By the Numbers - GTP

 By the Numbers – GTP

Wins –

              Porsche – Daytona, Sebring, Laguna Seca, Petit Le Mans

              Acura – Long Beach

              Cadillac – Detroit, Watkins Glen, Road Ameirca

              BMW – Indianapolis

Champion – Jack Aitken, Whelen Engineering Cadillac, Cadillac

MEC Champions – Felipe Nasr, Julian Andlauer, and Laurin Heinrich, Porsche Penske Motorsport, Porsche

 

Qualifying –

              Poles – Renger van der Zande (Daytona), Jack Aitken (Sebring & Watkins Glen), Nick Yelloly (Long Beach & Road America), Louis Deletraz (Laguna Seca), Earl Bamber (Detroit), Tom Blomqvist (Indy & Petit Le Mans)

 

Team by Team

Porsche Penske Motorsport – Porsche – 6 (Estre & Vanthoor, L.) 7 (Nasr & Andlauer)

              The same line that started last year’s analysis of this team applies eerily once again: the year started off pretty close to perfectly for PPM. The win for the 7 crew to start the year at Daytona was bolstered by the team’s 1-2 at Sebring, which had a bit of controversy, let’s not forget. Nasr and Estre wheel banging for the win must’ve given more than a few people in the Penske box terrified flashbacks of 2023 when both cars wrecked in the dying moments of the race. We never would’ve imagined the dominant 7 would not see the podium again all year, that Heinrich would out-perform the Penske Porsche in an older spec model with an underdog team, or that Kevin Estre would finish further ahead in the championship than the Daytona/Sebring winners. Still, offer any driver a Rolex and Sebring win and a “meh” season to follow, 9 out of 10 drivers would take it and the one hold out would be lying. 

              When it was announced that Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor were teaming up for a full year effort in GTP, a LOT of people were excited to see the World Endurance Champions come try to tackle IMSA, yours truly included. They did make a big bang…literally. The first 7 races featured cars from the 6 crew with damage in one form or another. There is one thing we need to acknowledge: IMSA is war. Never let your guard down, always have elbows out, contact is everywhere with everyone. It doesn’t have to be that way, but in recent years, it has been. Their car, for some reason, always had more battle scars than the others. Only the one DNF at Road America, the win at Petit (finally in Kevin’s 32^nd start), the 2^nd at Sebring, and further podiums at Long Beach and Indy, they had a fairly average season.

              Looking at the numbers, Porsche Penske Motorsports was only fast in the races it won. Fastest Lap for Campbell at Daytona and Nasr at Sebring and only 8 laps inside the top 5 (half of those from Sebring as well) all year showed the pace wasn’t there for the cars for most of the season. Andlauer was the fastest of the group three times, Estre twice, and every other driver once. How did they stack up generally? Heinrich was the strongest across all 3 categories, 4^th best for Pace and Position, and 5^th for Time off Co-Driver (aided by sharing the car with drivers in the JDC Car, but more on that later). Estre was just behind Aitken on Position and Pace, and was the next best Porsche driver for time off co-drivers, but was 9^th best from the full season drivers on this point. He was significantly ahead of Larry though, who’s Position was middle and Pace was towards the bottom of the full season runners. For time off co-drivers, I was very surprised to see Vanthoor as the 4^th worst of the full season runners. Nasr wasn’t much better, however. He was the worst of the PPM drivers for Position, and he and Andlauer were almost together on Pace and time off co-drivers. I can’t actually remember the last time Nasr has been that close to or beaten by a teammate. In qualifying, Andlauer averaged 6.7 and Nasr and Estre both 7.2, while Vanthoor had 6.0. The pace simply wasn’t there for PPM or their drivers.

              Between the two cars, they earned 3 wins and the Michelin Endurance Championship. But 6 podiums out of 20 potential opportunities is unacceptable for The Captain, and everyone wearing a Penske shirt is aware that representing that prestigious team requires better results.

 

Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian – Acura – 60 (Braun & Blomqvist) 93 (van der Zande & Yelloly)

              Although one team, these two cars had dramatically different seasons. The 93 started things off well with the pole at Daytona, and a win and pole at Long Beach for the Acura Grand Prix. Whereas I was lamenting the trials of PPM’s season, MSR had only 2 podiums all year, both thanks to the 93. As a team, they had big DNFs at Watkins, Road America and Petit, and very average finishes in most races. Still, the 93 managed to finish 3^rd in the championship with an average finish of 4.9. The sister car averaged 6.8. Here, we should take a second to acknowledge the 60. It was the only full season GTP car to not get a single podium, and in every other GTP scored at least 2 podiums. That’s not to say the 60 was slow. Blomqvist averaged 2.9 in qualifying, which would’ve been the best had Yelloly not been a factor, and between the two cars they scored 5 pole positions. Nick showed up and set the class alight with a shocking 2.5 average, although Renger did do 3 sessions for his own average of 4.7 while Blomqvist did every qualifying for the year. Still, this shows the speed was with Acura, maybe just not the luck.

              On race days, they had pace too. Blomqvist was a superstar again, setting the best average Position (5.8) and Pace (0.4) for the field, and was only beaten by Deletraz as far as time off co-drivers for full season contenders. Yelloly was right with him on the charts but further behind by the numbers. Nick’s Position (8.1) and Pace (0.488) were close, but the time to co-driver was almost a tenth slower and was in fact 10^th of the full season drivers. Renger had a silently strong year, overshadowed by the strength of the two already mentioned. Renger’s Position and Pace were 9^th best, and his pace to co-drivers was less than half a second off, but for this year that gap was quite big. Braun was the outlier of the group. His Position was 16^th, Pace was 18^th, and he was the second slowest of all drivers for time off co-driver. He, Dixon and Allmendinger were the only drivers not to set the fastest lap within the team for a race.

              With Acura’s departure from sportscar racing, I do just want to give a brief round of applause for what they accomplished. In their 82 races in the top class of IMSA, they took 37 poles, or 45% of the time. 9 drivers took pole for the brand, and each of those 9 got multiple poles for the manufacturer.  They won at every venue on the calendar except Indy, taking 25 wins total. What they accomplished in their time is remarkable, and deserves a round of applause from race fans everywhere.

 

BMW M Team RLL – BMW – 24 (D. Vanthoor & van der Linde) 25 (Eng & Wittmann)

              2026 saw a change up in the driver line up for WRT, albeit simply a switch of drivers in cars. Pairing Vanthoor and SvdL was a masterstroke, albeit one that resulted in shockingly only one victory. The 24 had 3 podiums and the 25 got two trophies, with each car failing to finish just one race each over the year. The biggest surprise was 0 poles for either car. Dries started 2025 with 4 consecutive pole positions but averaged 5.4 in qualifying for 2026, worse than his teammate Sheldon who averaged 4.8. Wittman’s qualifying average was 7.5, and Eng languished at 10.  They started on the front row only once all year.

              Race day numbers show the 24’s superiority. Vanthoor and SvdL were together on Position and Pace, and were only split by the Heart of Racing drivers as far as co-drivers pace is concerned. They were much further up the chart than the sister car. Wittmann was ahead of Eng, but not by much for Position. They were also near Heart of Racing, but towards the bottom of the chart. For Pace, Wittmann was solidly in the middle, between Ricky Taylor and Fred Vesti, and in the bottom third of average co-driver, with Eng in the bottom 3 for full season for both of the remaining categories. Within the team, Eng was never fastest, Wittmann taking the honor once, SvdL 3 times including Fastest Lap of Road America, and Vanthoor 4 times.

