The season finale was held for 10 hours in glorious Georgia sunshine and then into night before a record crowd Saturday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
Photography by Vijay Sankar Anil; press release info from IMSA
Georgia, USA: Cadillac Whelen ended the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with its second consecutive race win, Aston Martin and Lamborghini starred, and Porsche Penske Motorsport delivered another championship-winning performance.
All of that played out over 10 hours in glorious Georgia sunshine and then into night before a record crowd Saturday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta as 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.
“I wouldn’t have predicted back-to-back wins to finish the season, but we were knocking at the door quite a lot and putting ourselves in position to win,” Aitken said. “Everything finally came together, and it’s been a true pleasure the last couple of weekends.”
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.
“I was told before I got in the car that we were fighting for third place,” said De Angelis, who despite being the youngest driver in the team was tabbed to drive the anchor stint. “I don’t think I realized until 15 minutes to go we were in with a shot for the win. It would have been fun to have a chance to fight, but from where we started the year, or if you had told me this morning we would be second, I probably would have laughed.
“It’s pretty special to cross the line for the first podium for Aston Martin and The Heart of Racing.”
Another popular entry among fans – the No. 63 Automobili Squadra Corse Lamborghini SC63 shared by Romain Grosjean, Edoardo Mortara and Daniil Kyvat also achieved its best result in worldwide sports car competition with a fourth-place finish that saw Grosjean vying for the win in the latter stages before having to peel off for fuel.
Jaminet and Campbell wound up with a 187-point provisional edge over Aitken in the driver’s standings, while Porsche expanded its slim two-point edge over Acura at the start of the race to a 42-point cushion. Jaminet and Campbell also teamed to win the IMSA Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) championship for Porsche in 2022.