By the Numbers – GTP

Wins –

            Porsche – Daytona, Sebring, Long Beach, Laguna Seca,

            Acura – Detroit, Watkins Glen

            BMW – Road America

            Cadillac – Indy, Petit Le Mans

Champions – Matt Campbell and Matthieu Jaminet, Porsche Penske Motorsport, Porsche

MEC Champions – Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, Porsche Penske Motorsport, Porsche

 

Qualifying – Poles – Dries Vanthoor (Daytona, Sebring, Long Beach, Laguna Seca), Yelloly (Detroit, Road America), van der Zande (Watkins Glen), Jack Aitken (Indy), Tom Blomqvist (Petit Le Mans)

 

Team by Team:

Porsche Penske Motorsport – Porsche – 6 (Campbell & Jaminet) 7 (Nasr & Tandy)

            The year started off pretty close to perfectly for PPM. Wins at Daytona, Sebring, and Long Beach made it seem like the duo of Tandy and Nasr would cruise to a championship, as they looked close to perfect. In the first 5 races of the season, one of these two cars set the fast lap in 4 races. If we split the season into two parts, pre-Le Mans and post, it’s hard to deny the effect of BoP for both the good and the bad. Pre Le Mans, the furthest off pace for any single driver in the 6 or the 7 was Jaminet at Long Beach (skewed by him being on old tires) of 1.039 seconds off. Every other driver at every other track was less than a second off the fastest lap of the race. Post Le Mans, the CLOSEST driver to the fast lap of the race at Watkins was 1.069 sec off. That’s huge! At Indy and Petit, the speed was back in the cars. All in all, each of the full season drivers set the Fastest Lap at least once in the year, with 5 of the 9 total for the season going to this group. They won 4 races, both championships, and operated nearly to the best of their abilities. The CamJam duo had 6 podiums with a worst finish of 7^th, whereas the sister car had the 3 big victories and a runner-up at Laguna but no other trophies. In fact, they finished in the last three the final 4 races.

            Pace-wise, all 4 drivers were pretty elite this season. Campbell had the overall best average position across all the races, with Nasr in 3^rd. He also had the best average of the group as far as time off pace and time off codriver. Nasr and Tandy were nearly identical in both. Jaminet wasn’t an outlier either; all 4 drivers demonstrated incredible strength this year.

 

Surprising Fact: No poles for 2025 means the last time one of these cars started first was Detroit 2024, thanks to Tandy.

 

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

             It was always going to be a highly competitive season, given the teams and the names involved with the different manufacturers, but if you’d told me in January the two MSR Acuras would finish 5^th (93) and 7^th (60) in the championship I would’ve laughed in your face. Each car had a win, Watkins for Braun and Blomqvist and Detroit for Yelloly and van der Zande, but each car also finished last in a race. Each car got only 3 podiums, and there was no rostrum that featured both cars. In fact, 9 of the 18 results between the two cars were outside of the top 5. Were the Acuras fast? Well, they earned 4 poles, so you’d have to say yes. But in the races, the speed was rarer, with only one Fast Lap courtesy of Blomqvist at Road America. A feather in the cap for the team? No DNFs.

            Individual performance wise, Yelloly stood out. He split Campbell and Nasr as far as average Fast Lap position goes, an average twice as good as Braun or van der Zande. His time Off Pace was bettered by only one other full-time driver, averaging 0.439 sec off. He was the second best full-time driver as well as far as time off co-drivers, a feat padded by being the fastest of the MSR drivers in 4 of the races. Daytona was actually the only race where he wasn’t in the top 2 of the MSR drivers. Honorable mention also has to go the way of Tom Blomqvist. He had a very good average position and was 0.54 sec off pace on average (5^th best).

Surprising Fact: Ohta drove 3 races with the team, and in those performances put up some strong numbers. He had an average position of 8, 2^nd best season long. He was 0.427 sec off pace, bettered only by 2 drivers who did fewer races. And his time off co-drivers was beaten only by Yelloly, as he was the 3^rd best at Daytona and Watkins but strongest of the group at Indy. He made a strong argument pace-wise for more seat time.

 

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

            The BMW season was summarized best by Daytona. Dries Vanthoor came out and used the incredible speed of the light weight car to claim pole (a feat he replicated in the three subsequent races) and drove away from the field in the first stint. However, a botched entry to the pit box just prior to a driver change resulted in slight damage to the car and the driver ultimately falling over the pit wall and landing awkwardly…and what’s worse is the whole thing was captured on camera. It went a bit viral. How does this represent the season? A lot of speed in the car and the drivers stopped mostly by their own (as a team) mistakes. 4 podiums on the year between the two cars came at short races. The 25 only earned one trophy, with the team’s 1-2 at Road America.  The good? The team had only 1 DNF, the 25 at Watkins Glen. Was there speed in the cars? Aside from the poles, van der Linde had the Fastest Lap at Daytona. At Watkins Glen, the cars didn’t have pace. As a whole, the Post Le Mans part of the season had a different feel, much like the Porsches. The BMW wasn’t far off pace, but there were bigger gaps to the front in that second half. The car that got a win was ultimately 4^th in the championship, and the 25 finished 8^th.