The biggest thing I see in their performance for 2026 is that BMW finished in the bottom half of the field (6^th or worse) in 10 out of 18 performances. Yes, they won Indy. But much like Penske and Shank before, Vincent Vosse’s organization will look at 2026’s championship results, 6^th for the 24 and 13^th for the 25, as ones to not be particularly proud of and with an urgency for need of change.

 

Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing  - 10 (Albuquerque & Ricky) 40 (Deletraz and Jordan)

              Last year I talked about how it was a difficult year for Wayne Taylor Racing, earning only 4 podiums between the two cars, no wins and no poles, finishing 6^th (10) and 10^th (40) in the championship. In 2026, they earned 4 podiums between the two cars, and added a win (Road America, 10) and a pole (Laguna Seca, Deletraz). Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to provide a better championship finish as this year the two cars slipped to 8^th (40) and 11^th (10) in the final points tally. They finished outside of the top 5 in 66% of the races although they only had two DNFs. That particular stat is much more condemning than it seems, because it means that they weren’t failing to finish, they were just failing to finish well. The performance simply wasn’t there. You can’t blame the manufacturer either, because the successes of Whelen and Cadillac counterbalance that. Was it something different with the drivers? Nope. No change for either of the squads meant they had the same consistency that won them races with Acura. The magic wasn’t there for WTR the last two years. Qualifying showed a big discrepancy though, particularly with regard to the strength of Deletraz. He had the third best average for the season, 3.3, which went mostly unnoticed throughout the year. Albuquerque got beaten here, with an average of 7. Both drivers did every session for the year.

              As far as in race performance goes, Louis Deletraz once again blew the competition out of the water. He had the second-best average Position and Pace and the best time to co-drivers of the year (0.128). Compare Louis’ time to Jordan’s time (0.436) and remember that they were in the same car. Ricky was the next best for WTR drivers on Position but was 11^th overall, 15^th for Pace and 17^th for co-driver. Jordan struggled most, 16^th for Position 13^th for Pace and just behind Ricky for co-driver. Albuquerque was between the brothers on Position but ahead on Pace and co-driver average, still a quarter second off the average from Deletraz. Louis was on another planet, fastest of the WTR drivers in 5 races. He found performance where the others didn’t, but it wasn’t his car that won a race.

Clearly something isn’t working for this organization right now, and with no declared big changes to the team, I fear it’ll be more of the same for WTR going forward.

 

Cadillac Whelen – 31 (Aitken, Bamber [not Long Beach] & Vesti)

              From a team where everything went wrong to a year where mostly everything clicked. Championships for Jack, the team, Cadillac. Only twice all year did they fail to finish, and it was only in both of those races that they weren’t the best finishing Cadillac. They lost the Rolex by 1.569 seconds to start the year, and this after their fourth driver cost them a drive thru penalty mid race, putting them a lap down, that they had to fight back from. All of the drivers had moments over the course of the year that led to big discussions, particularly Jack at Road America and Earl at Watkins Glen. All in all, they showed up every race and performed better than anyone else. 7 podiums in 9 races, wins in Detroit and Watkins Glen, 3 poles, and 3 Fastest Laps.

              First off, Fred participated in 6 races this year so I’m counting him. He was the fastest driver in the 31 at Daytona and Sebring, and had better average Position (12^th) and time to co-drivers (11^th ) than Bamber (14^th and 13^th respectively). Bamber beat him in average Pace, 12^th to 18^th. But both guys couldn’t hold a candle to our champion. Jack had the 5^th best Position and Pace, and third best time to co-driver by two-thousands of a second to Blomqvist. In qualifying, Jack had only one session all year where he was out of the top 5, and averaged 3.9. He was pretty darn solid in 2026.

Whelen was the team to beat this year, and although they weren’t perfect in the races, they did exactly what they needed, sealing all of the championships before the end of lap 1 of Petit Le Mans. It’s poetry that their average finish was 3.1. They still want the watch, and that will be their biggest challenge yet. The 31 Whelen entry has never won Daytona.

 

Heart of Racing Team – Aston Martin – 23 (Gunn & De Angelis)

              The biggest question in race fans minds everywhere is when will the Valkyrie win. It’s a testament to what a fan favorite this beast has become that millions of people around the world do not doubt that this car is capable of race victories in a super competitive series. But are the race fans right? The BoP has been beyond favorable for the Valkyrie for more than a year now, and in 2 years of IMSA competition it has achieved only one podium. In 2026, the Valkyrie had only 2 top 5 finishes, and one of those came when only 5 cars in class made it to the checkered flag on the track. They only didn’t finish at Watkins Glen, when Roman was involved in the crash in the esses toward the beginning of the race. So, the rest of the time, they were in the races but not competitive. The numbers speak to that. Starting in qualifying, Gunn did every session but averaged 8.6.  The only category in which the drivers were in the top ten was time off co-driver pace, where Gunn and De Angelis were 7^th and 8^th, showing they were very well matched this year. Gunn was faster in 6 races to Roman’s 2, but overall, they were both in the bottom 3 of Pace and Position.  De Angelis and Gunn finished 14^th in the championship, behind two drivers who missed races, and more than 750 points adrift of the champion. Aston Martin only once all year was not the worst scoring manufacturer in qualifying, beating only Porsche at Laguna Seca, and only twice were they not the worst scoring manufacturer in a race, again beating only one other manufacturer in each occurrence. Simply put, it was a very embarrassing year. The sole moment of glory was Ross Gunn setting the Fastest Lap of the race at Petit. They had only 2 other laps all year that registered in the top 10. Despite all of the BoP help possible (max power and lightest weight), the Valkyrie couldn’t find success. They’ll have to look for other answers besides BoP help to get to the podium.

 

JDC Miller MotorSports – Porsche – 85 (Tijmen van der Helm & Heinrich [Laguna, Detroit, Watkins, Road America])

              I’ve said in the past, JDC Miller MotorSports are the true underdog team for which everyone has a soft spot. When they won at Laguna, finally getting their first win since Sebring 2021, the racing world cheered. It was a big moment for Laurin Heinrich, establishing firmly that he is a championship contender in IMSA if he’s full season in anything (and even if he’s partial season, the guy is that good), but what a moment for the Church family. They ran a Porsche without all of the expensive upgrades, qualified terribly (best start position all year was 5^th at Watkins), and still managed to trouble the big dogs for podium spots all year. Along with the win at Laguna Seca, they finished on the podium at both Watkins Glen and Road America. But there’s no denying, Heinrich made the difference. Without him, they finished 7^th 8^th 9^th and DNF. Heinrich’s big moments of weakness came at Long Beach and Detroit, the latter of which earned him a stop plus 60 penalty. Heinrich set the Fastest Lap during Long Beach, and was only once not the fastest driver in the JDC Porsche. van der Helm was with De Angelis and Eng for Average Position, but had the worst Average Pace and the worst gap to co-drivers of the year, thanks to the Long Beach strategy of having him complete drive time under safety car. If that weekend is eliminated, he stays where he was for Average Position but moves to mid-pack for Pace and between Vanthoor and Estre for time off co-driver. That wouldn’t be bad, but he’s still closer to Frederick than Heinrich.  Frederick, credit where it’s due, had a better qualifying average than van der Helm, 9.7 compared to 10.8.

Yes, in 2026 JDC finally got another win, but if they don’t want it to be another 5 years before their next victory in the top class, they need to see who else they can bring into their program since Heinrich will be in the Penske machine full time for 2027. This year did prove that with the right drivers, this small but mighty team is right up there with the factory programs.

