac of Filipe Albuquerque. After the final round of pit stops, Vanthoor briefly lost the lead to Earl Bamber in the #31 Whelen Cadillac, but drove back around him with 48 minutes to go with an opportunistic pass through traffic exiting the Turn 10 chicane.
Vanthoor then had to hold off BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde and Acura’s Tom Blomqvist in one last 11-minute sprint to the checkered flag, but narrowly secured the victory by 1.205 seconds after 368 manic laps. It’s an emotional win for Campbell in his final race for Porsche, and a long-awaited first IMSA WeatherTech Championship win for Estre.
“A phenomenal drive there in the end with Laurens, with a lot of pressure and a hectic last two laps. One thing missing at Porsche Penske was the win here; so to win with Laurens and Kevin is awesome!” Campbell said.
“It’s been a tough season, but I have to say a big big thanks to the whole team. We needed 50 people behind us to get that win,” Estre added.
The #24 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 (Sheldon van der Linde/Dries Vanthoor/Robin Frijns) took a close second-place finish overall; Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s two V-Series.Rs rounded out the top four, led by the #40 (Jordan Taylor/Louis Delétraz/Colton Herta) in third ahead of the #10 (Ricky Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque/Will Stevens).
Felipe Nasr walked away from a vicious crash in the final 90 minutes of the race; Nasr tried to clear GTD traffic down the front stretch but clipped the #28 RS1 Porsche 911 and flung into the left-side wall, nearly flipping over. It ended the bid for Nasr, Julien Andlauer, and Laurin Heinrich to win all three of IMSA’s major endurance races individually.
Meanwhile, the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie of Roman de Angelis tangled with the #31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R with 20 minutes to go, ending a title-winning season for Bamber, Frederik Vesti, and GTP champion Jack Aitken on a flat note, and spoiling a strong result for the Valkyrie with a drive-through penalty that dropped the #23 to fifth in the end.
Nevertheless, Aitken described being crowned a solo IMSA champion as a surreal experience. “I haven’t won a championship in over 10 years,” he said. “So this is quite a big milestone for me.
“I came to IMSA in 2023, and I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly ever since. I’ve been with Action Express and Whelen Cadillac that whole time. I’ve got a lot of fantastic friends and family, and great work colleagues that I’ve made here and I’m very happy where I am and pleased to share the success with them.”
Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s #60 ARX-06 (Tom Blomqvist/Colin Braun/Scott Dixon) ran out of fuel on the last lap, dropping from third to sixth in the team and manufacturer’s final outing.
The #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA 07-Gibson of George Kurtz, Alex Quinn, and Toby Sowery came back from suffering a puncture with an hour and 47 minutes to go to win the race in LMP2 and the 2026 LMP2 series championship with it.
Quinn’s left rear tyre delaminated after contact from the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA of Tom Dillmann; he was able to come into the pits, have Algarve Pro Racing repair the damage to the rear, and resume without losing the lead lap in class.
Quinn then climbed back through the field and took the lead after the final round of stops, winning ahead the #43 Inter Europol Competition car (Jeremy Clarke/Tom Dillmann/Bijoy Garg), which recovered from a drive-through penalty (for contact with the #04) to salvage second, only 0.666 seconds behind the #04 in the end.
The #18 Era Motorsport car (Naveen Rao/Ferdinand Habsburg/Jacob Abel) finished third on the podium, ahead of the #8 Tower Motorsports car in fourth.
Along with the LMP2 championship, CrowdStrike’s Kurtz also won the Jim Trueman Award as IMSA’s top Bronze driver in the class and secured an automatic entry to the 2027 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2 Pro/Am.
AO Racing’s victory bid came undone after Dane Cameron and Bryan Herta Autosport’s Harry Tincknell collided in turn one.
In a GTD Pro race that took several swings, the enigmatic Car Blanche team made an opportunistic charge to its first IMSA victory since acquiring the former Van der Steur Racing team.
Mattia Drudi went from third to first to drive the #68 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to victory with 30 minutes to go, alongside co-drivers Valentin Hasse-Clot and Marco Sørensen.
The #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Nick Tandy/Harry King/Alessio Picariello) took second place after the #912 Manthey Porsche ran dry on the final lap and retreated to the pits, dropping to seventh on the last lap.
Third place was enough for the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Connor De Phillippi, Neil Verhagen, and Dan Harper to secure the GTD Pro championship for the team and its lead drivers De Phillippi and Verhagen – in what may be the team’s final race in its current form.
A Turn 10 collision between Dennis Olsen (#64 Ford Racing) and Nicky Catsburg ended the #4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R’s title bid with less than 80 minutes to go.
Meanwhile, the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3 (Andrea Caldarelli/Sandy Mitchell/Franck Perera) finished fourth in the team’s final IMSA race.
And in GTD, with the team’s third consecutive championships secured, the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, and Indy Dontje closed strong to take its fifth win of the season.
The #912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche (Ryan Hardwick/Richard Lietz/Riccardo Pera) finished second in Hardwick’s last race, while the #36 DXDT Racing Corvette (Salih Yoluç/Charlie Eastwood/Mason Filippi) was third, and the #80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG (Lin Hodenius/Luca Stolz/James Roe) was fourth.
Further, back 13 Autosport’s Orey Fidani claimed a third straight Bob Akin Award (and Le Mans invite) with a 10th-place finish for the Canadian-flagged Corvette. The Inception Racing Ferrari, with Brendan Iribe in the line-up, finished ahead in eighth, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead in the standings.
Images courtesy of Porsche, Jack Webster & IMSA Photo
