Support Only Endurance's independent sportscar journalism today from £1/$1/€1 a month
What a great race at Road Atlanta for the 28th Petit Le Mans.
There was action up and down the field, with championships to be decided in every class and some great racing over the 10 hours of the new-traditional IMSA season-closer.
In the headline GTP class, there are a few storylines I want to focus on for the front of the field.
Phil Oakley
Action Express's dominant display
In a Balance of Performance class, especially in IMSA where the field is frequently bunched up behind the safety car, dominance can be hard to come by.
But Action Express bucked the trend. They were at or near the front the entire race, leading for 49.7% of the race, 217 laps in total out of 436. And, they spent 30% of the race, 131 laps, in second. So overall, they spent over two thirds, and getting on for three quarters, of the race in the top 2 positions. Dominant.
And, if you look at overall race pace, they were 0.231 seconds faster than anyone else, when taking the top 20% laps set by each car in each hour, and then averaging out each hour to get a single value.
They were also the fastest car on average in five of those 10 hours. This included the opening three hours, when Jack Aitken was running just a few tenths behind Tom Blomqvist, the fifth hour of the race, and the seventh hour.
As darkness fell, in the last few hours, this pace advantage seemed to be neutralised a little. They were fifth-fastest on average in the eighth hour, then ninth-fastest in the next, before being fifth-fastest again in the final hour of the race.
They were leading the race for pretty much the entirety of this period, so in a classic racing adage, track position proved to be better than anything else.
This, though, doesn't negate the fact that it was a brilliant win for Action Express and Cadillac, their second consecutive win after also winning at Indianapolis.
'The way Earl finished, the way Fred came in and held the lead, it shows the depth that we have in the team that we're really confident and we all put in great stints today,' said Aitken.
'All did a huge job to hold off the competition and manage the strategy, manage the fuel and the Whelen Cadillac was on fire today. We were able to lead and that was the game plan coming into today – to do it just like at Indy. So, I'm really pleased that we finish the year in such an awesome way and roll into 2026.'
Action Express's bang on strategy call
So, let's recap that final hour.
The #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie made its final pitstop on lap 394, the earliest of the frontrunners, 14 laps after its previous stop. Roman de Angelis was sitting third at this point, roughly 15 seconds off the lead, with Mathieu Jaminet in the #6 Porsche and Earl Bamber in the #31 Action Express Cadillac ahead.
De Angelis exited the pits with a full tank of fuel, pitting at the earliest possible opportunity to ensure he didn't have to pit again.
Bamber pitted 31 laps later. He had slightly under 15% virtual energy remaining. The team filled the car to 29%.
He exited just a second or so ahead of de Angelis, who had been pushing to undercut Bamber and overtake the Kiwi, with Romain Grosjean in the #63 Lamborghini.
Clearly, the Aston Martin strategy didn't play out and Bamber went on to win. De Angelis did pass Jaminet for second, as did Grosjean.
Phil Oakley
Had Bamber pitted the following lap – the team could have pushed it to the limit in terms of how late they pitted – there's a decent chance de Angelis may have passed him, especially considering how hard de Angelis was pushing, knowing a win was possible.
That's because Bamber would have needed to spend longer stationary in the pits while de Angelis could have flown by on Road Atlanta's short main straight. And given how relatively similar the pace was, there's no promises Bamber would have been able to find a way past de Angelis with just minutes remaining.
But as it was, Action Express played it perfectly, retained the lead and therefore track position, and were able to win.
Aston Martin's first Valkyrie podium
At the start of the year the Valkyrie was off the pace in both the FIA World Endurance Championship, and in IMSA. It took a little while for them to get up to speed, but the car's first podium, globally, signifies the progress they've made on the car in under a year's worth of racing.
De Angelis finished 5.1 seconds off Bamber after 10 hours of racing, beating Porsche's Jaminet. Over the course of the race, they had the fourth-fastest 20% average, slower only than the #31 Cadillac, #60 Acura, and #24 BMW.
Was there a chance to win? That depends.
Disclaimer here: we don't know all the facts, only the team knows that. All we can do is surmise from the available data and make a vaguely educated guess.
Gunn pitted with less than 1% of virtual energy left on lap 380, with De Angelis exiting with a full tank. This was too early to make it to the end without stopping again.
The team had a choice: extend the stint as long as possible and pit late for a splash of fuel. Or, pit as early as possible and run to the end, pushing hard.
They made the latter decision, with de Angelis pitting 17 minutes later on lap 394. At this point he had just under 70% virtual energy left, with 55 minutes remaining.
He finished the race with 1.6% left.
We can assume that de Angelis was pushing hard in that final stint to catch the leaders. However, they couldn't have pitted any earlier, and any later would have meant longer spent in the pit lane, negating the advantage of pitting later.
In the event, de Angelis's pace, when looking at the 20% metric, was actually slightly slower than Bamber's in that final hour. The Kiwi's gap to de Angelis when the Cadillac left the pits on lap 425 was around 4.3 seconds, with Grosjean between them.
Grosjean then pitted for a splash, and while de Angelis did manage to close the gap, Bamber extended it again before the flag to be 5.182 seconds.
That's not to take away from Aston Martin's and The Heart of Racing's momentous achievement though. It sets them up well going into 2026, the team and car's sophomore year in GTP.
'Our aim for Motul Petit Le Mans was to finish the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on a positive note and by scoring the first podium finish for Valkyrie in such a challenging event as this, we've certainly achieved that,' said Adam Carter, Aston Martin's head of endurance motorsport.
'The variety of circuits and differing race lengths in IMSA make it such a huge challenge for both a racing car manufacturer and a race team. But Valkyrie and Aston Martin THOR Team have faced it head-on with relish, made consistent improvements and now deservedly, Valkyrie, is a podium finishers.
'To achieve this on pace, rather than circumstance, is incredibly satisfying and a testament not only to the concept behind Valkyrie, but by the way everyone involved in the programme has executed their role. This is another fabulous milestone in the programme and one we can all be extremely proud of.'
Download The Racing Line on iOS today and get 70% off a year's subscription!
Lamborghini's bittersweet swansong
After two years of struggling with the SC63, the best race result comes in a car/team/manufacturer's final race when the ongoing programme into next year has already been cancelled.
James Jackson
They came close to an even better result too. Grosjean pitted for the penultimate time on lap 386, with less than 1% of virtual energy remaining.
Much like with Aston Martin, this was too early to get to the end without stopping again.
While Aston pitted early and got the stop out of the way, Lamborghini took the other option: extend the stint and pit as late as possible, in the hope of a late race caution helping them save enough fuel.
In the event, there was no late race caution – somewhat unusually for IMSA – and Grosjean had to pit again with under 5 minutes remaining, with around 1.7% virtual energy left in the tank.
But, fourth is still the best ever result for Lamborghini in either IMSA GTP, or in WEC's Hypercar class.
'An amazing result for the whole team, we had a few small glitches with the car which cost us some time in the pits unfortunately, but overall, I think we can be very happy with P4, the best result for the car,' said Grosjean after the race.
'We were hoping for a yellow at the end, but it didn’t happen; the probability was that it would happen, but the luck wasn’t quite on our side today.
'We did everything we could, there were a few issues that dropped us time at the stops, we lost four seconds on one of them, but all-in-all the team was amazing, and the car was good. I drove the hell out of it, but we were just a bit unlucky in the end.'
Feature image: Griffith Bean for Only Endurance
This post is brought to you by The Racing Line, your personalised motorsport calendar app. Get session times for over 150 series, from rally to bikes, single seaters to sportscars with customisable notifications and built-in streaming. Download on iOS today!