Road Atlanta Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Jurgen Tap/Porsche

***Porsche claimed its record-extending 63rd championship in IMSA history following Porsche Penske Motorsport’s back-to-back sweep of the GTP titles, anchored by drivers’ champions Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell.

***It marked Team Penske’s seventh IMSA title and Porsche’s ninth championship since the creation of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2014. It also ensured Penske will have won at least one championship across its motorsports empire every year since 2012.

***Roger Penske said: “This championship is a testament to the entire Porsche Penske Motorsport team and the hard work and dedication they invest into this program every day. The season started with four consecutive victories, including back-to-back 24 Hours of Daytona wins, and has continued into ten total podiums. That type of success isn’t accomplished without great drivers, leaders and a resilient crew. The commitment to winning together has been unwavering and defending the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title is reflection of those efforts from all the men and women across both Mooresville and Germany.”

***Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle added: “I couldn’t be more prouder of the team and the drivers. Thanks Larry (Laurens Vanthoor) for doing a double shift today; he’s well-paid so it’s OK! Having a back-to-back in the GTP championship is quite remarkable and I couldn’t be any prouder to be part of the team.”

***Julien Andlauer revealed on social media the extent of his medical emergency that forced him to miss the race at the last minute and be replaced by Vanthoor in the No. 6 Porsche, with the Frenchman having sustained “severe back pain” on Saturday morning.

***Andlauer wrote: “Worst feeling ever, leaving the team in this situation because of severe back pain. After a few checks at the track I had to jump on the first flight home for further exams. Thank you for all the messages and support.”

***Porsche claimed six titles in all on Saturday. In addition to the GTP drivers’ championship for Jaminet and Campbell, Porsche Penske took the GTP teams’ title, while Porsche also won the GTP manufacturers’ crown for the second consecutive year. The German brand also successfully defended the Michelin Endurance Cup GTP manufacturers’ championship, while Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy took the Endurance Cup drivers’ title by a single point over Action Express Racing’s Earl Bamber, Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti. Porsche Penske also won the Endurance Cup teams’ title.

***It came despite a tenth place result for the No. 7 Porsche spearheaded by Nasr and Tandy after late-race contact between the Brazilian and the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Ricky Taylor, an incident that didn’t appear to have been reviewed post-race by race control. Kuratle said of the incident: “I personally have to review it on the screen, but I see [Nasr] was a little bit pushed out at the end.”

***Action Express, which took the overall victory in Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans, claimed its 31st IMSA win, equaling its long-standing car number, while earning its first back-to-back WeatherTech Championship wins since the 2019 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, although it came with two different Cadillac DPi entries that year.

***The win, compounded by late-race issues for Nasr and Tandy, along with others, remarkably vaulted Aitken from sixth to second-place in the GTP drivers’ championship. “I’m shocked,” he said after finding out from media members in the post-race press conference.

***The No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R bounced back from a bizarre right-rear puncture while under the race’s fifth full-course caution that required Bamber to come back into the pits on the race’s restart.

***He explained: “We did the first stop and then actually we were just cruising around. Out of Turn 5, one of the [jet] blowers just blew a load of crap into the side of the car from the right-hand side. We were coming around the next lap and… then I saw the right rear at 1.22. [bar] And then I was like, ‘That’s not great.’ Then it was 1.2 and then 1.1, .18, .17. Then I was like, “Okay, I think we have a puncture.'”

***It dropped the Kiwi to dead last in the GTP class at the time but the trio managed to cycle back to the front by the sixth and final yellow, which set up a 3 hour and 51-minute green-flag run to the checkered flag.

***Both the Aston Martin Valkyrie (second) and the Lamborghini SC63 (fourth) recorded its best-ever finishes in global sports car competition. It came in what could be the Lamborghini’s final outing, with the SC63 race program having been paused for 2026.

***The pair of the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06s encountered electrical and/or mechanical gremlins in the race, with the No. 93 car of Nick Yelloly having pitted on Lap 64 to change the steering wheel after battling a gear-shift issue, which appeared to resolve itself later in the race.

***It came after the car missed the majority of Thursday’s second practice session and parts of night practice with electrical issues, which prompted Honda Racing Corporation USA to fly in engineers from its headquarters in California to help fix the gremlin according to Renger van der Zande.

