How Porsche Penske finally broke its Petit Le Mans duck

Porsche and Penske have made a habit of winning the big North American sportscar enduros over the past few years. It followed up on a hat-trick of victories at the Daytona 24 Hours back in January with a second straight triumph at the Sebring 12 Hours eight weeks later. But a win in the third most prestigious race on the IMSA SportsCar Championship schedule has eluded the partnership. They finally put a tick against the Petit Le Mans box over 10 drama-filled hours at Road Atlanta on Saturday, though with a twist. 

The Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDhs were in the ascendancy pretty much the whole way across the Florida 36 Hours back at the start of the season. But this time PPM had to come from behind to complete the triple crown of blue riband IMSA enduros. So much so that the winning #6 entry didn’t lead the race until approaching the start of the ninth hour when the entry shared by Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell moved to the front of the field. That was the other difference between this and the previous five big wins for PPM. Victory went the way of #6 rather than #7, and that meant Felipe Nasr for once didn’t get to spray the champagne. 

IMSA’s season finale around the 2.54-mile Road America circuit was a combative and frenetic affair for all 11 GTP entries, not least the winning car. Even before the green flag dropped, the #6 car had already lost two grid places, relegating it to sixth on the grid, after Estre was deemed responsible for an incident with an LMP2 in practice. A further penalty for a pitlane infraction delayed the #6 early in the race, but this was an event where cars yo-yoed up and down the order courtesy of the record 16 safety cars that interrupted its running. That’s not counting a mid-race red flag lasting not far short of an hour courtesy of lightning protocols.

Petit Le Mans started to come good for #6 after the 10th safety car of the race following the six-hour mark. Estre was sixth in the queue, quickly moved up to fourth and then pulled off a spectacular around the outside manoeuvre on Jack Aitken in the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh at Turn 1 to take second. It was all the bolder given the circumstances under which Estre was racing. He was on probation and facing the threat of a ban after being deemed culpable for a clash with the same driver at Road America at the beginning of August. 

That put the #6 Porsche behind its sister car shared by Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich. Estre closed in the last-named, getting within a second before dropping back and keeping a watching brief until the next round of stops. This was the turning point of the race, at least in terms of the internecine PPM battle. Estre was in pitlane, under yet another safety car, for a second and a half less than Heinrich. 

The two Porsches, now with Vanthoor and Nasr aboard, were running line astern with 90 minutes left on the clock when the Brazilian got the better run out of Turn 12. As they zig-zagged through GT Daytona traffic down the front stretch, Vanthoor edged to the left to take the racing line for Turn 1. As Nasr tried to jink in the same direction to get alongside, he clipped the car he was overtaking on the left. The #7 turned around its nose and straight into the wall, putting the car out of the race and triggering safety car number 14.

The #7 Porsche crashed in traffic while fighting the sister car for the lead

Photo by: Brandon Badraoui / Lumen via Getty Images

Vanthoor was third in the crocodile when the race went green and just had time to make it up to second before the race went yellow yet again: he put a move on the Action Express, now with Earl Bamber at the wheel, into the Turn 10 chicane. Two laps after the next restart, Vanthoor was able to nip inside Filipe Albuquerque’s #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Caddy. The #6 had finally made it to the top of the leaderboard for the first time in the race. 

There was still work to do, however. Vanthoor only took two Michelin tyres at what would be the final round of stops for the cars duking it out for the victory. He went half off the road at both the Esses and then into Turn 6 on his out-lap. Bamber, who had four new tyres under him, nipped in front, but a lap and half later, the Porsche was back in front when the Caddy got boxed in by traffic on the exit of Turn 12. 

Bamber lost out the following lap to Sheldon van der Linde aboard the #24 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh, which then edged towards the Porsche. The South African, who co-drove the BMW with regular partner Dries Vanthoor and endurance driver Robin Frijns, was just over a second behind when one last safety car, a so-called ‘short’ one under which the pits remain closed, was called. When it pulled in with a shade over 10 minutes remaining he wasn’t quite able to get close enough to make a bid for the lead even with the fresh tyres - he’d taken four new Michelins at the final stop. Vanthoor crossed the line 1.2s to the good. 

