Durability Key for AXR, Cadillac’s First GTP Win of Season

Action Express Racing dominated the Tirerack Battle On the Bricks to give Cadillac its first win of the season with Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti.

Aitken drove a mega one hour-and-20-minute stint to finish the race and held off the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Cadillac V-Series.R in a late restart.

“It feels amazing to get our first win of the season,” said Bamber. “Obviously, it’s been a long time coming. We’ve had a lot of chances, opportunities, but now to finally get one in the bag, it’s great for Whelen. It’s fantastic for Cadillac.”

The No. 31 Cadillac stayed out of trouble during the chaotic six-hour race that resulted in a total of 38 penalties and seven full-course cautions.

Following a two-minute shootout to the checkered flag, Cadillac secured a 1-2 finish, with Bamber crediting the durability of his Michelin tires.

“Tire performance was great,” said Bamber. “Obviously we’re on the hard tire here, so the durability was really, really good.

“We didn’t really have too much degradation. No issues throughout the whole day. And warmup was great. So, you know, we kept it up front, did what we needed to do. Now we roll onto the next challenge at Petit.”

Tirerack Battle On the Bricks Results:
GTP: No. 31 Action Express Cadillac, Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti
LMP2: No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca, Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen, Hunter McElrea
GTD Pro: No. 64 Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3, Mike Rockenfeller, Sebastian Priaulx
GTD: No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff

NBC Tire Tech Minute:
This was the fourth round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. A longer race means more room for strategy, specifically tire strategy. Learn More in this race’s Michelin Tire Tech Minute.

Up Next:
The WeatherTech Championship season concludes at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with the ten-hour Motul Petit Le Mans. The race starts at 12 p.m. EST. You can watch the race in its entirety on Peacock and on NBC from 3-6 p.m. EST.