***The pole-sitting No. 60 Acura, which led for 79 laps, came home fifth. “Something broke on the car about halfway through the race and we just struggled from that point onwards,” said Blomqvist. “We lost a lot of time and positions to the leaders, and there were no full course cautions to help recover ground, so it was a bit of a disappointing end.”

***Philipp Eng was on course to give Team RLL a proper send-off with its final race with BMW after a 17-year factory partnership, until Eng’s No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 suffered a right-rear puncture while running fourth with ten minutes to go. Eng, Dries Vanthoor and Kevin Magnussen were classified ninth.

***Eng was the longest-standing driver with the Bobby Rahal co-owned team out of the six pilots in Saturday’s race. “I want to thank BMW M Team RLL for eight great years together,” he said. “Our first race at Daytona in 2018 was my debut in a works program. Since then, we’ve experienced so much, and I’ve made many friends in the team. That makes this farewell emotional for me.”

***TDS Racing scored a ‘Triple Double’ in LMP2 by taking back-to-back Petit Le Mans class wins, while claiming victories in the final two races of the season for the second consecutive year. The French squad also won its second consecutive Endurance Cup crown.

***It came in Bronze-rated driver Steven Thomas’ 35th and final scheduled WeatherTech Championship race. “It was actually really emotional,” he said. “I was able to put it on pole in my final race, which was super exciting. Then like an hour later, they said, no, you failed scrutineering, you’re out, you’re starting in the back.”

***Thomas continued: “And then I started in the back, and it was just so much fun. When I got out of the car, I had done my drive time, and that was the end for me… I might be able to do some stuff in Europe next year. We’ll see. It’s cheaper but IMSA has been unbelievable. It’s been the best experience in my life, honestly.”

***Thomas overhauled United Autosports driver Daniel Goldburg to finish second in the LMP2 standings after two separate suspension upright failures forced the Anglo-American squad’s No. 22 to the garage, including while in a commanding class lead with Rasmus Lindh at the wheel. The team’s sister No. 2 car also had suspension failure late in the running.

***AO Racing picked up its second WeatherTech Championship title in as many classes, with its LMP2 championship with Dane Cameron and PJ Hyett joining the Gunnar Jeannette-led squad’s GTD Pro crown from last year with its ‘Rexy’ Porsche 911 GT3 R.

***The team’s ‘Skeleton Spike’ Oreca 07 Gibson of Cameron, Hyett and Jonny Edgar came home sixth in class after having an issue with the seat belts during the final driver change from Edgar to Cameron with less than two hours to go.

***Cameron explained: “We didn’t get one [belt] plugged in there, and I was trying to get it. I tightened some other ones, and it gets a little more complicated then. I threw the door open as I was trying to deal with it to call for help a little bit. It was unfortunate it was there, but obviously we were in a decent point at that standing.”

***Paul Miller Racing and BMW picked up the Endurance Cup titles in GTD Pro, led by Road Atlanta rookies Max Hesse and Dan Harper, who were joined in Saturday’s race-winning BMW M4 GT3 EVO by Connor De Phillippi, who like Laurens Vanthoor, pulled double duty between two team entries.

***De Phillippi said: “The only other time I’ve done [double duty] was the Nürburgring 24 the year I won it (in 2017, in a Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS).” So now I’m two-for-two doing double-duty. So hopefully I get another shot.”

***The California native, whose last WeatherTech Championship win came in the 2023 Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, when BMW Team RLL GTP entry inherited the victory after the No. 6 Porsche flunked post-race tech, revealed that he used two different helmets in the race because each of the cars’ radio plugs were on different sides inside the cockpit.

***While Antonio Garcia claimed a record-extending fifth WeatherTech Championship drivers’ title, Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports co-pilot Alexander Sims took his second championship after winning the 2023 GTP title with Action Express.

***The GTD Pro title was Chevrolet’s 40th in IMSA competition and the 16th for the Pratt Miller Motorsports organization, which has operated the factory and now works-supported cars since the program’s inception.