Nasr’s retirement had no effect on the outcome of the championship. Heinrich lost his chance of overhauling Aitken at the top of the table after qualifying. The points gained when the #31 took fourth on the grid and the #7 only seventh edged the Briton out of reach

Van der Linde reckoned he didn’t have much for the Porsche over the final laps. He had just the one chance to make it past. “He got stuck in GT traffic at the last corner, and I thought I’d got lucky,” recounted the South African. “He saw me coming at the very last minute and closed the door. That was probably the best shot we had.”

Frijns, who had to make up lost ground after a spin at the chicane during his stints as the sun went down, insisted beating the Porsche was always going to be a tall order. “We knew over the weekend that the Porsche was the car to beat,” he said. “We saw that in the race as well.”

The #6 963 was as quick as anything around Road Atlanta’s undulations. It was nip and tuck with the #24 BMW as to who was quickest - they were separated by hundredths on the averages. Narrow it down to the second half of the race, and the Porsche had an edge of something over a tenth. But it wasn’t necessarily the most raceable car. It had the least power of any of the GTPs at Atlanta and was second heaviest. 

Aitken effectively had the 2026 IMSA GTP drivers' title secured after qualifying

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

“We knew we had a good car in clean air,” said Estre. “But it was difficult to pass and finally we were in the mix towards the end, with a car that was not really in one piece, but somewhere near.” Vanthoor reckoned the car had “taken a bit of beating”, which was evident from the plumes of tyre smoke trailing off the left rear corner in the quick righthanders. The winning 963 was also tight on fuel: he finished the race with 8% of his energy allocation remaining, van der Linde 11%. 

“It was interesting at the end because we had to save fuel and it was close to having to go one lap further,” explained Vanthoor. “At one point they were asking me to save fuel to go a lap more and keep the BMW behind - that was a bit much!” The final safety car was a godsend for Porsche. 

Exactly when and where the rear deck had been knocked out of alignment wasn’t entirely clear, though Nasr appeared to run into the back of Vanthoor in the Esses as the race went green after safety car number 14. Vanthoor suggested there hadn’t been any contact with the #7, though he admitted he needed to “watch the highlights to remember everything” from such a back-and-forth contest. Certainly, Nasr’s race-ending off was caused by his touch with a GTD Porsche, not an LMDh, so there was no return of the controversy that to some extent overshadowed PPM’s Sebring victory. Estre was forthright in accusing Nasr of disobeying team orders that time. 

Nasr’s retirement had no effect on the outcome of the championship. Heinrich lost his chance of overhauling Aitken at the top of the table after qualifying. The points gained when the #31 took fourth on the grid and the #7 only seventh edged the Briton out of reach. That meant Aitken only had to leave the grid to be confirmed as 2026 IMSA GTP champion. “A bit of weird feeling,” was how he explained it.

This time last year, PPM pairing Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet, partnered by Vanthoor, sealed the title with a run to third after switching to conservative mode in the latter stages of the race. Victory went to the Action Express Caddy, Frederik Vesti sharing with Aitken and Bamber. The same trio were in the mix this time until a clash with Roman De Angelis in the #23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie as they battled over fourth put him in the barriers, triggering the final safety car. 

So the 963 finally won Petit at the fourth time of asking, giving Porsche a second victory in the event. The first was not won by a prototype, of course, Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet beating the pure-bred racers in the rain back in 2015 aboard a 911 RSR GT Le Mans contender. The triumph meant a lot to all three of the winning crew.

It was Porsche's second overall victory at Petit Le Mans, 11 years after its first

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

For Estre, it was a first win of any kind in a series in which he first competed in 2014, though admittedly this had been his first complete campaign. Ironically three of his six runner-up spots had come at Petit, one each in GT Daytona, GT Le Mans and GTP. Vanthoor, who will continue doing the IMSA enduros with Porsche next year, could scratch through another entry on his bucket list as he gears up to resume his pursuit of another when he joins McLaren in the World Endurance Championship next year. The Le Mans 24 Hours is the big one for the Belgian. And Campbell had the perfect sign-off as he leaves Porsche for Ford and a WEC Hypercar campaign in 2027. 

Estre paid tribute to Vanthoor’s late-race heroics. “Laurens made an amazing double stint at the end, with some incredible passing and no mistakes,” he said. “It was really nice to watch, so thank you Laurens, man of the race, that’s for sure.” 

For Campbell it was a perfect sign-off as he heads to Ford in the WEC, while Vanthoor will only do IMSA enduros for Porsche next year

Photo by: Brandon Badraoui / Lumen via Getty Images