 

Driver of the Year –

              On paper, this could be 5 drivers easily. Aitken won the championship. Heinrich nearly did while piloting two different cars from two very different teams with vastly different budgets. Deletraz outperformed his machinery and team, putting up stellar numbers that his teammates couldn’t touch. Yelloly, once again, did stunning things in the Acura, extracurricularly winning Le Mans for the second time in his second attempt and signing a contract with Ford to pilot their new Hypercar as well. But for me, it’s a driver of a car that didn’t get a victory in 2026 that gets the title. Tom Blomqvist had the best average Position by 2, the best average Pace by four hundredths, and the second best average time to co-drivers with Nick Yelloly as a teammate! Ultimately, that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back. Deletraz had the better average in that category, but he was up against drivers not even in the top-15 whereas Blomqvist was directly against another driver who could be categorized as DotY. Tom also had the best qualifying average, and he did that by running in every qualifying session of the year. He too will be sporting the Blue Oval next year, and if Ford puts Yelloly/Blomqvist/Campbell in the same car, they’ll have a machine limited only by what it can give the drivers, and not what those drivers would be capable of giving them. Although he got no IMSA trophies this year, I hope Tom appreciates his Driver of the Year award; it’s very richly deserved.

2026 By the Numbers

 Hey hey, fellow race nerds!

It's your least favorite time of the year...the racing season is almost over. Baseball is in playoffs, NFL is just ramping up, hockey is still in its early days, but racing is getting harder and harder to find. Luckily for you, I don't understand the term "off season." What's that? There's always testing and such in the time between races. 

And for IMSA fans, it's been more than 3 weeks since the checkered flag fell at Petit Le Mans, but there's still plenty to analyze from the 2026 season. Too much, actually. Trying to crunch all the numbers has left me in a bit of a daze, finding new little tidbits literally every time I open spreadsheets. They can be ones I've stared at for hours before, yet something new jumps out. I keep annoying my partner with little "huh"s and "hmm"s, and when he asks "What?" I throw some random stat out. The 60 was the only GTP car not to get a podium in 2026 and every other GTP earned at least 2 podium finishes. This year saw the third fewest GTP racing miles achieved since the merge, 439 fewer than last year, and this despite being the second year with an additional endurance race. 26 cars won a race and 46 cars earned a podium. Phillip Ellis and Dudu Barrichello were the only full season GTD drivers to earn poles in that class.

To be fair, they interest him too, but it's become a frequent occurrence in this household that I have a moment of nerd that needs to be shared.

More fascinating stats from 2026 include the fact that IMSA had the closest average pole times in LMP2 and GTD since the classes began, and the second closest in GTD Pro. 

Not all the stats are good, however, and it does not tell the whole story to focus only on the positive. 247 drivers started a race this year, down almost 10% from last year. Then there's the yellow situation. This year, 31% of the race season was spent behind the safety car, 22 hours 2 minutes and 29 seconds out of a possible 72 hours of racing. Yes, there was 6 and a half hours of yellow at Daytona because of the fog. Two things: if I removed that from the consideration, I would also have to remove all other yellow flag moments from the years for weather, of which there have been MANY. Secondly, if I remove the yellow from Daytona for fog, it then becomes one of the best-behaved races of the year, with 2 hours and 15 minutes behind the safety car. I also do not count red flag time against any of these numbers, so the 38% at PLM was without that.

 

Lap-wise, 467 laps were led by the safety car, up from 361 last year. The previous record was 388 in 2024, and the fewest laps was in 2020 where only 190 laps of caution were recorded. Car count and class played no correlating role this year, either. The races with no GTPs (2) had 14 laps of yellow while races with no LMP2s (4) had only 43. You can't blame the dentists, people. FYI, there were no dentists in LMP2. We did have a maxillofacial surgeon in MX-5 Cup :)  

If you haven't been here before, welcome. If you've been waiting allllllll season to see who did well, who struggled, who superseded their cars, and who under-performed, Merry Christmas. I'm back. Although as you know, not all racing is done yet, so I'm having to crunch the numbers in between other work obligations. It might take me a minute to get all 5 of the reviews published, but I promise they will be worth the read. How does this work? I analyze the numbers. The numbers don't tell the whole story, but they do give a clearer overview of the story that gets lost in the week-to-week. What've I learned in the last year? Drivers are not always allowed to look good. They are not always allowed to drive the cars to their max performance, and frequently we see drivers appear to struggle when really they are being sacrificed by not getting new tires or being made to run to a program that isn't flattering. It's important to remember that a rising tide floats all ships, and perhaps the people who find most success are those who stay balanced best. 

Anyways, I get my numbers from publicly available data, all harness from Al Kamel Systems at results.imsa.com. I do spreadsheets, manually inputting the Fastest Lap time from each race from each driver, and comparing how the driver/team/manufacturer does over the course of the year. It starts to reveal patterns, and the patterns tell stories. In these reviews, I'll give you GTP by team, LMP2 by driver rating, GTD Pro and GTD (tbd format, to be honest, but likely team by team), and the GT3 manufacturer performance breakdown, an in-depth analysis of which brand had the most speed and which one used their pace and BoP to their advantage. 

Like I said, Merry Christmas, fellow nerds.

GTP analysis will be up in the next few days! Thanks for coming with me down another vortex of numbers.

-Shea

By the Numbers – BoP

 By the Numbers – BoP

 

Oh yes, it’s time for the article that everyone looks forward to but no one wants to featured in. 2025 told some very clear stories. Balance of Performance is our necessary evil to stop costs from going haywire as far as car development is concerned. This year saw the introduction of the mandatory torque sensors for all the GT3 cars, and some teams and manufacturers handled them better than others. Let’s take a look at what the numbers say.

 

Aston Martin – Heart of Racing Team GTD Pro 007 (Daytona only), GTD 27. van der Steur Racing 19 (enduros). Magnus Racing 44 (Daytona, Watkins Glen, Petit Le Mans).

            Championships – Manufacturers GTD Pro 9^th (only 1 start), GTD 3^rd.

            Wins – 1 (Heart of Racing Team – GTD Watkins Glen)

            Podiums – 4 (Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, VIR)

            Poles – 2 (Watkins Glen Robichon, Indy Stevenson)

            Fast Laps – 3 (Watkins Glen Pumpelly, Road America Gamble, Indy Barrichello)

            Average Fast Lap – 5.9, 3^rd out of 9

            Average Finish – 6, 4^th out of 9

            Average Time off Pace – 0.524, 6^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Overall – 10.80, 6^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 5.90, 5^th out of 9

 

BMW – GTD Pro Paul Miller Racing 1 & 48. GTD Turner Motorsport 96

Championships – Manufacturers GTD Pro 2^nd, GTD 6^th.

            Wins – 3 (GTD Pro Watkins Glen, Road America, Petit Le Mans)

            Podiums – 6 (GTD Pro Sebring x2, Watkins Glen, Road America, Indy, Petit Le Mans). None for GTD.

            Poles –3 (CTMP Verhagen, Indy and Petit Le Mans Harper)

            Fast Laps – 2 (GTD Pro Daytona Snow, Indy Hesse)

            Average Fast Lap – GTD Pro 3.2 (Best), GTD 14.9 (2^nd worst), Cumulative 9.1

            Average Finish – GTD Pro 3.6 (2^nd out of 7), GTD 6.1 (5^th out of 9), Cumulative 4.85

            Average Time off Pace – 0.440, 1^st out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Overall – 5.55, 1^st out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 4.27, 2^nd out of 9

 

Chevrolet Corvette – GTD Pro Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports 3 & 4, Trackhouse by TF Sport 91 (Daytona), GTD AWA 13, DXDT 36.