            Looking at the individual performances is actually surprising. Eng had the best average position of all 4, averaging 10.22, just off of Nasr. He also had the best average pace, 0.517, just off Campbell. His average time off co-driver was also best of the group. Vanthoor was second in all categories of the BMW bunch, then van der Linde, then Wittmann. Again, we have a situation where no one was a particular weak link.

Surprising Fact: A lot like Ohta, Frijns was a standout. He too averaged a position of 8.00, but his average pace was best overall at 0.311 sec off. In his 3 starts, he was fastest of the BMW drivers at Sebring, second fastest at Petit Le Mans, and 5^th best at Daytona but only .308 off. He does have the advantage of driving the car in WEC, but he’s made a good argument for a full season in IMSA.

 

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

            Inarguably, the biggest shift of the offseason came with Cadillac. They had stability with Action Express, and more on them later, but they shifted away from successful stalwarts Chip Ganassi Racing to Wayne Taylor Racing. WTR represented the brand well, taking the championship for drivers, teams, and manufacturer in 2017. They shifted to Acura in 2021, taking 9 wins and finishing 2^nd in the championship 3 years in a row. When Cadillac announced early in 2024 that they’d be parting ways with CGR and be represented instead by WTR, the expectations grew amongst some that this team would come back swinging.

            Ultimately it was a difficult year for this team. They got 4 podiums between the two cars, but unlike BMW they did not get a win. The 10 was runner up at Detroit and Indy, and the team got a 2-3 at Watkins Glen. They had 2 DNFs on the year, both for the 40 in the first two races of the season. The 10 had a very median season. Their worst finish was 8^th (twice). They finished 6^th in the championship. The 40, however, had only one top 6 finish all season with that 2^nd at Watkins. They finished 7^th twice, 8^th once, 9^th three times, as well as the DNFs. It was a much more difficult season for the silver car, who came home 9^th and last of the full season factory efforts.

            Was there pace in the cars? No. Zero poles, zero wins, zero fast laps. The best any driver from one of these two cars did in any race was 3^rd, by both Jordan at Road America (0.481 sec off) and Ricky at Indy (0.065 sec off). Out of 43 possibilities in the 9 races, the WTR drivers were only amongst the top 5 drivers for Fast Lap pace 5 times.

            There are still positives to be found. Jordan (13.22), Ricky (13.67) and Filipe (13.56) were super consistent in average Fast Lap position. Jordan was the best for time off pace, at 0.693. I want to also acknowledge some big numbers for Ricky and Jordan. Even with this year not being a fruitful one trophy-wise, they still have some of the highest accomplishment numbers. Jordan’s win rate is 22% with a podium rate of 51%. Ricky is at 21% win with 50% podium. Also, Ricky holds the record for most poles in the series, tied with a few others), but his last pole was at Laguna Seca 2022. Ricky, my friend, it’s time to get pole again!

 

Surprising Fact: I have to give credit once again to what phenomenal teammates Ricky and Filipe are to each other, how well they match. Not only were they close in average Fast Lap position, they were separated by 0.001 in their AVERAGE time off pace and in their average pace to co-drivers! Keep in mind, that’s an average over 9 races. They are a dream team!

 

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

            2^nd in the championship and two wins to round out the season does not tell the tale of this team’s season. The broken suspension at Daytona that took them out of contention put the 31 crew into a serious hole. But they are the team that never quits. The most surprising part of their season comes with the fact that their wins were their only trips to the podium all year. 4^th three times, 5^th at Watkins after a very late trip for a splash of fuel when leading. 10^th at Detroit, a track that’s been an issue the last two years. For 2025, they kept Aitken, who had proven in 2024 to be a star, and added more firepower with Earl Bamber. And Bamber fired! He was the 6^th best of drivers running a full season for average position, 10.63, and best overall of full-time drivers average off pace at 0.434. Time off co-drivers he was beaten only by Gunn and Yelloly for full time at 0.173, but he did set the Fast Lap of the race at Watkins Glen. It was Fred Vesti who proved very surprising in the car this year. Fred set the Fast Lap at Petit, enroute to their victory. He was in the car for 6 races, filling in for Bamber at Laguna Seca. Fred’s performance was on average position was slightly worse than Eng. His average time off pace was slightly better than Laurens Vanthoor and Felipe Nasr, and his time off co-drivers was similar to Jordan Taylor. Aitken was only the fastest driver in the car on two occasions, but one of those was the mega drive to victory at Indy, where he started from pole and brought the car into the victory lane. It was a statement of a day.

