Twenty-nine editions in, Porsche finally has its prototype win at Road Atlanta. On 3 October 2026 the No. 6 Porsche 963 of Porsche Penske Motorsport won the Petit Le Mans, the ten-hour finale of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell crossed the line 1.205 seconds ahead of the No. 24 BMW.
Porsche had won this race outright once before, in 2015. That day a GTLM-class 911 RSR came through in torrential rain, on bespoke tyres, while the faster prototypes struggled. This time the win came in the top class with a top-class car, a first for the brand. Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport, called it historic.
Sixteen cautions and a lightning stop
Rain hit early. IMSA counted 16 full-course cautions, a record for the event, plus a 27-minute stoppage because of lightning nearby. Every restart reshuffled the order.
The two factory 963s took control in the second half. With 49 minutes left, Vanthoor passed Earl Bamber’s No. 31 Cadillac for the lead. Then he had to keep it. Sheldon van der Linde, in the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, sat on his gearbox for the final half hour. According to the IMSA report, Vanthoor nearly lost the car through the Esses at one point, and later shut the door into Turn 1 just as van der Linde tried to use GT traffic, roughly 20 minutes from the end.
He was also saving fuel. Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh, said his driver had to run conservatively to make it to the flag. Porsche describes the decisive phase as a 12-minute sprint.
Van der Linde shared the second-placed BMW with Dries Vanthoor and Robin Frijns. The No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz and Colton Herta grabbed third on the final lap, after the pole-winning No. 60 Acura had to pit for energy at the white flag and dropped to sixth. Only six of the 11 GTP cars were running at the finish.
Daytona, Sebring and Road Atlanta in one year
The sister No. 7 car had won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Twelve Hours of Sebring earlier in the season. With the No. 6 adding Road Atlanta, Porsche became the first manufacturer to win all three of North America’s major endurance classics in the same season.
The No. 7 did not finish. About 90 minutes from the end, Felipe Nasr made contact with a rival while passing and crashed heavily. He was not hurt. His co-driver Laurin Heinrich had been the last man able to challenge for the drivers’ title, so the crash settled it: Jack Aitken took the crown in the No. 31 Cadillac simply by starting the race.
So the season ends with mixed numbers. Cadillac won the manufacturers’ and team titles, Porsche finished second among manufacturers, and Heinrich is runner-up in his first year in the 963. In the previous round at Indianapolis, the No. 6 car had already returned to the podium without changing the championship picture much.
The endurance sub-championship went Porsche’s way again, as it did in the previous two years. Porsche took the manufacturers’, team and drivers’ titles in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, which combines Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Road America and Road Atlanta, with the No. 7 crew winning the drivers’ classification. Porsche says the 963 has won 15 IMSA races and eight titles since the LMDh rules arrived in 2023.
For Estre it was a first IMSA victory. Campbell and Vanthoor now have 14 each. Campbell had won the Petit Le Mans three times before, never overall. « Behind a success like this at the track lies the work of 40 or even 50 people, » Estre said, naming Vanthoor man of the race. Vanthoor admitted he had no idea how they pulled it off.
JDC-Miller and the 911 GT3 R crews
The JDC-Miller MotorSports 963, winner at Laguna Seca, retired about two hours from home. Tijmen van der Helm was forced off the track while lapping GT cars and hit the barriers. He was unhurt. He shared the No. 5 with Nico Müller and Kaylen Frederick.
In GTD Pro the 911 GT3 Rs of AO Racing and Manthey both spent time in the lead. AO Racing’s « Rexy », nicknamed « Halloween-Rexy » by Porsche for this round, finished second in class. Nick Tandy put the gap to the class win at 1.5 seconds. The Manthey car fell to seventh shortly before the end, short of fuel.
In GTD, the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm 911 GT3 R was second, 0.7 seconds from victory according to Riccardo Pera. The crew had hoped to give Ryan Hardwick a win in the final race of his career. The Wright Motorsports and RS1 cars both led at times and finished seventh and twelfth.
IMSA’s tally gives Porsche 21 overall wins at Daytona, 20 at Sebring and 19 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the race that inspired Don Panoz to create the Petit Le Mans. Road Atlanta with a prototype was the missing piece. French-speaking readers will find the wider context in our feature on Porsche and endurance racing (in French). For the rest of the IMSA year, our report from the GT-only round at VIR covers the AO Racing and Wright Motorsports campaigns.
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