Whelen Cadillac wins Petit Le Mans as Porsche crowned IMSA GTP champions

The No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti held on to win the 28th Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, closing the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with back-to-back wins in GTP.

Porsche Penske Motorsport drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell finished third to clinch the 2025 GTP drivers’ championship in the No. 6 Porsche 963, accompanied by relief driver Laurens Vanthoor, who drove both factory Porsches after Julien Andlauer withdrew before the race due to back pain.

"We had a great car all day," said Bamber. "I mean, I guess it started to get nerve-wracking when we got the puncture in the middle of the day. The guys did an amazing strategy. We had a really fast car in the middle of the day.

"Everyone sort of caught up on pace a little bit in the night. Fred [Vesti] probably set it up really, really well to give us a six-to eight-second gap at the last pit stop. Then we were sort of in the last two stints probably carrying the others on strategy with the fuel save, just making sure we stayed one or two laps ahead of them on the fuel.

"Then when the others in the alternate strategy were sort of out front just covering both options on strategy, got close with the 63, but the timing standard did an amazing job to keep me updated.

We had a car with enough pace where we could manage the fuel and sort of cover the people sprinting behind us that have already stopped and the people fuel saving."

Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

The No. 6 Penske Porsche won the GTP teams’ championship while Porsche won the manufacturers’ title. Porsche defended every GTP title successfully, including the Michelin Endurance Cup, which went to the No. 7 Penske Porsche (Felipe Nasr/Nick Tandy/Laurens Vanthoor) that came home in 10th after a late incident.

• Porsche’s ‘CamJam’ pairing has another championship to celebrate

Bamber held off Campbell and then Jaminet for most of the final two hours, but the No. 31 Cadillac and No. 6 Porsche needed a splash of fuel to reach the finish with 15 minutes to go. It put the No. 63 Lamborghini Squadra Corse SC63 (Romain Grosjean/Edoardo Mortara/Daniil Kvyat) into second place, and the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie (Ross Gunn/Roman de Angelis/Alex Riberas) into third, on the cusp of fairytale results.

The Lamborghini didn’t have enough energy to capture a maiden podium in the SC63’s final race, but by topping off its tank with 52 minutes left, de Angelis was able to capture the Valkyrie’s first IMSA podium, crossing the finish line in second. Grosjean finished fourth, one position behind Jaminet.

Completing the top five was the polesitting No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 (Tom Blomqvist/Colin Braun/Scott Dixon).

LMP2 was won by the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA 07-Gibson of Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen, and Hunter McElrea, thanks to a huge fuel save in the final stint from Jensen.

Jake Galstad/IMSA

The No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA (Jeremy Clarke/Tom Dillmann/Bijoy Garg) recovered from an early incident to finish second, holding off the third-place No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA (Tobias Lütke/Oliver Jarvis/David Heinemeier Hansson).

Sixth place for the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA of PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron and Jonny Edgar was enough for “Spike the LMP2 Dragon” to win the LMP2 championship – Hyett’s first in IMSA competition and Cameron’s fifth IMSA title in five different categories.

Race winners Thomas, Jensen and McElrea took the LMP2 Endurance Cup for TDS Racing, on a tiebreak with their second endurance victory, over the Inter Europol Competition crew.

“I was able to put it on pole in my final race, which was super exciting, and then like an hour later they said so you failed scrutineering," related Thomas. “I started in the back, and it was it was just so much fun. When I got out of the car, I’d done my drive time and that was the end for me. Ending on this victory and maybe the best stint I’ve ever driven was like a dream. That is the perfect ending.”

Jake Galstad/IMSA

Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Connor De Phillippi won GTD PRO in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO after a commanding performance for most of the race.

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio García and Alexander Sims clinched the IMSA WeatherTech GTD PRO championship in their No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, finishing third with co-driver Daniel Juncadella. Ahead of them was the sister No. 4 Corvette (Tommy Milner/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone) in second.

It’s García’s sixth IMSA championship as a Corvette Racing factory driver and fifth since the reunification of American sports car racing. Chevrolet also clinched the GTD PRO manufacturers’ championship.

Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

“Obviously, we didn’t have probably the pace to pass people on the track, but we did just a fantastic job again – saving fuel, doing everything right and gaining positions, taking every opportunity,” said Garcia.

Harper clinched the win for Paul Miller’s No. 48 BMW by overtaking Catsburg with a little over an hour to go. He and Hesse won the Michelin Endurance Cup title as BMW and Paul Miller Racing swept all three categories.

“I was very fortunate that he got held up a little through the last corner and I was able to get a good run onto the start-finish straight and get it inside for Turn 1," Harper said. "We had some great wheel-to-wheel action through the esses. He was very fair to me, and I was equally fair to him.”

Two costly penalties and another collision in the last few hours of the race ultimately cost Albert Costa and DragonSpeed a chance at an upset championship triumph. Costa, Davide Rigon and Giacomo Altoè finished seventh in class in their No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 after a brutal finish to their race.

Ferrari did get a 1-2 finish in GTD, though, led by a dominating victory for the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Simon Mann, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Lilou Wadoux.

The No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari (Onofrio Triarsi/Kenton Koch/James Calado) finished second after leading briefly in the last two hours. Silver-graded Mann stuck with Le Mans overall winner Calado, and after both cars made their final stops, fellow Le Mans winner Pier Guidi retook the lead and held off his WEC co-driver for the win.

AF Corse also took the Michelin Endurance Cup title with their victory at Road Atlanta.

Jake Galstad/IMSA

Completing the GTD podium was the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus (Parker Thompson/Ben Barnicoat/Frankie Montecalvo) in third, ahead of the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis/Indy Dontje) clinched the IMSA WeatherTech GTD title at the very beginning of the race due to a five-car crash on the opening lap. Ten hours later, Ward and Ellis, with Dontje, completed their back-to-back title-winning season with a fifth-place run and clinched the manufacturers’ title in GTD for Mercedes.

“This year was a little bit more difficult,” Ward said. “We didn’t have two full-season entities in Mercedes-AMG, so to bring that home in the final race is a really nice carrot on top of the cake. Just an awesome day for us.” 

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