AO Racing in Talks With OEMs for Future GTP Effort

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

AO Racing is currently in talks with “manufacturer partners” for a prospective top-class prototype program, likely earmarked for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, according to team principal Gunnar Jeannette, who hasn’t completely ruled out a potential 2026 effort.

The Illinois-based team, which has race-winning LMP2 and GTD Pro entries fighting for their respective championships this year, has revealed ambitions of expanding into GTP and/or Hypercar competition in the coming years.

“We definitely want to get to GTP racing, Hypercar, whatever… racing in the top class,” Jeannette told Sportscar365 Friday at Road America, site of this weekend’s Motul SportsCar Grand Prix.

“We’re evaluating manufacturer partners because we want it to be that. We want it to be a partnership. We don’t want to just be a full-on, ‘Ok we buy a car, we’re a customer and we have to do everything by ourselves.’

“To be honest, we’re evaluating everything from a full factory program to a full customer program.

“That being said, we are talking to lots of people.”

Jeannette revealed the team, founded by himself and PJ Hyett in 2022, have always had aspirations of reaching the top class of sports car racing.

AO made its debut in the GTD ranks of the WeatherTech Championship in 2023 before stepping up to run a Porsche 911 GT3 R in the GTD Pro category the following year, which saw Laurin Heinrich claim the class title.

Heinrich and fellow Porsche-contracted driver Klaus Bachler currently sit second in this year’s GTD Pro title race, while Hyett and ex-Porsche Penske factory driver Dane Cameron are coming off their first WeatherTech Championship LMP2 victory last time out at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

Hyett and Cameron have also climbed to second in their respective title race with three LMP2 races to go this season.

“We’ve always known that we wanted to do it,” said Jeannette of entering the top class. “It’s not like, ‘Oh yeah we’re going to go GT racing and we’ll see what happens.

“We have always had a clear path that we want to get to the top class.

“We didn’t necessarily know the timeline of what that would look like, and with us wanting to do it the correct way… None of us wanted to force it.

“If we went into GTD Pro and we couldn’t even compete for top-fives, there’s no point in spending more money to just look like idiots in GTP.”

Jeannette stressed that its targeted expansion to GTP racing would have to coincide with the continuation of the team’s fan-friendly ethos, which has seen its Porsches transformed into ‘Rexy’ and ‘Roxy’ the dinosaurs as well as ‘Spike’ the dragon-themed Oreca 07 Gibson.

“Certain manufacturers are more open to how we do things than others because that has been very important, and how we do it is just as important as us doing it,” said Jeannette.

“I think that is probably different than a lot of teams because of what we’ve created in our short amount of time, not losing our identity because we become a full factory program and now we can’t do certain things that have made us successful and helped drive the team to this point.

“Finding that partner is very, very important in this and why we’re taking so much time and being so deliberate with it.”

Jeannette said they’re not wanting to rush things, despite their current success in LMP2 and GTD Pro.

“Looking at it in the right manner, hopefully that looks like a decision being made, ideally towards the end of this year, lining stuff up in ’26, and actually racing in ’27 [or] maybe the end of ’26,” he said.

However, with Porsche Penske Motorsport’s 2026 IMSA GTP program yet to be officially confirmed, Sportscar365 understands the German manufacturer could rely on customer or factory-supported teams to run Porsche 963s in the WeatherTech Championship next year if the full works team goes away.

Jeannette, however, downplayed such a possibility, nor confirmed that he’s even in talks with Porsche.

“I wouldn’t rule anything out but it would be very hard from being where we are right now to feel like we’re ready,” he said of mounting a 2026 GTP program. “Entries open on the 5th [of August]. I would say it’s highly unlikely for us to have something [for next year].

“I’m not ruling it out. It could be, but it still has to make sense because we don’t want to come into a new category and not be competitive.”

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