Action Express trio Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti gave Cadillac a second consecutive Petit Le Mans victory as Porsche’s Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet won the 2025 IMSA title.
The #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh took the flag after 10 hours of racing around Road Atlanta with a 5.1s margin over The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar shared by Ross Gunn, Romain De Angelis and Alex Riberas.
Third place for Campbell and Jaminet, who shared the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh with Laurens Vanthoor, was more than enough to give them the IMSA SportsCar Championship drivers’ title.
Porsche took a clean sweep of the silverware in the GTP class, also claiming the manufacturers’ and teams’ crowns and the IMSA Endurance Cup with Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr in the sister #7 PPM car.
The Action Express Cadillac was the fastest car for the majority of the 2025 finale, but had to fight back from an early delay to retain the Petit Le Mans crown won by the Chip Ganassi Racing squad in 2024.
Aitken, who had qualified second, took the lead after shadowing pole winner Tom Blomqvist in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 LMDh for the first two and a half hours of the race.
#31 Cadillac Action Express Cadillac V- Series.R: Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti, #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06: Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Scott Dixon
Photo by: Brandon Badraoui / Lumen via Getty Images
The Briton was able to stretch the lead to nearly 10s before handing over to Bamber just before the fifth of six safety cars to interrupt the 28th running of the enduro. Bamber had to come back into the pits with a right rear puncture under the yellow flags after running over debris on his outlap.
The New Zealander was able to bring the car up to second behind the #6 PPM car into which Vanthoor was drafted in on race morning after Julien Andlauer fell ill. The Action Express entry then jumped the Porsche in the pits during the final safety car with four hours remaining.
Vesti was able to build an advantage over Dries Vanthoor in the #24 Rahal BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh driven by Philipp Eng, Dries Vanthoor and Kevin Magnussen, which had also got ahead of the Shank Acura.
The Porsche came back into contention after Campbell moved past the BMW and closed to within a second of Bamber in the penultimate hour. But after the final round of pitstops with just over an hour left, the Cadillac driver reasserted his advantage over the Porsche, now with Jaminet at the wheel.
All the cars needed to make a splash-and-dash fuel stop in the final hour, THOR opting to make its extra pit call early.
The strategy promoted De Angelis to third behind the Cadillac and the factory Lamborghini SC63 LMDh with Romain Grosjean at the wheel when the Cadillac and the Porsche stopped.
#63 Automobili Lamborghini Squadra Corse Lamborghini SC63: Romain Grosjean, Edoardo Mortara
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Lumen via Getty Images
That became second when Grosjean, who shared the Lamborghini with Edoardo Mortara and Daniil Kyvat, made his splash with five minutes remaining. The Lambo still made it home in fourth place on what is the final scheduled appearance for the car.
The best of the Shank cars Blomqvist shared with Colin Braun and Scott Dixon took fifth, while the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac driven by Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque and Will Stevens rounded out the top six.
LMP2 honours went to the #11 TDS Racing ORECA-Gibson 07 shared by Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea. Meanwhile, PJ Hyett and Dane Cameron took the class title in their AO Racing ORECA.
BMW took the GT Daytona Pro victory with the Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3 EVO shared by Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Neil Verhagen.
The BMW was followed home by the two Corvette Racing/Pratt & Miller Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs: Nicky Catsburg, Tommy Milner and Nico Varrone took the runner-up spot in class, but the title went to Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia with the third place they garnered together with Daniel Juncadella.
2025 Petit Le Mans results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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