Aitken Doesn’t Think GTP Title is Over “By Any Stretch”

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

Jack Aitken believes that the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title isn’t over “by any stretch” despite his and Action Express Racing’s sizable lead with three races to go.

Aitken heads into this weekend’s six-hour Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America with a hefty 203-point lead over Porsche factory driver Laurin Heinrich.

While a maximum of 1,155 points are still on the line, Aitken and season-long co-driver Earl Bamber will score a minimum of 660 points over the final three races if they both qualify and finish last, as long as their No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R rolls off each grid.

However, with Aitken and the team riding an eight-race podium streak, dating back to last year’s Battle on the Bricks round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and having won the last two GTP races, momentum has clearly been on the Cadillac squad’s side.

“We’re in a pretty good groove at the moment as a team, as a crew,” said Aitken.

“I think we’ve had some good progress this year with the evo update on the Cadillacs as well, and there’s a lot of hard work in the off-season to get that ready and shipshape and doing what we wanted it to do, and that’s helped.

“So, a lot of things have come together.

“I don’t think we are in a position where we’re really desperately trying to hold onto a streak.

“It’s a great thing to have, but the reality is we’re coming into every weekend, trying to do the best job we can. The streak will end at some point.

“I don’t know if that’ll be this weekend with a hat-trick of fourth places or if we can keep it going even longer, but we feel good.

“We just want to keep enjoying it and keep working well, so why would we change anything at the moment.”

When asked by Sportscar365 if the points lead is a confidence boost or if it brings more pressure, Aitken said: “There’s no reason to change the way that we’ve been racing because it’s been working well.”

He added: “We’re certainly not doing the win it or bin it strategy at the moment and obviously it wouldn’t make sense to switch over.

“I think we’re just looking to be as quick as we can, and then make sensible decisions in the race, and that gets you, like, 99 percent of the way there, and it always will.

“I’ve been in a few championship fights now. It’s hard to not have some pressure come into the team but that’s what we keep repeating, that we’re doing things well, and we just need to stick to those guns.

“There will be weekends when, even if we do things right, we’re not going to get the results that we have been getting, and that’s just life. That’s racing. It’s going to happen, doesn’t mean that we’re doing the wrong things all of a sudden.

“We’re going to keep trucking, try not to worry too much about the point situation until maybe the last few hours of Petit Le Mans.

“It looks like a big leap, but frankly in IMSA, the point swings can be quite aggressive. So, I don’t think it’s over by any stretch.”

Aitken: Winning IMSA Title Would Be “Right Up There” in Racing World 

While ending up a surprise second in the GTP standings last year thanks to a late-season rally, the Englishman, now in his third full season WeatherTech Championship campaign, said achieving the title would “mean a lot.”

“It would obviously be fantastic because to win any championship of that scale IMSA, is right up there in the racing world, not just in the endurance or sports car world,” said Aitken.

“It’s a championship that I truly enjoy racing in, which means a lot as well.

“And to do it with people that I enjoy working with, that would mean a lot as well.

“You balance that against the more championships that I do and the more races I do, the more that I measure success in a bit of a different way, because you can only do what’s in your control, what’s in your hands.

“So I’m taking more and more pleasure these days from doing those things well, and that means that you don’t take the DNFs or the bad results quite as hard when you, you feel like you’ve done your job.

“But it also means that when you win, you’re a bit more circumspect about, about it.

“I will be over the moon if we can do it very proud of what we’ve achieved. But I will still be very proud, even if we don’t do it.”

Finlay Ringer contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John