Aitken: P2 “Heartbreaking” But “Proud” to Challenge Porsche

Jack Aitken has admitted falling short of Rolex 24 at Daytona victory in his final-hour duel with Felipe Nasr was “heartbreaking” but expressed pride that Action Express Racing was able to challenge the otherwise unassailable Penske Porsches.

The No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R that Aitken shared with Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti and Connor Zilisch fell 1.569 seconds short of the No. 7 Porsche 963 of Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich in last weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener, as Nasr hung on against a late assault from Aitken in the closing stages.

It came after the No. 31 crew that had initially scored pole recovered from being sent to the back of the field for failing post-qualifying technical inspection.

The Action Express crew recovered from that setback, as well as a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty for Zilisch running a red light at pit exit to emerge as the only GTP car capable of taking the fight to the two Penske Porsches that controlled most of the race.

Aitken fought his way from fourth to second after the final restart with two hours to go, but there was nothing the British driver could do to snatch the lead away from Nasr.

“We had a really tough 24 hours,” said Aitken. “It was not straightforward at all.

“We had quite a few setbacks, and the guys in the pit box and my teammates here did a fantastic job to get us back into a race-winning position at the end of the race.

“Having said that, the Porsches were very strong all race. It was impressive. We came after them and tried to challenge them as best we could. I got close a few times, but just didn’t quite have enough to get the move done.

“I think both Felipe and I were struggling with tires in the heat. It was a bit of back and forth all the way. Just unfortunately fell a bit short, which is really heartbreaking, but we put a great run together, and I’m proud of that.”

Aitken made multiple attempts to pass Nasr at the inside of Turn 1 inside the final half-hour, but on each occasion the Brazilian closed the door.

“I had a couple of moments where I stuck my nose in there, but it was always from a bit further back and just trying to make something happen,” said Aitken.

“I never got a super, super great run on him into Turn 1. It was always creeping up to his corner.

“I was trying to find an opening here or there, and it was a fine line between making a gap open up and just causing a bit of an accident.”

On Nasr’s defensive tactics, Aitken added: “It was aggressive, but I think I would have probably done the same. There was a half of a gap there, so I went for it.

“The half of a gap turned into none of a gap, and we both did a good job to not have an accident. It’s frustrating, but I’m not going to sit here and say, oh, he should have jumped out of the way or whatever. I think it was just hard racing.”

Bamber likewise expressed pride for the Gary Nelson-led team emerging as the only true threat in the fight for victory to Porsche and Penske.

“We could see already from the first stint, I think there was just three cars in the race most of the time, which was just the 6, the 7 and the 31,” said the New Zealander. “It was similar to what it was last year at the end of the year.

“They are a really formidable opponent, and coming here, they’re always going to be strong. We put our best foot forward, and I think the team should be proud.

“We had a long drought of podiums last year without one, and then we won the last two races [of 2025] and now we’re just bitterly disappointed for the second.

“It just shows the standard that we always want to come here and just expect to win.”