With four class championships, an Endurance Cup and 2026 Le Mans 24 Hour entries to be decided, the 2025 IMSA SportsCar finale Petit Le Mans was always going to be a dramatic affair.
A thrilling race provided a bit of everything - a wild strategy battle for the win which even gave the top class’s' minnows a chance, an LMP2 class where it looked like the objective was to not finish the race, late penalty drama for a leading GTD Pro title contender and a lap one crash that ruled out five GTD entries!
A breathless Road Atlanta race - featuring a crowd so big that it caught out drivers who didn't leave their hotels early enough and nearly missed mandatory elements of the pre-race - thrilled and once again showed that while it doesn't have the number of years on the calendar of a Sebring or a Daytona, Petit has quickly established itself as a rival to the classic US enduros and one of the best races on the calendar.
Winner: Aston Martin (2nd)
Aston Martin took its best result yet and while there was a bit of luck, it was a podium contender on merit for the first time since the car was introduced just seven races before Petit Le Mans.
When it debuted its Valkyrie hypercar - arguably the best sounding car produced in top-level motorsport for a decade or more - its doors were flying off and things were, let’s say, sub-optimal.
A year on, the Valkyrie was a threat all weekend at Petit Le Mans, topping night practice and even passing the reigning champion #7 Porsche with possibly IMSA’s best prototype driver Felipe Nasr at the wheel.
It was a complicated final stint where all of the frontrunners needed an unplanned stop for fuel. The Aston Martin took its one early and was rewarded for that decision, taking second when its previous best finish was sixth.
Though Ross Gunn is the only platinum-rated driver in this line-up and few would argue against him being the best of the Aston Martin crew, it was GTP rookie Roman De Angelis who was trusted with bringing the car home in the crucial final stint - a glowing tribute to his progress and efforts this season.
Winner: Lamborghini (4th)
It was the last race for Lamborghini’s somewhat troublesome SC63, but a rear-suspension upgrade rolled out for its penultimate race at Indianapolis has certainly helped and it looked like it might fight for the win in the closing stages before a final splash-and-dash was needed.
Romain Grosjean had a suitably rollercoaster race where he received a blocking penalty for aggressive defending on an LMP2 car early on, but he was the one put in the car and with the bit between his teeth in the closing stages, giving the team a best result of fourth.
We may never see the SC63 again, or its drivers Grosjean, Edo Mortara or Daniil Kvyat in IMSA again. Hopefully we will, as it's an entertaining team and line-up.
Loser: #7 Porsche (10th)
Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor dropped from fifth to 10th after late contact unseen by TV cameras and which Porsche suggested had been caused by the #10 Wayne Taylor Cadillac hitting them, though that required further review after the race.
This car won the first three races of the season including back to back Daytona 24 Hours and Penske Porsche’s first Sebring 12 hours with this car.
While a Balance of Performance change for round five in Detroit produced an almost comical resetting of the order whereby the 963 has not won since, the #7 car has also been more error-prone and less consistent than its sister car that won the title.
Two nose changes in this race condemned its strategy options and late contact cost the team second in the championship.
The one saving grace was the team won the sought-after Michelin Endurance Cup for the longer distance races.
Winner: #31 Whelen Cadillac (1st)
Sixth in the championship before this race started, back-to-back IMSA wins for Jack Aitken meant he jumped to second in the standings, basically vaulting the #7 Porsche that dominated the first part of the season in the championship on the final lap of the last race of the year.
An early puncture - which Earl Bamber says was caused by a track sweeper firing debris into the side of his car under a caution - threatened its chances, but the #31 had so much pace in hand it was able to not just overtake and fight forward as necessary but also save more fuel than its rivals when required because of that inherent pace advantage.
Frederik Vesti continues to show his class as his first full season in IMSA has regularly been punctuated by driving off into the distance given any sign of clean air, and if this line-up stays together next year - which feels unlikely - winning the last two races points to a formidable force.
Cadillac also bagged back-to-back Petit Le Mans successes with its splendid-sounding gargantuan V8 V-Series.R.
Loser: Julien Andlauer (DNS)
Taken ill before the race, Julien Andlauer had to pull out of the #6 car only an hour or so before the race started. With Porsche pulling out of the World Endurance Championship next year and needing to lose some drivers from its payroll, it felt like every lap for the current crew was important at Petit Le Mans and Andlauer didn’t get any.
Luckily one of Porsche’s top endurance stars Laurens Vanthoor put himself forward to take over and do a double-stint in the car.
He shrugged off any pressure that comes with not only the shock of having to drive two cars, but one of them being in championship contention and knowing the slightest error could cost a team working hard for this all year.
He made sure it was the opposite, he was rapid and played a key role in rescuing this team which could have been in big trouble before the race even began.