Championships – Manufacturers GTD Pro 1^st, GTD 7^th

            Wins – 2 (GTD Pro VIR, GTD Daytona)

            Podiums – 10 (GTD Pro Daytona, Laguna Seca, Detroit, Watkins Glen, CTMP, VIR x2, PLM x2, GTD Daytona)

            Poles –0

            Fast Laps – 2 (GTD Pro Detroit Sims, GTD Daytona Kirchhofer)

            Average Fast Lap – GTD Pro 5 (2^nd out of 7), GTD 8.1 (4^th out of 9), Cumulative 6.6

            Average Finish – GTD Pro 2.9 (Best), GTD 7.3 (7^th out of 9), Cumulative 5.1

            Average Time off Pace – 0.475, 2^nd out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Overall – 7.65, 2^nd out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 4.73, t-3^rd  out of 9

 

Ferrari – GTD Pro DragonSpeed 81, GTD Triarsi Competizione 021 (all) & 023 (enduros and Laguna Seca), Conquest Racing 34, Inception Racing 70, AF Corse 21 (enduros) & 50 (Datyona), Cetilar Racing 47 (enduros).

Championships – Manufacturers GTD Pro 4^th , GTD 2^nd

            Wins – 4 (GTD Pro CTMP, GTD Road America Triarsi, Indy Inception, and Petit Le Mans AF Corse)

            Podiums –15 (GTD Pro Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, CTMP, Road America, VIR, and Indy. GTD Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, Road America x2, VIR, Indy x2, Petit Le Mans x2)

            Poles –6 (GTD Pro Sebring Costa, Laguna Seca Altoe, Road America Altoe, VIR Altoe. GTD Sebring Pier Guidi, Laguna Seca Koch)

            Fast Laps – 4 (GTD Pro Laguna Seca Costa, VIR Costa, Petit Le Mans Costa, GTD Sebring Serra)

            Average Fast Lap – GTD Pro 7.9 (t-4^th out of 7), GTD 4 (Best), Cumulative 5.95

            Average Finish – GTD Pro 3.8 (3^rd out of 7), GTD 3.5 (Best), Cumulative 3.65

            Average Time off Pace – 0.506, 4^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Overall – 8.18, 3^rd out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 4.73, t-3^rd out of 9

 

Ford – GTD Pro Ford Multimatic Motorsports 64 & 65, GTD Gradient Racing 66

Championships – Manufacturers GTD Pro 3^rd, GTD 9^th (last)

            Wins – 3 (GTD Pro Daytona, Detroit, Indy)

            Podiums –5 (GTD Pro Daytona x2, Detroit, Road America, Indy)

            Poles –2 (GTD Pro Daytona Rockenfeller, Detroit Priaulx)

            Fast Laps – 0

            Average Fast Lap – GTD Pro 6.9 (3^rd out of 7), GTD 22.3 (Worst), Cumulative 15.12

            Average Finish – GTD Pro 3.9 (4^th out of 7), GTD 11.6 (Worst), Cumulative 7.75

            Average Time off Pace – 0.631, 8^th  out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Overall – 12.0, 8^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 8.64, 8^th out of 9

 

Lamborghini – GTD Pro Pfaff Motorsports 9, GTD Wayne Taylor Racing 45, Forte Racing 78.

Championships – Manufacturers GTD Pro 6^th, GTD 8^th

            Wins – 1 (GTD, CTMP Wayne Taylor Racing)

            Podiums –3 (GTD Pro Detroit, GTD CTMP Wayne Taylor Racing, Road America Forte)

            Poles –1 (GTD Pro Watkins Glen Caldarelli)

            Fast Laps – 2 (GTD Pro, Watkins Glen and Road America Caldarelli)

            Average Fast Lap – GTD Pro 8.3 (6^th out of 7), GTD 22.3 (Worst), Cumulative 15.12

            Average Finish – GTD Pro 7.8 (Worst), GTD 11.6 (Worst), Cumulative 7.75

            Average Time off Pace – 0.631, 8^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Overall – 12.0, 8^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 8.64, 8^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 8.64, 8^th out of 9

 

Lexus – Vasser Sullivan Racing GTD Pro 14 & 15 (Detroit), GTD 12 & 89 (Long Beach)

Championships – Manufacturers GTD Pro 7^th, GTD 4^th

            Wins – 0 (Last Program wins were Sebring ’23 GTD Pro, Long Beach ’24 one off GTD full season Watkins Glen ’24)

            Podiums –6 (GTD Sebring, Long Beach x2, Laguna Seca, CTMP, Petit Le Mans)

            Poles –2 (GTD Long Beach Thompson, CTMP & VIR Hawksworth)

            Fast Laps – 1 (GTD Pro CTMP Barnicoat)

            Average Fast Lap – GTD Pro 16.1 (Worst), GTD 11 (6^th out of 9), Cumulative 13.55

            Average Finish – GTD Pro 7.7 (6^th out of 7), GTD 6.6 (6^th out of 9), Cumulative 7.15

            Average Time off Pace – 0.688, worst

            Average Driver FL Position Overall – 20.45, worst

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 11.09, worst

 

Mercedes AMG – GTD Pro 75 Express 75 (Daytona and Indy), GetSpeed 69 (Daytona). GTD Winward Racing 57, Korthoff Competition Motorsports (Daytona, Sebring, Long Beach, Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen), Lone Star Racing 80 (enduros)

Championships – Manufacturers GTD Pro 8^th, GTD 1^st

            Wins – 3 (GTD Sebring, Laguna Seca, VIR)

            Podiums –5 (GTD Sebring, Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, CTMP, VIR)

            Poles –1 (GTD Road America Ward)

            Fast Laps – 2 (GTD Laguna Seca Koch, CTMP Ellis)

            Average Fast Lap –GTD 4.2 (2^nd out of 9)

            Average Finish – GTD 3.6 (2^nd out of 9)

            Average Time off Pace – 0.514, 5^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Overall – 8.4, 4^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 4.2, best

 

Porsche –GTD Pro AO Racing 77, Proton Competition 20 (Daytona and Sebring). GTD Wright Motorsports 120, AO Racing 177 (Long Beach)

Championships – Manufacturers GTD Pro 5^th, GTD 5^th

            Wins – 3 (GTD Pro AO Racing Sebring and Laguna Seca, GTD AO Racing Long Beach)

            Podiums –6 (GTD Pro Sebring, Laguna Seca, and CTMP. GTD Daytona, Long Beach, and Indy)

            Poles –1 (GTD Daytona Skeer)

            Fast Laps – 2 (GTD Pro Sebring Heinrich, GTD Long Beach Vanthoor)

            Average Fast Lap – GTD Pro 7.9 (t-4^th out of 7), GTD 9 (5^th out of 9), Cumulative 8.45

            Average Finish – GTD Pro 5.1 (5^th out of 7), GTD 5.8 (3^rd out of 9), Cumulative 5.45

            Average Time off Pace – 0.558, 7^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Overall – 10.45, 6^th out of 9

            Average Driver FL Position Class – 5.36, 5^th out of 9

 

 

Car of the Year: BMW

            3 wins, 6 podiums, 2 Fastest Laps, 3 poles, 2^nd in the manufacturer’s championship. Yes, Ferrari had more podiums, but they had 8 cars running over the course of the season. All of BMW’s 6 podiums were earned by the two PMR cars, with a strange dry season for Turner. Yes, Corvette won the championship, but the BMW never had a race where GTD Pro skewed the average and they were in the bottom half of pace amongst the 9 manufacturers. To me, that shows that they had speed all year. The car never struggled at a track. Does this mean they should’ve won the championship? Perhaps. But GM had the advantage of two strong cars every week whereas BMW always seemed to have one better than the others.

