Porsche Penske Motorsport won Petit Le Mans for the first time Saturday, outlasting a record 16 cautions and a lightning delay.
The No. 6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor, Kévin Estre and Matt Campbell won the 29th running of the Motul Petit Le Mans on Saturday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Vanthoor held off Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 by 1.205 seconds after 10 hours and 368 laps of racing, closing the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. Van der Linde shared the BMW with Robin Frijns and Laurens Vanthoor’s younger brother, Dries, making it a Vanthoor 1-2 finish.
The winners had to survive a lot. The race set a record with 16 full-course cautions, and was stopped for more than half an hour for lightning. Several front-runners were also lost to crashes, including the championship-winning Action Express Cadillac and Porsche Penske’s own No. 7 car.
This was Penske’s first overall win at Petit Le Mans and Porsche’s first overall win at the event with a top-class prototype. Porsche’s only other overall victory came in the rain-shortened 2015 race, when a GT Le Mans class 911 RSR beat the prototypes due to torrential rains. It was also Porsche’s first top-class win at Road Atlanta since 1987.
A wet start
After rain Saturday morning, the race went green at 12:10 p.m. on a wet but drying track. Many teams switched from rain tires to slick tires moments after the race started.
The season championship was settled before the green flag. Jack Aitken and the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac clinched the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) drivers’, teams’ and manufacturers’ titles simply by starting the season-ending race.
Several contenders were in trouble before the race was an hour old. The No. 99 AO Racing Oreca, the LMP2 polesitter, pitted at the end of the formation lap with an electrical problem. The No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin was rolled off the grid with an electrical issue, joining the race over 20 laps down and retired after completing 37 laps.
The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO lasted only 18 laps, retiring with an overheated engine less than 30 minutes into the race.
Lightning Strikes in Fourth Hour
Rain returned in the fourth hour, sending most of the field to pit lane for wet tires. The two United Autosports Oreca Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) cars collided at pit entry, triggering a caution that became a red flag when lightning was detected in the area and forced a mandatory 30-minute delay. Even though the race was stopped, the 10-hour race clock continued to run.
Cars returned to the track under yellow at about 4:15 p.m. with the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Colin Braun leading, ahead of the No. 7 Porsche and the No. 24 BMW.
A 10-minute shootout
The No. 31 Action Express Cadillac led with two hours remaining, but Earl Bamber crashed after making contact with the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP in the closing stages of the race. That left Laurens Vanthoor and van der Linde to settle the race in a 10-minute sprint after a late restart.
Felipe Nasr crashed the No. 7 Porsche at Turn 10 with about 90 minutes left while trying to avoid the sister No. 6 car. That ended the race for the car that swept the 36 Hours of Florida this season, winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Twelve Hours of Sebring. JDC-Miller MotorSports also lost its customer No. 5 Porsche 963 to a crash.
The win was Estre’s first in IMSA competition, and it came in Campbell’s last start as a Porsche factory driver. It was Porsche Penske’s first win since Sebring in March and the No. 6 car’s first since May 2025.
Added to the No. 7 car’s 36 Hours of Florida sweep, the result gave Porsche wins in IMSA’s three biggest endurance races in 2026. Porsche also left Georgia with the manufacturers’, teams’ and drivers’ titles in the Michelin Endurance Cup.
Class winners
LMP2: The No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca of Alex Quinn, George Kurtz and Toby Sowery won. Quinn and Kurtz clinched the LMP2 drivers’ championship, the team’s first title in three full-time seasons, along with the Jim Trueman Award and an invitation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
GT Daytona Pro (GTD Pro): The No. 68 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi, Valentin Hasse Clot and Marco Sorensen took the lead in the final hour for the team’s first IMSA win, in its first Michelin Endurance Cup start in the class. The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche of Nick Tandy, Harry King and Alessio Picariello finished second.
The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Neil Verhagen, Connor De Phillippi and Dan Harper finished third after the No. 911 Manthey Porsche ran out of fuel late. Third was enough to win a six-team championship fight and give De Phillippi and Verhagen their first full-season IMSA titles. Paul Miller Racing also won the GTD Pro Endurance Cup for the third straight year.
GT Daytona (GTD): The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje won from pole. Ellis passed Lilou Wadoux’s No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari for the lead on Lap 320, and a late caution eased the fuel saving at the end. It was Winward’s first Petit Le Mans win, and Ward and Ellis wrapped up their third consecutive GTD championship.
Georgia in the field
Two Atlanta drivers raced in GTD: Ryan Hardwick in the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche and Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin.
Hardwick, Riccardo Pera and Morris Schuring finished second in GTD, 0.733 seconds behind the class-winning Winward Mercedes after 346 laps. The podium was Hardwick’s farewell to full-time driving. The Bronze-rated driver, who turned 46 on race day, told Sportscar365 before the race that he had “nothing left for me to prove” and is stepping back to spend more time with his family. He leaves as the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 champion, with class wins at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans. Pumpelly, John Potter and Mario Farnbacher finished fifth in class, 4.148 seconds behind the winner.