***Corvette Racing program manager Jess Dane said: “The stats are fairly phenomenal, and for me I came onto this program literally a year ago, and understanding the depth and the history of Chevrolet in motorsport, Corvette in motorsport, it’s something in the grand scheme of things, I’m a tiny blip on that radar. It’s really an honor to be a part of that from a personal perspective, but from a broader perspective, it’s just testament to everyone at General Motors and Chevrolet and Corvette Racing who are so passionate about going racing and understanding the benefits of doing so and everything that we can extract from a championship like IMSA to benefit our wider organization.”

***DragonSpeed’s championship bid unraveled in the second half of the race, when its Ferrari 296 GT3 was served two drive-through penalties, including incident responsibility for Albert Costa after contact with the No. 64 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 of Seb Priaulx while battling for fourth. Costa and co-drivers Giacomo Altoe and Davide Rigon finished two laps down in seventh.

***AF Corse’s Lilou Wadoux has now won WeatherTech Championship races in both LMP2 and GTD, and became the first female driver to win her class at Petit Le Mans since Liz Halliday achieved the feat in an Intersport Racing Lola B05/40 AER LMP2 car in 2005.

***Wadoux’s co-driver, Ferrari Hypercar ace Alessandro Pier Guidi, was involved in an incident with Costa in the closing hours that resulted in no further action from race control but briefly took the Italian out of the class lead at the time. “I was trying to stay as much out of the trouble as I could, because my first goal was crossing the four-hour, the eight-hour mark and close the championship,” said Pier Guidi. “And actually, it wasn’t a nice moment. Luckily, everything went well. I didn’t lose as much time. I have been able to recover the car quite quickly.”

***While Winward Racing wrapped up its back-to-back GTD titles early into the race, also giving Mercedes-AMG its second consecutive class manufacturers’ title, AF Corse’s Pier Guidi, Wadoux and Simon Mann won the GTD Endurance Cup championship.

***Orey Fidani secured his second consecutive Bob Akin Award, and automatic invite to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, which was decided on the opening lap when Brendan Iribe, who was tied for the lead with Iribe, collided with Manny Franco’s No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari in the Esses, leading to a five-car accident.

***Fidani plans to take his newly named 13 Motorsports team, which will be run by AWA, to Le Mans next year with his Corvette with the unchanged driver lineup of the Bronze-rated Canadian, Matt Bell and Lars Kern.

***AO’s Hyett, meanwhile, picked up the Jim Trueman Award in LMP2, which will give ‘Spike’ an auto-entry back to Circuit de la Sarthe next year to defend the team’s LMP2 Pro-Am class win. “I would love to do it again, for sure,” said Cameron. “It seems to be a little bit better luck race for me than Daytona.”

***Georgia Governor Brian Kemp served as the honorary grand marshal of the race, giving the command to start engines.

***IMSA President John Doonan revealed on IMSA Radio that the race was a “complete sellout” with Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta forced to stop selling at-gate tickets shortly after the race start due to being a full capacity, a first in the event’s 28-year history. There were significant traffic backups on Saturday morning delaying several drivers, including Porsche Penske’s Campbell, who walked nearly two miles to the track in order to get into the No. 6 Porsche to complete the recon lap in time.

***Rallying legend and 1984 WRC champion Stig Blomqvist, father of Tom, was on hand for his first WeatherTech Championship race of the year, while Mark Blundell, a former Meyer Shank Racing driver as part of its then-alliance with United Autosports in the Grand-Am DP days, was also on-site over the weekend.

***Wayne Taylor Racing hosted around 50 engineering and race car mechanic/fabrication students from area universities and Lanier Tech. Drivers and team members highlighted areas of the GTP cars and answered specific and career questions.

***Cadillac Racing program manager Keely Bosn, a U.S. Navy veteran, met with the family of Aviation Boatswain’s Mate First Class Timothy Justin Williams as part of Michelin’s support of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) program. Williams served his country from 2006-2018 and received various awards and commendations. Bosn presented a Cadillac Racing hat signed by drivers to his widow, Corcynthia.

***Former Le Mans LMP675 class winner John Graham passed away on Sunday. Graham, who was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2021, was a long-time sports car competitor and was part of the last winning all-Canadian effort in the race, having shared a Multimatic Motorsports-run Lola B2K/40 Nissan to class victory in 2000 with fellow countrymen Scott Maxwell and Greg Wilkins.

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