Surprising Fact: Only 4 of the Fast Laps from any of the drivers (Bamber Daytona 1.046, Aitken Long Beach 1.119, Aitken Detroit 1.544, Vesti Watkins 1.121) were more than a second off the Fastest Lap of the race. There were 24 Fast Laps logged by drivers of the 31 Cadillac.

 

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

            The most noise of the season was around the Valkyrie, and for good reason. This car was completely off the expectations for a GTP. No hybrid, private team, and a sound harkening back to the “good ole days” of racing. It looks like the bat mobile and sounds like heaven. What more could you want? How bout performance and speed?

            The numbers from the first 5 races skew it in the not so good range of things. It wasn’t until Road America that we had Fast Laps less than a second off the Fastest. The team credited development of the car, but BoP needs to be acknowledged as well. The car ran at the base rate with no power reduction and at the maximum stint energy allowed from Road America onwards. I digress. Since the pace wasn’t there early on, Gunn (18.38) and De Angelis (20.88) don’t have great average positions, and both average time off pace greater than a second. The only full season driver worse than them was van der Helm. We do see something really impressive in the time off co-drivers. Gunn was 0.093 off, the best of any full season, and .02 better than Nick Yelloly! De Angelis averaged 0.210, showing that the pace each driver was able to extract from the car was the maximum. Although Gunn has been a super star for many years now, this last fact show us that De Angelis was right there with him more often than not. The final stint of Petit Le Mans that earned the team and the car their first GTP podium shows just that. Their previous best finish hadn’t even been in the top 5.

Surprising fact: The Valkyrie debuted at Sebring, and finished only 90 points back in the championship from JDC, a team that ran every race.  If they’d qualified and finished last at Daytona, they would’ve finished only 57 points behind the 40 WTR Cadillac.

 

JDC Miller MotorSports – Porsche – 85 (Tijmen van der Helm)

            The true underdog team, family owned and operated, the yellow submarine, the banana boat, the little guys. So many reasons to cheer for this team. In years past, they’ve won races overall, championships in TCR and PC. This was a very difficult year. They had only one DNF at Watkins, but the best finish came at Daytona, and they never brushed the top 5. Tijmen van der Helm drove in every race, and was bottom of the full season drivers in both average position and time off pace. Giammaria Bruni co-drove the car at the first 7 rounds, but even he couldn’t find that elusive speed in the car. His best attempt was 0.538 off pace at Daytona, good enough for only 14^th overall. Nico Mueller, Neel Jani, Max Esterson, Bryce Aron, and Pascal Wehrlein could do no better either. What was missing? I’m not entirely sure. It seems like Tijmen stepped up a lot this year, 3 times being faster than his co-drivers. Luck maybe just wasn’t on their side.

Surprising Fact: At Petit, all 3 of the drivers were less than a second off pace, but Esterson was still only the 34^th best lap, and there were only 36 drivers.

 

Automobili Lamborghini Squadra – 63 (Grosjean, Kvyat, Mortara)

            I really hope we haven’t seen this car for the last time. At the end of the 2024 season, Lamborghini announced a scaling back for the program, withdrawing from WEC and only endurance races for IMSA. This car, run in conjunction with Riley, had good people on it’s side. Daytona went badly from the get-go. Only Bortolotti got to drive, and even he could only muster a lap time good enough for 2.3 seconds off pace. Disappointment set in. Sebring the pace wasn’t great, close to a second off. Watkins was much better, 0.643 off from Romain. Indy was a big gasp of hope. Romain’s opening stint, where the car led on merit, showed the speed possible. Petit Le Mans was back to mid pack, the best lap not even breaking the top half of fast laps. Two DNFs out of 5 races, but the bit of pace we saw at Indy and then the 4^th place finish at Petit Le Mans shows there’s a lot more to this car to be extracted.

Grosjean was the only driver to be a part of every endurance round in 2025, and he was fastest in the car every time. He drove in the same number of races as Laurens Vanthoor yet bettered the Belgian’s average position by 2 spots. Grosjean was just off the average pace of Nasr and Tandy. This tells me that he’s only getting started. We need to see Grosjean in this car more, please and thank you.

 

Driver of the Year: Nick Yelloly

This was so close with Matt Campbell. Ultimately, I calculated it based on what each driver was able to do versus teammates. Nick’s average Fast Lap position amongst MSR drivers was 2, and Matt’s was 2.33. Nick averaged a position slightly worse than Matt (8.11 vs 7.11), but his time off pace was better. Nick was 0.439 off on average, bettered only by Earl Bamber by 0.005! Matt was on average 0.464 off the fastest lap. So why go with Nick? Remember that Porsche had 5/9 Fast Laps and Acura had only one. Therefore, Nick had extract more from a car that had less raw pace.  Matt got a championship; Nick can take this small accolade!