Now we wait to see how the updates, upgrades, and fabled new cars will play into 2026. You can guarantee one thing: I’ll be crunching the numbers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the Numbers - GTD

 By the Numbers – GTD

Wins –

#13 AWA Corvette (Daytona)

#021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari (Road America)

#21 AF Corse Ferrari (Petit Le Mans)

#27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin (Watkins Glen)

#45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini (CTMP)

#57 Winward Racing Mercedes (Sebring, Laguna Seca, VIR)

#70 Inception Racing Ferrari (Indy)

#99 AO Racing Porsche (Long Beach)

Champions – Russell Ward and Phillip Ellis, Winward Racing, Mercedes AMG

MEC Champions – Alessandro Pier Guidi, Simon Mann, and Lilou Wadoux, AF Corse, Ferrari

 

Qualifying – Poles – Skeer (Daytona), Pier Guidi (Sebring), Thompson (Long Beach), Koch (Laguna Seca), Robichon (Watkins Glen), Hawksworth (CTMP, VIR), Ward (Road America), Stevenson (Indy), Patrese (PLM)

 

Team by Team:

Vasser Sullivan Racing – Lexus - 12 (Jack Hawksworth & Parker Thompson, enduros Frankie Montecalvo)

            Because they were the only team to run a GT3 car in both GTD Pro and GTD, I think it’s right to start GTD with the other Lexus...and it happens to be the numerically first car as well. Before delving into specifics, my shocking discovery about the 12 Lexus is that their last win was Watkins Glen 2023, and the last win for this team in GTD was in a one-off car for Long Beach 2024.

Although I’ve already gone through the individual performances before, it is only fair to compare the 6 drivers’ numbers at once. Parker Thompson had qualifying duties for 5 of the races and got pole at Long Beach, while Jack Hawksworth qualified 3 times and took pole twice. Hawksworth, as established in the previous article, was the strongest Lexus driver, in every category but he was also the only driver in GTD to take multiple poles in 2025. Montecalvo was giving qualifying duties in two of his starts. Hawksworth had the best driver rank at 2.2, narrowly ahead of Telitz at 2.3 and Barnicoat at 2.4. Thompson was 3.1, but he had the second-best average position of 29.3, narrowly off of Hawksworth at 28.1. In the pro car, the best was Telitz at 29.9 compared to Barnicoat at 40.3, but again Ben missed a lot of the smaller field races. Class positions, the best was Hawksworth (14.5), then Telitz (16.2), then Barnicoat (19.1) and Thompson (19.2). They were all very close in that, but the close numbers were in the bottom of the chart. How was the pace? Driver wise, the best here for average pace was again Hawksworth, narrowly better than Telitz, but they were the only two out of six drivers who managed to have an average pace of less than a second off. That is not where we are accustomed to seeing Lexus drivers run. How did they stack up against each other? Best for time off co-drivers was again Hawksworth, averaging 0.184 sec off. The worst was Montecalvo, just under a second off. Barnicoat and Telitz were fairly close to one another. Individually in the 12 car, Thompson was the fastest in the car only at Daytona and Road America (where he was the 2^nd quickest driver of the class), and Hawksworth took the honor for the other 8 races. Although they got the 3 poles for the car, they weren’t the fastest car in the race once this year.

I will put my hand up straight away and admit when Lexus announced this pairing for GTD I thought they would walk away with the championship after battling with the Turner BMW and the Winward Mercedes. I didn’t think they’d go winless, but that’s what happened. 2^nd three times and 3^rd twice meant they were on the podium for half of the season, but their other finishes included 2 DNFs and finishes of two finishes in 9^th and one in 11^th. Consistency was missing. Speed in race was missing. Like I said for the team in GTD Pro, it’s time for a new car to bring back the Lexus victories.

 

AWA – Corvette – 13 (Orey Fidani & Matt Bell, enduros Lars Kern)

            Rolex winners. Akin award winners. Le Mans debut. 2025 was a big year for this team. Their only top-5 finish was the season opener, but this team is proud of what they accomplished elsewise. 9^th in the championship, but they got the coveted Akin award again, and after their trip to France in June, that became the main goal to earn again. Orey Fidani qualified at every race, and they had Fastest Lap at Daytona, thanks to Marvin Kirchhofer. It was a dead split between the two teams running Corvettes in GTD as to which car was fastest in the races, with Bell taking the honor of fastest GM driver in the class 40% of the year. They were, however, the better finishing Corvette 60% of the time.

            Individual performance wise, Bell had the best rank of all the full season drivers, tied with Foley at 1.2. His overall position was 10^th, 6^th of drivers who did every race. His position in class was better, 8^th and 4^th of drivers who did them all. Time off pace, Bell was the best of all Corvette drivers again, 0.912 sec off. Kirchhofer being fastest at Daytona was the only time all season where Bell was bested, so his average time off co-driver was 4^th best overall. I’ll compare Fidani to the people he was racing most over the course of the year when he was in the car. His rank was 2.6, tied with Adelson and just behind Goikhberg and Iribe. Average position overall and in class he was the worst of the full season drivers, and put in the slowest fast lap of any driver in 4 races. Time off pace, he averaged 3.027 sec off, better than Iribe only because Iribe’s average was thrown off due to the Road America crash at the start, but more telling he was off of Adelson’s average by more than a second. He was also the furthest off of his co-driver at 2.166, compared to Adelson at 1.159 and Iribe at 1.103. Kern did only the 5 enduros. His rank was 2, ahead of Dontje but behind Sargent, Robichon, Wadoux, and Patrese amongst others. Pace wise he averaged 46.4 (better than Wadoux), class was 24.6 (tied with Wadoux), and his average pace was two tenths off of Matt Bell although his average time off co-drivers was three tenths and narrowly behind Robichon.

           

Van Der Steur Racing – Aston Martin – 19 (Valentin Hasse-Clot and Anthony McIntosh, Rory van der Steur, Eduardo Barrichello Indy) Enduros only.

            5 starts in 2025, 3 DNFs, 1 top-10 finish, 1 Fast Lap, no times as the best finishing Aston Martin in GTD but fastest Aston 3 times. 18^th in the championship for teams. Individual performances showed that Valentin Hasse-Clot deserves a shot at a full season. He was the best driver rank and time off co-drivers since he was never bested in the car when he got to drive in the race. His position in class and overall was 2^nd best of drivers who only did enduros, albeit quite far off numerically from Calado but ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi. That’s quite a sandwich to be in! Pace-wise, he was behind both Ferrari drivers, 0.971 seconds off. Anthony McIntosh and Rory van der Steur were both super close, but at the bottom of every chart. Rory averaged 1.526 sec off pace while Anthony was 1.855. Position in class and overall compared to drivers who only did enduros, McIntosh was ahead of Yoluc and Doyle, while van der Steur was slightly better than Seth Lucas (who ran short races with fewer drivers so it should’ve skewed the other way) and Filgueiras.

 

AF Corse – Ferrari – 21 (Lilou Wadoux, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Simon Mann) Enduros only.

            Three DNFs in 5 endurance race starts. Michelin Endurance Cup champions. Those two things rarely go together. For this Ferrari team, on paper it looks bleak but in reality, it was a lot to celebrate. The win at Petit Le Mans, pole at Sebring for Pier Guidi, and best finish in the championship of teams only running the long-distance races.

