Drivers Approaching Road America Enduro ‘Like a Sprint’

Several drivers in this weekend’s Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America have said they will approach the six-hour enduro like a sprint race, despite its extended length.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event was switched to an endurance race for this year in a change from its usual sprint format.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the event, Vasser Sullivan Racing driver Aaron Telitz said: “These six-hour races just inevitably end up being sprint races. Track position matters almost the entire way through the race.”

The GTD championship contender added that he thought there would be “significantly less” cautions than was the case in 2025.

Last year’s race became notorious for its chaotic on-track action, with a total of five full-course cautions across its two-hour and 40-minute run time.

“People will want to try to get to the end and try to make it more than in the sprint race format,” Telitz predicts of this weekend’s outcome.

“Some of the restarts in the sprint race the last couple of years have been absolutely wild. But I think we’ll see some more green flag running this time and hopefully that’ll make for some really exciting racing.”

Fellow GTD competitor Kenton Koch echoed Telitz’s words, saying: “Track position is still super important.”

Koch, who is participating exclusively in Michelin Endurance Cup rounds for this season, added: “Things are just going to have a little bit more ebb-and-flow, depending on what stage of the race you’re in, just because it’s a longer format.”

The Triarsi Competizione driver said strategy calls would be more important with a six-hour contest and that it would change “how people execute the race.”

“Your strategy on long green flag runs can sometimes change, and when you throw a yellow in there, some people take it, some people don’t,” said Koch.

“You’ll get to the end and one guy that’s been leading for four hours ends up at the tail end because he’s just on a different [pit stop] cycle.

“When you’re in the car, you’re not the one controlling strategy. You’re just out there doing the best you can, whether it’s fuel saving, or full-attack, full push. It depends on the stage of the race.”

Max Esterson, who has not raced at Road America before, shared a similar emphasis on strategy. The American is currently in his first full season in sports cars in the No. 59 Team RLL McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

He admitted that the team would “take a bit less risk at the start” and that the key to success was to “set up to be in a good position at the end, whether that means fuel saving, or doing a shorter stop or pushing to make a gap.”

In the GTP field, drivers appeared to share a similar attitude towards still viewing the race as a sprint in spite of its increased length.

Last year’s Road America winner Dries Vanthoor said: “You want to try to prioritize qualifying a bit more for a sprint race, compared to now having a six-hour race. You don’t really care so much about that.

“You just focus on having a fast race car throughout the race. Other than that, it’s pretty copy-paste.”

GTP Championship leader Jack Aitken reflected Vanthoor’s comments, saying there was “not a huge amount” of difference in terms of approach as the sprint races still allow teams to make multiple pit stops, thus putting a similar emphasis on strategy.

The Action Express Racing Cadillac driver admitted that one of the major differentiators in strategy compared to the rest of the class will be the its decision to run a three-driver lineup for this weekend, in contrast to the majority of the GTP field.

Only the No. 31 Cadillac, comprising of Aitken, Earl Bamber and Fred Vesti, and the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963, have opted for three-driver lineups this weekend in GTP.

Aitken shared a different view to his GTD counterpart Telitz in regards to cautions. He explained that, based off of previous races at the Wisconsin circuit, the Whelen crew are “expecting [the race] to be very yellow [flag] heavy.”

In LMP2, Road America debutant Alex Quinn acknowledged that strategy calls in the class will be different to the rest of the field as each driver in the Pro-Am lineup must complete a mandatory 90-minute stint.

“The team I’m with [CrowdStrike by APR] seem to always be very strong with strategies,” said Quinn. “So, it’s a good confidence [boost] for us drivers to have them behind us.

“I think coming into the year, we’ve seen the endurance rounds as probably our stronger point.”