Cameron Reflects on “Really Incredible” LMP2 Year for AO

Photo: AO Racing

Dane Cameron has reflected on what was a “really incredible” year for AO Racing in LMP2 competition, which saw he and co-driver PJ Hyett win multiple titles as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans in class.

Cameron, who joined the Gunnar Jeannette-led squad on the back of a two-year run with Porsche Penske Motorsport, highlighted by the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title, helped anchor two season-long championships for AO and Hyett.

The duo picked up the WeatherTech Championship LMP2 title following October’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, and one week later, were joined by Louis Deletraz to seal up the LMP2 Pro-Am championship in the European Le Mans Series in an AO by TF-run Oreca 07 Gibson.

“You go into these projects thinking that both can win but you don’t necessarily expect to get both; that seems a bit unrealistic or a bit greedy,” Cameron told Sportscar365.

“It wasn’t easy across both projects but to win a monumental [race] like Le Mans and also to win both championships and do it in one swoop is incredible. It’s something that doesn’t happen every day.

“It sort of comes to you. Sometimes the year just comes together and you find success and you have this bit of momentum.

“We’ve had this uplifting swing on the second half of the year where the first half, things weren’t really going the right at all. We we having pretty bad luck and some failures.

“We knew we were there and were super close. But it’s all hypothetical until it starts to happen.

“The things just really dropped into place, and you get one, and you get another.”

Cameron, who earned his record-extending fifth WeatherTech Championship title, praised the efforts of his Bronze-rated co-driver Hyett, who came on form following their breakthrough first class win at Le Mans, which was followed up by victories in both the ELMS race at Imola and WeatherTech Championship LMP2 headline round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

“We did promise PJ, he was trying to get that first win, ‘Once you get one, you’ll get more and it will come to you,'” said Cameron. “Then we were just kind of on fire there over the summer.

“It’s gone that way typically, when I’ve had championship success, is if you can peak in that third of the year, that middle-to-late phase of the year and really stack some points, then it puts you in a good position towards the end of the year.

“Honestly it was a really incredible run of form on the back of the year. I’m really grateful to PJ, to AO, to TF, Gunnar, the boys and girls across both projects to put us in that position to capitalize on these opportunities.

“It was built really well, to have Louis in European Le Mans was perfect. He was the right guy there to do that.

“I needed somebody to lead that half a little bit, from track knowledge to tire knowledge and specifics of that championship. He was the perfect guy given his success rate there.

“Jonny [Edgar] and Christian [Rasmussen] were great guys to have here in the U.S. It was really the perfect mix of ingredients that really came together.”

Cameron credited the crossover between the two LMP2 programs, in having the engineering team of Scott Besst and Nico Brisseau with them at all races.

“Obviously the rules are different and there’s little philosophy tweaks to suit the tires and tracks and things like that, but it really helped us on the starting half of the year,” he said.

“The communication, the consistency and things like that. For PJ, to be in the car that often was a really big help and to have a similar general philosophy on the car was helpful for him to continue to stack his confidence.

“That’s when you saw him really come on form on the back half of the year.”

AO Targeting IMSA Enduros, “Big Trophies” in 2026

Cameron said the group still has plenty of motivation heading into next year, with an unchanged core driver lineup in the WeatherTech Championship as they seek triumphs in some of the key IMSA enduros such as the Rolex 24 and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

“That’s where we fell short a little bit was for sure the endurance rounds [in IMSA],” he said.

“Trying to get some of those marquee victories for PJ, I think, is a big target for us. That’s such a big portion of your championship in LMP2 now, given the calendar is so short in IMSA.

“Of course you want to do it over again, same as the start of last year, you wanted to win both championships because you felt like you could.

“We want to do that and win the championship again. Now that we’re on the second year for everybody, in a stable environment, it gives us a better opportunity to have some continuity to jump off of and really attack a bit harder in the enduros.

“Certainly we were very close in Daytona but it always felt like we were still trying to get everything organized.

“I was trying to find my way a little bit and get back on my feet and now everything’s good, everything’s stable. Everyone knows each other, now we can really push in on these ones.

“The ones we have circled is try to focus on those enduros and see if we can get some of those big trophies for PJ.”

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