Winner: #6 Porsche (3rd + championship)
A sweep of most of the major championships, but a long and stressful day for this team!
Not only did it lose Andauer, but due to a massively increased Petit Le Mans crowd - it was already a record attendance last year - Matt Campbell got out of the rental car and walked three kilometres just to get into the track!
They almost missed the recon lap. Then Andlauer dropped out.
Then at an early caution, the #6 was yet to pit when others had, sending it way down the order.
But at the next stop, the team timed it perfectly as a caution came out while it was in the pits allowing it to jump into the lead, and two excellent stints following that by Mathieu Jaminet made it look like a win was on the cards.
Inside the second half, they lost the lead in the pits and looked a solid second to the #31. It almost lost a podium with its late splash and dash, jumping up only for Grosjean’s late stop.
While this car arguably hasn’t had the peak performance of its #7 sister car, since winning Laguna Seca in May, ‘CamJam’ have been so consistent, which is what’s needed when you have a performance pulled from underneath you by a BoP change.
Two podiums, two top-fives and a seventh since that BoP change while the sister car has disintegrated shows how tough this kind of change can be and how consistency can overcome it.
Perhaps a pointed comment, perhaps a passing innocuous comment in the middle of a much bigger moment, Porsche Motorsport Director of Factory Racing, Urs Kuratle said: "Having a back-to-back championships in a BoP formula is quite remarkable, and I couldn't be any prouder to be part of the team.”
Winners: The five-time champions
In LMP2, fan favourite team AO Racing took the title and Dane Cameron stole the headlines as he became one of two drivers to become IMSA’s first five-time champions.
Cameron has done it in five different classes and/or formulas, and did so having been let go in a controversial move by Porsche Penske Motorsport after Cameron had co-driven the #7 to the overall title last year. This was a just reward for Cameron and AO.
The championship result also secured a Le Mans 24 Hours entry for the entry’s bronze-rated driver, PJ Hyett, while Johnny Edgar has been pivotal but likely won't stay on with AO as his grading will be upgraded for next year.
It seemed no one wanted to win the LMP2 class at Petit Le Mans as every car hit major trouble through contact or penalties. It was the TDS car which won and finished second in the championship in what will be team owner Steven Thomas’s last full season in IMSA. Let’s hope Peugeot factory driver Mikkel Jensen - regularly the best driver in this class - and Hunter McElrea find homes in IMSA as it would be the series’ loss if they didn’t.
The team also won the Michelin Endurance Cup in LMP2.
The other five-time champion alongside Cameron is Antonio Garcia, who - alongside Alexander Sims - took the GT Pro championship.
There have been swings in the points this year but the #3 Corvette always felt the most comfortable, consistent and likely champion after the season settled down. Garcia has won all five of his IMSA titles with Chevrolet power.
It beat the DragonSpeed Ferrari which has felt like the 'David' in this 'Goliath' fight with little testing and less factory backing from Ferrari than the Corvette gets with Chevrolet and Pratt Miller. But two contact penalties wiped out a first half of the race where it looked like it could pull off the impossible.
The GTD Pro class was won on this occasion by the Paul Miller BMW team of Connor De Phillippi, Max Hesse and Dan Harper. Hesse and Harper are the regular drivers and new to IMSA this year but have made a lasting impression with two wins and fourth in the championship.
All eyes are on how many cars Paul Miller will run next year and if it will be BMWs, despite an excellent first year as a two-car GTD Pro outfit in which Harper and Hesse also won the Michelin Endurance Cup for the class.
Winner: Max Esterson (12th)
It's no secret that JDC Miller MotorSport has struggled as IMSA’s only full-time GTP customer entry. Its 963 just hasn’t reached the levels of its factory counterpart.
But in Petit Le Mans, the team gave Trident Formula 2 driver Max Esterson a run out and boy, did he deliver. He took the car as high as fourth in the order and was within two tenths of a second of the factory Porsche at the height of the early running.
He certainly turned some heads with his pace, and sportscars could be a great opportunity for him. This was certainly an ace audition.
Winner: Orey Fidani (9th in GTD)
While the GTD championship went to the excellent, Mercedes-backed Winward Racing for a second year in a row with Philip Ellis and Russell Ward, the other big winner in GTD was Orey Fidani who was ranked the top bronze driver in the class and therefore wins a Le Mans 24 Hours entry.
Fidani - co-driven by Matt Bell this season - finished ninth in the championship in their Chevrolet Corvette.
Fidani has recently purchased a stake in the AWA team - engineered by the excellent Charlie Ping who will be well known to many racing fans - and will move it to a new factory in Toronto next year.
The #21 AF Corse car won the class in the race guided by Alessandro Pier Guidi, Simon Mann taking his first IMSA race, and Lilou Wadoux taking her second.