            Driver performance wise, none of the 3 had an impressive rank because they were all fairly equal. Position in class and overall, Pier Guidi led the way ahead of Mann then Wadoux. As far as pace goes, Pier Guidi was best and the only driver less than a second off. Wadoux was 2^nd and Mann third, with time off co-drivers impressively close between Wadoux and Pierguidi, the two separated by 0.013 seconds, with Mann only a further 0.13 behind. Every driver had a race where they were fastest in the car, and Wadoux set the Fast Lap at the race they won, Petit Le Mans. They were only the fastest or best finishing Ferrari in that race. But they were victorious in the only championship they went for, and for that the 21 Ferrari deserves the accolades.

 

Triarsi Competizione – Ferrari – 021 & 023 (Drivers include: Kenton Koch, Onofrio Triarsi, James Calado)

            Drama surrounded this team all year. The 021 was the full season entrant with the 023 allowed only for endurance races. But the JG Wentworth car changed drivers after Laguna Seca from Stevan McAleer and Sheena Monk eventually to Onofrio Triarsi and Kenton Koch. Kenton joined the team for Watkins Glen after the team he started the year with folded. There are a lot of questions surrounding the departure of Sheena and JG Wentworth’s sponsorship and the team retaining the car livery and to whom the entry had previously been awarded (the team or the driver), but that’s irrelevant to this article.

            Between the two cars, 17 total drivers participated in at least one race. Monk, McAleer, Muss, Balzan, Rovera, Waite, Scardina, Cheever, Hart, Miller, Skeen, Schiro, Agostini, and Megennis were all also on entry lists for the team in 2025. But for purposes of this examination, we will focus on Koch, Triarsi, and Calado.

            The two cars did not earn a pole. Triarsi qualified 6 times between the two cars, with Koch only trying once, although Kenton did take pole and set the Fast Lap at Laguna Seca for his initial team. The 021 did win Road America and finished 2^nd at VIR and Petit Le Mans, but they were only the fastest Ferrari in 3 races (twice an honor achieved by Calado, once by Koch) and the best finishing Ferrari twice all year. Kenton finished 2^nd in the championship with only one non-top 10s and 5 top-5 finishes. Onofrio, who didn’t run at Long Beach, a race that was a disaster mechanically for the team when they had a gearbox issue and missed most of practice, was 8^th in points.

            What do the numbers say? It’s important to note that Triarsi Competizione was the only 2 car GTD team, so the rank for the long-distance races can be harsher than single teams. Calado and Koch tied for rank at 1.8, a feat more impressive for Calado since his average was based solely on races where there were 6 or 8 drivers he was being compared against and Kenton’s average had half of them where it was a worst possible rank of 2. Triarsi at 2.8. The best position overall went the way of Calado, and he was 2^nd best for class and for average pace. Time off co-driver is where Calado didn’t shine as much, although he was still impressive. Calado was beaten by Hasse-Clot for the same number of starts, but also by 5 full season drivers. Koch was the next best for position overall, sandwiched between Formal and Bell for 9^th, and slightly worse than Bell but better than Hawksworth for class. Koch’s pace was best of any silver, and he was 0.002 off Skeer and 0.011 off Hawksworth. Compared to his co-drivers, Kenton was 19^th best, 0.193 off which was ahead of other Ferrari drivers Pier Guidi and Wadoux. Triarsi was mid pack for Position in both class and overall, ahead of Hindman but behind Russell Ward. Time off pace he was exactly in the middle, 1.123 sec off on average, which put him behind Hindman and ahead of Ward. In time off co-driver, Triarsi was in the lower 3^rd, averaging 0.435 sec off, which meant he was in between Thompson and Stevenson, two drivers with whom Kenton was fighting for the championship.

           

Heart of Racing Team – Aston Martin – 27 (Casper Stevenson, Tom Gamble [minus Laguna Seca and CTMP], enduros Zacharie Robichon)

            2^nd in the teams championship, 3^rd in drivers for Casper Stevenson in his first full season. Win at Watkins Glen. Three 3^rd place finishes. 2 other top-5s. Pole at Watkins Glen for Robichon, and Indy for Stevenson. Fast Lap at Road America thanks to Gamble. Fastest Aston in GTD in 6 races and best finishing every single week.  Should heart of racing be happy with that? Yes. Will they be happy with that? Realistically, probably not. This is a team accustomed to winning several races, and they want to get back to championship winning as well.

            Numerically, the most impressive rank of the trio is actually Robichon at 1.6, even more impressive considering he only ran the long races. Gamble was 2^nd at 1.8 and Stevenson 3^rd with 2.3, and with that number Casper was tied with Manny Franco.  Position overall, Gamble beat Schandorff, both of whom started 8 races, and Robichon was just ahead of Stevenson. In class, Gamble was bested by 7 drivers, while Robichon and Stevenson were in the top third close together. Gamble had the most impressive time off pace of any driver, but was 14^th for time off co-drivers since Robichon was so strong. Casper was behind Farnbacher but ahead of Hindman for pace, and was behind Triarsi to be 35^th for time off co-drivers. Robichon qualified 3 times, Gamble once, and Stevenson six times, but a third of Casper’s qualifying attempts were in the enduros, so no excuse for not getting new tires. Stevenson did have to learn the majority of the tracks this year, so the expectation if he returns for 2026 would be to move up in the championship, a hard ask when your debut season nets 3^rd.

 

Conquest Racing – Ferrari – 34 (Manny Franco and Daniel Serra)

            7^th in the championship with 3 third place finishes. 2 DNFs and 5 finishes of 10^th or worse. They were only the best finishing Ferrari once all year, at Laguna Seca. Serra qualified at Daytona but Franco took the responsibility for every other round. Serra also set the fastest lap of the race at Sebring and was the fastest Ferrari at Laguna Seca. Aside from that, the team didn’t really earn that many accolades.

            Individual performances, Serra had the 3^rd best rank, the second best position overall for full season drivers and the best for the GTD class. He was third best for average pace and second for time off teammates, since he was only beaten by Giacomo Altoe at Daytona. Compared to the other non pro drivers, Franco really came into his own this year. His rank tied Stevenson. His position was ahead of Gallagher and just behind Mann and Patrese, with a decent gap to catch up to Hindman. Position in class saw Franco again ahead of Gallagher but very impressively just behind Udell. Pace saw Manny just over a tenth off of Trairsi, but ahead of other Ferrari drivers including Iribe. Time off co-drivers is where I was impressed most by Manny. Yes he was 36^th out of 50, but he was less than half a second off of Daniel Serra, the guy who was most often right there for pace. Manny only started racing this decade; he’s learned and developed so quickly. For anyone to be within half a second of Daniel Serra in one race is impressive, but for that to be his average over 9 times where they both drove is staggering.

 

DXDT Racing – Corvette – 36 (Charlie Eastwood, Salih Yoluc, and Alec Udell for enduros, Alec Udell and Robert Wickens for sprints)

            Before we get into the drivers, I’ll examine the team as a whole. 5 enduros and 5 sprints and four times DXDT was the better finishing Corvette in GTD (Sebring and Petit Le Mans, CTMP and Laguna Seca). No poles or Fast laps, but they were the faster Corvette in 5 of the races, with Wicken’s taking the honor twice. Impressively for the sprints, they had no DNFs. The best finish of the year was at CTMP, which was Wicken’s home race. In the enduros, they had 3 DNFs and a best finish of 7^th at Petit.

