Cadillac Whelen ended the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with its second consecutive race win at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, as Kiwi Earl Bamber, Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti drove the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R to a 5.182-second victory over Roman De Angelis, Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Aston Martin Valkyrie in the 28th annual Motul Petit Le Mans.
The season-ending round of the WeatherTech Championship was packed with close competition and drama from start to finish, culminating in Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell clinching the driver’s and manufacturer’s championships for Porsche Penske Motorsport in the premier Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class with a third-place finish in the No. 6 Porsche 963 they shared with Laurens Vanthoor.
With the No. 31 Cadillac’s Petit Le Mans victory and its win September 21 at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Aitken vaulted from sixth place to second in the driver’s standings. It was Cadillac’s fifth triumph at one of the world’s crown jewel endurance sports car races.
Aitken was fastest in two of the three practice sessions in the lead-up to the race, and he qualified the No. 31 Cadillac on the outside of the front row. He stalked Tom Blomqvist in the Motul Pole Award-winning No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 through the first two stints before taking the lead early in the third hour.
But Bamber soon suffered the misfortune of a punctured tire while running under caution shortly after he took over the No. 31. That started a furious comeback drive that saw the Whelen Cadillac scythe through the 12-car GTP field to regain the lead at the six-hour mark. They were able to control the race from there, their main drama coming when the last four hours ran caution-free, forcing a late stop for fuel that cut their comfortable lead to less than a second. But their competitors also required a late splash-and-go.
“That was a true IMSA race,” said Bamber. “The guys did a great job keeping me updated and we timed the strategy perfectly at the end. Just a phenomenal job by Cadillac to get the victory here. We’ve built a good core team, and winning these last few races has really been sweet.”
The Aston Martin Valkyrie garnered many fans around the world in 2025, in large part due to the sound of its shrieking V-12 engine. The car’s best result in IMSA competition prior to Saturday was sixth place at the Motul SportsCar Grand Prix at Road America in August.
LMP2 – Hunter McElrea wins with TDS Racing
Steven Thomas (TDS Racing) qualified fastest for the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class and going on to claim his second consecutive win in the classic 10-hour endurance race.
Despite losing the Motul Pole Award due to a post-qualifying technical infringement on the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA LMP2 07, Thomas drove from the back of the field to the lead in his opening double stint. Hunter McElrea and Mikkel Jensen completed the job, with Jensen crossing the line 48.903 seconds ahead of Tom Dillmann and the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07 he shared with Bijoy Garg and Jeremy Clarke. To boot, the No. 11 TDS trio also won the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup on a tiebreaker over the No. 43 car thanks to more race victories.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors will enjoy a well-deserved break before reconvening at Daytona International Speedway in November for 2026 homologation testing.
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