IMSA Road America: WTR’s dry spell ends, Heinrich celebrates

All the teams knew that incidents were bound to happen during the American Sports Car Championship’s (IMSA) first-ever endurance race on the 6.5-km up-and-down circuit at Road America (Wisconsin), with its blisteringly fast sections. However, the fear had been that things might get this chaotic. After six hours, the #10 Cadillac driven by Ricky Taylor and Felipe Albuquerque finally claimed victory – bringing an end to two winless years (since Detroit 2024) for Wayne Taylor Racing. From the perspective of the German-speaking entrants, there was a great deal of frustration and only one person with a beaming smile: LMDh rookie Laurin Heinrich, who finished second on the day.

Things had looked promising for both Porsche and BMW for a long time; both were battling in the leading group with all four works cars, only to be left disappointed in the end. The fact that the race ended with the ninth yellow-flag period was down to a collision between Porsche’s Kévin Estre and Cadillac’s Jack Aitken at the re-start, eleven minutes before the end of the race. The battle for second place ended in retirement for both drivers. The 963 driven by Felipe Nasr and Julien Andlauer, featuring a retro RS Spyder design, also lost its chance of victory following a collision, but still managed to score points in sixth place, two laps down. Nevertheless, the result was enough for Porsche to win the Endurance Cup (comprising five endurance races) in both the teams’ and drivers’ classifications, even before the final round at Road Atlanta in October.

After an uneventful start to the race, the JDC-Miller Porsche, driven by Heinrich, Kaylen Frederick and Tijmen van der Helm grew stronger and stronger and ultimately finished on the podium – initially in third place at the finish, then even moving up to second place following the time penalty imposed on the Aston Martin driven by de Angelis and Gunn (now fifth). WTR also secured third place with the second Cadillac driven by Jordan Taylor and Louis Déletraz.

Former Porsche Junior Heinrich, who is set to replace Laurens Vanthoor in the works team in 2027, remains the highest-placed Porsche driver in the overall standings in second place. “We hadn’t expected a result like this. It was clear to us even before the start that we’d have little chance on our own merits. So we were relying on others to make mistakes. That’s exactly what happened. Fortunately, we managed to stay out of all the trouble,” summed up the Würzburg native, who lives in Styria.

BMW not rewarded despite strong performance

For BMW, the strategic decision not to bring the #25 car driven by Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann into the pits during the first safety car period after just a few minutes paid off only to a limited extent. In the end, the duo finished in seventh place, two laps down, after encountering cooling problems. The #24 car, driven by Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor, even looked capable of winning for a long time, but retired due to brake problems. “We’ve got good pace, but that alone isn’t enough. We also need to finish the races without making mistakes and without technical problems,” admitted team principal Vincent Vosse. Eng added: “Our car felt very good during the race. We could at least have fought for a podium finish. Unfortunately, we struggled with our cooling problems for much of the race. In the end, we had no choice but to come in for a pit stop to fix it. That cost us two laps.”

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The LMP2 victory went to the Inter Europol Oreca with lead driver Tom Dillman. Ferdinand Habsburg finished tenth in his class in the Era car. In the GT class, the Pfaff Lamborghini driven by Caldarelli and Mitchell took the Pro victory (the new Temerario’s first IMSA triumph!) ahead of the AO Porsche driven by King and Tandy. Despite leading at times, the race ended in a disappointing ninth place for the Manthey 911 driven by Klaus Bachler and Thomas Preining. The Austrian duo even managed to weather the first ‘technical’ penalty (a pit stop to correct tyre pressure) and fight their way back to the front. In the closing stages, they received a drive-through penalty for blocking a rival and, after catching up again, another for excessive power following contact during a battle for position. “That wasn’t the race we’d hoped for,” admitted Manthey’s managing director Patrick Arkenau.

As at Daytona, the Winward Mercedes triumphed in the GTD class with the German-Swiss trio of Philip Ellis, Russell Ward and Indy Dontje.