            Qualifying duties went mostly to Alec Udell, who did it 4 times. Wickens was up 3 times, Salih Yoluc twice, and Eastwood took it at Daytona. I’ll start with the enduro drivers. Yoluc drove in all 5, whereas Charlie Eastwood never got behind the wheel at Indy. Position overall sees Udell in the bottom half, which is a bit of a surprise, but Eastwood was 38^th , which is a huge surprise, and Yoluc 3^rd to last. For class standings it was much the same, with Udell ahead of Gallagher and Franco at least. Time off pace sees Udell behind Russell Ward and Onofrio Triarsi. Eastwood is slower than Eric Filgueiras, who drove both a Mercedes-AMG and a Lamborghini, and Yoluc moves up to 5^th from last. Time off teammates sees Yoluc in 4^th to last, averaging 1.415 seconds off what Udell and Eastwood could do, but still Eastwood is only just ahead of Ollie Millroy and Zach Robichon, behind Lilou Wadoux and Tom Sargent. The struggles for the team to get a handle on the car at Daytona had a huge impact on the numbers for the drivers. Udell, best of the drivers there, was the 106^th best GT3 driver. It was a long road back, and skewed the numbers for the remainder of the season.

            Wickens, who did not do an endurance race, had the 3^rd best position overall and in class, but keep in mind he had to race against a lot fewer people than the endurance drivers. His time off pace, however, was super impressive. He was just behind Danny Formal and ahead of Alessandro Pier Guidi. For time off teammates, he was 0.015 off of Udell’s average, and a smidge off of Lexus legend Jack Hawksworth. He was better than Kenton Koch too, runner up in the championship. Robbie Wickens deserves a full season in GTD.

 

Wayne Taylor Racing – Lamborghini – 45 (Trent Hindman and Danny Formal, enduros Graham Doyle)

            Win at CTMP, 12^th in the championship. Best finishing Lambo in only 4 races. Fastest Lambo in 5 races, but no Fast Laps, no poles. DNFs at Daytona, Watkins Glen, VIR, and Indy. 7 finishes in the double digits. Good season for WTR? No.

            Hindman and Formal each qualified 4 times with Graham Doyle doing the other two. As far as the rank goes, Formal was tied for 3^rd best at 1.3, with Hindman just inside the top half at 1.8, tied with Koch. Doyle was on 2.8, tied with Triarsi, Lucas, McIntosh, and Walker. For Position, Formal was quite impressive at 27.1, behind Skeer and ahead of Koch. He was between Hawksworth and Foley for class position, and just behind Matt Bell for average pace. Comparing the 3 drivers in Lamborghinis this year who I would consider pro drivers, Formal’s time off pace was 0.927, ahead of Farnbacher at 1.075 and Hindman at 1.122. They’re all tight, but Danny was still ahead. Formal was 15^th best compared to teammates, while Hindman was 31^st and a smidge better than Russell Ward. The weak link of the group was Doyle, 2^nd worst average position overall and class, and 2^nd worst time off co-driver. If I remove the anomaly that was Road America and skews Iribe’s number because of that early crash (something I’ll address in their segment), Doyle is last by six tenths. He was the slowest driver to turn a lap in GTD at Daytona, Sebring, and Petit Le Mans, 3 of the 5 races he participated in for 2025. The same line up returns for 2026, and if you add some luck to the equation, there’s no reason Hindman and Formal won’t win more races.

Winward Racing – Mercedes AMG – 57 (Russell Ward and Phillip Ellis, enduros Indy Dontje)

            Power. House. Winward Racing has won 8 of the last 22 GTD races. They sort of repeated history this year. Winning the championship, but also winning 3 races for the second time, Sebring, Laguna Seca, and VIR. They only had one other podium, but only two finishes outside of the top 5. Russell got pole at Road America. He qualified 7 times, with Ellis doing the duty at Daytona, Sebring, and Petit Le Mans. They were the best finishing Mercedes in every race except Watkins Glen, and Phillip Ellis was the fastest Mercedes driver 60% of the season, including getting the Fast Lap at CTMP. Ellis was beaten in his own car at Watkins Glen and Indy, but still had the 5^th best time off co-drivers. He had the 4^th best average pace at 0.79 sec, 4^th best average position and 2^nd best overall. Russell was slightly better in rank than Gallagher, but was an impressive 21^st in terms of position overall and 20^th for class. He was just behind Mario Farnbacher on both. Indy Dontje was behind Wadoux, Millroy and Kern for position in both senses. For time off pace, Ward was just behind Onofrio Triarsi and ahead of Alec Udell, while Dontje was behind Millroy and Kern again. Time off teammates is where Dontje jumped ahead of Ward, at 0.349 sec off compared to 0.396, so both very closely matched. After 2 consecutive GTD championships, there’s no reason why Winward should change the line up and no reason why they shouldn’t be in the fight to win a third.

 

Gradient Racing – Ford – 66 (Till Bechtolsheimer and Joey Hand enduros, Jenson Altzman and Robert Megennis sprints)

            I’ll examine this car in the same fashion as DXDT, as a team then by races. The car was 13^th in the championship. The best finish of the year was 5^th at VIR, and the best endurance finish was 6^th at Watkins Glen. They did not finish 3 races, including the heartbreak of wrong place wrong time on the first lap of Petit Le Mans. Not only did the Ford not set a Fast Lap, the fastest lap they set all year was good enough only for 11^th in category.

            Till Bechtolsheimer qualified 4 times, and Jenson Altzman got to do it 5 times for each of the sprints. The silver driver for the endurance races changed after Watkins Glen, so I’m only going to look at Joey and Till for this part. Joey’s Rank was tied for 3^rd best, while Till was 3^rd worst. Both drivers were in the bottom portion of the chart for position, Joey tying Charlie Eastwood and Till coming in just behind Doyle for overall. In class, Joey was behind Eastwood but ahead of Misha Goikhberg, whereas Till was slightly off of Doyle (58.5 compared to 58.2). Average pace sees Joey just behind Megennis in both categories, with Megennis setting the best times of any Ford drivers. The two were separated in time off co-driver by 0.002, interesting since they never drove together! Once again, Bechtolsheimer is close to last, 2.634 seconds off pace on average and 1.342 off teammates. Altzman tied Wickens on rank, and Megennis was right behind too at 1.4 for the former and 1.5 for the latter. Position overall sees the two teammates together on the chart, their numbers skewed by the fact that they only ran the short races. Compared to Wickens, they were way off. Wicken’s class position was 11.4 where as Megennis and Altzman are both in the 21s. Time off pace saw Altzman on 1.479 sec and Megennis on 1.253, but Altzman was behind Jake Walker who also ran 5 races. He was close to Megennis on time off teammates, and just off what Patrese was able to achieve, and people are talking about the young Ferrari driver. Ultimately, these drivers were hindered by what the car could achieve, and this year it didn’t have the ponies in this class.

 

Inception Racing – Ferrari – 70 (Brendon Iribe and Frederik Schandorff, enduros Ollie Millroy)

            The win at Indy felt so long overdue. This is a team that’s been knocking on the top step of the podium for years. Brendon Iribe has been the most impressive Bronze in years past, but finally they got luck on their side and that first sweet victory. Championship wise it was a difficult year. 10^th in points, 4 DNFs, just 4 top-10 finishes. Five times they were the best finishing Ferrari, and 4 times the fastest Ferrari. Schandorf set the Fast Lap at VIR. He only qualified Daytona, as Iribe did all the rest. They did not qualify at Sebring.

            How do the numbers look? First, I’ll address the elephant in the data. Iribe did not get a representative lap in at Road America. If I leave that in the average, it drops his time off pace from 1.948 seconds off to 5.480, since he was technically the slowest car in the race and 33.74 seconds off the fastest lap. I don’t think that’s fair. Without the skewed number, Iribe was the 45^th best driver, but was very close to the average pace of Adelson, and was faster than Fidani by more than a second. It was Iribe and Fidani battling for the Akin award all year. Iribe’s time off teammates was 1.103, super impressive, and ahead of Adelson and Fidani, but behind Franco by a lot. Iribe’s position was behind Adelson but ahead of Fidani for both class and overall. Frederik Schandorff had another mega season, but this year he was behind Tom Gamble, Daniel Serra, and Phil Ellis for full season position overall. He was behind Serra, Calado, Wickens, and Ellis for class. Time off pace he was 5^th best again, 0.804 seconds off, and he was bested by a teammate on two occasions, so he was lower in that chart too. Ollie Millroy was fastest in the car at Sebring and Watkins Glen. As far as enduro silvers were concerned, he was behind Wadoux but ahead of Robichon and Kern. His average pace was mid-pack, and position overall and in class were both in the bottom half, but still very close to Udell.

            It was effectively year one with a new car, since they got the Ferrari at the end of 2024, and they finally got that win. They probably feel that they should’ve won the Akin award, and you can guarantee that’s where they’ll be aiming in 2026. They’ve got the right car, the right team, the right drivers. They just need the luck.

 

Forte Racing – Lamborghini – 78 (Mario Farnbacher and Misha Goikhberg)

            Forte didn’t win a race and only had one podium, but they were still the best finishing Lambo in 60% of the races. They were the fastest Lambo half the time. Still, 13^th in the drivers championship is not what they were aiming for. The 2 DNFs, the penalty at VIR moving them from 2^nd to 12^th, and only eight finishes outside of the top-10 ruined any chance they had at a good season.

            Misha Goikhberg qualified every race from Long Beach to Indy, 7 of the events. He was tied with Iribe for rank at 2.4, and his average position overall and in class were both better than Adelson but behind Gallagher for full season runners. The pace was not there for this Lambo. Misha was toward the bottom quarter of the chart, averaging 1.507 seconds off pace, but impressively only half a second on average off Mario. Looking at Mario’s numbers, he was in the top-10 for time off teammates, but 10^th for time off pace at just over a second. His position in class was behind Casper Stevenson and Parker Thompson, and overall he was narrowly ahead of Russell Ward. That’s not where the two-time GTD champ should be.

            Forte had a lot of trouble this year, and it looks like their time in GTD is done for now. It’s a sad conclusion for the team that won Petit Le Mans in 2023.

 

Lone Star Racing – Mercedes AMG – 80 (Scott Andrews, notable Wyatt Briachacek)

            This team ran the endurance races only, and are worth a quick blurb because they were the quickest Mercedes in GTD in 3 of their 5 starts. Andrews was 5^th quick at Daytona, Hodenius 3^rd in his debut at Indy, and Briachacek 2^nd quickest at Watkins Glen before he crashed the car. Ultimately they DNF’d Daytona, Watkins, Indy, and Petit Le Mans, with their only finish of the year being 9^th at Sebring. Andrews only drove in 3 of the 5 races as well. He’s been an endurance driver for many, many years now, and he’s always capable of moving a car towards the front.

 

Turner Motorsport – BMW – 96 (Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher, enduros Jake Walker)

            In the last 4 years, Turner Motorsport has only won 2 races. That genuinely shocked me. Especially after seeing what an impressive year Robby Foley had. He was 2^nd for rank, only bettered in the car at Daytona and Watkins Glen, which also led to him being 2^nd in time off teammates. He tied Pier Guidi for position overall at 32 but was behind both of the Lexus drivers. Foley was behind Formal in position for class, and for time off pace he was the last driver below a second off at 15^th best. And that’s not to say Gallagher was weak. He matched Hawksworth on rank, but was much further down on rank in class at 24.5. Average time off pace is where Gallagher struggled, clocking in at 33^rd best and 1.328 seconds off. Only Goikhberg, Adelson, Iribe, and Fidani were worse for full season drivers. Jake Walker was in the bottom quarter as well for all the categories.

            Is it the M3 GT3 that’s been causing headaches for Turner Motorsport? Is it drivers? Well, Robby and Patrick were 2^nd in the drivers championship in 2024 and they didn’t forget how to drive. Still, a 5^th place in the drivers championship feels hollow. Half of their finishes this year were top-5, and they never finished outside of the top-10, but still they were quite anonymous. No poles, no trophies, no Fast Laps. Their fastest lap all year was Robby’s 2^nd best at Petti, but before that they were only 9^th quick at VIR. That’s not where BMW should be, especially considering where the GTD Pro cars are. But more on that in the BoP article.

 

Wright Motorsport – Porsche – 120 (Elliott Skeer and Adam Adelson, enduros Tom Sargent)

            Daytona looked like the start to a beautiful season for paddock besties Skeer and Adelson. Elliott achieved a boyhood dream of getting pole at the World’s Center of Racing, and they backed it up with a second-place finish. Unfortunately, they’d only get one other podium, a second place at the race they’d won a year before. From 11^th in the championship in 2024 to 6^th in points 2025, they improved and grew, but the team started feeling like a different organization. It is now Adelson’s team, since he purchased it from Wright. It was a good year, but not a great one. Skeer qualified twice, with Adam doing all the rest. They only had one finish outside of the top-10. Most of the rounds they were the only GTD Porsche, but at Long Beach it was a different Porsche who stole the win, showing that the car was capable of winning.

            How did the Wright drivers stack up? Skeer had a great rank of 1.4, and Sargent was respectable and close behind at 1.6. Adelson was slowest in the car every race, but that’s a side effect of having strong co-drivers. Looking at position overall and in class, Skeer was in the top 10. Sargent had an mid-pack result for overall but was very close to both Pier Guidi and Robichon in class position. Time off pace, well Skeer shone again. 0.828 sec off was in between Hawksworth and Koch, and Skeer was just off of Ellis and Calado for time of teammates. Sargent was between Thompson and Farnbacher for time off, and between Pier Guidi and Wadoux for time off teammates. Adelson was on average 1.159 seconds off what his co-drivers could extract from the car, and 1.923 seconds off the fast lap on average. Position wise he was one spot worse than Goikhberg, but several positions worse on average, and better only than Iribe and Fidani for full season. In overall, Adelson’s average of 58.7 was again slightly better than Iribe and Fidani but worse than Goikhberg.

            There’s something off with Wright Motorsports, and it really upsets me. Skeer more than held his own again this year, and Sargent was an excellent endurance driver. I thought with Adelson driving in VP Challenge, essentially the same car at the same tracks, would benefit him, but they still weren’t close to winning a sprint race. They are a team who belongs in the top 5 of points, yet if they couldn’t get there this year when it was so diverse and arguably weak, I don’t know what it will take to elevate them to the next level.

 

Non-Pro Silver or Bronze Driver of the Year:

            This took a bit of pondering. Both of the full season Bronze drivers earned their first wins in GTD this year, with Fidani getting the Rolex and Iribe getting to kiss the bricks. Russell Ward won his second consecutive class championship. But my vote goes to Manny Franco, who just gets better and better. As noted above, his pace compared to his factory Ferrari co-driver was impressive. Manny does his talking on the track, and if he continues to improve at this pace, he’ll be a champion before long.

Pro Driver of the Year:

            This could’ve gone to either Phillip Ellis or Daniel Serra, but it was Serra who had a slightly better average pace over the year, which earned him the award. Also, Serra didn’t get a race win this year, and Ellis got 3 as well as the championship, so he deserves to win something. Kidding. Both drivers were the reasons their cars were towards the podium at the end of races. Both drivers were consistent sources of speed. One thing is for sure: as long as both drivers are in IMSA, you can automatically assume their cars have a good shot at winning races.