Wins –
# 04
Crowdstrike Racing by APR (Daytona & Petit Le Mans)
#2 United
Autosports USA (Sebring)
#99 AO
Racing (Watkins Glen)
#43
InterEuropol Competition (CTMP & Road America)
#18 Era
Motorsport (Indianapolis)
Champions – George Kurtz & Alex Quinn, Crowdstrike
Racing by APR
MEC Champions – George Kurtz, Alex Quinn & Toby
Sowery, Crowdstrike Racing by APR
Qualifying –
Poles – Clark (Daytona, Watkins
Glen, CTMP, Indy), Goikhberg (Sebring & Road America), Hyett (Petit Le
Mans).
For 2025, we had 5 different LMP2
teams cross the finish line first in 7 races. For 2026, we had the same result.
Parity reigns, but funnily enough so do some patterns. For the second
consecutive year, the Le Mans Pro-Am LMP2 winners won the IMSA and the ELMS
Pro-Am championships. And, once again, our champions were not our Drivers of
the Year…
Bronze:
This year, 14 different LMP2 cars
started at least one race. For our purposes, the three who ran less than the 5
enduros will not be discussed. Era chose not to run in Canada, while Intersport
missed that and Indy as well. Era had 2 different bronzes over the year, Nick
Boulle, who found victory at Indy thanks to a genius strategy call.
A lot of the big hitters from the
Bronze class from 2025 returned, with Boulle, Thomas, Perez Companc, and
Robinson as the big names to leave. Kurtz, Clarke, Goldburg, Hyett, Farano,
Cumming, Lutke, and Field added Goikhberg for PR1, Rao for Era, and Fayer for
United to the fray. We’ll get to the
Silver and Pro musical chairs in a minute. Given how competitive 2025 was, the
importance of a strong Bronze was expected to play an even more critical role
to win races. It did…just once. The strongest Bronze pace-wise at CTMP took
home the biggest trophy. The last three races of the year, Misha Goikhberg was
the fastest of the Bronzes. At Daytona and Sebring, it was the defending
champion PJ Hyett. Kurtz, the 2026 champion, was fastest only at Watkins Glen…a
race in which he finished 2nd. So this year, the Bronze driver did
not contribute as greatly by having a strong pace in his stints as perhaps
demonstrated in years past.
Let’s start with last year’s champ.
PJ Hyett was above the rest, with the best Average Position and Pace, and the
best of the full season runners for Average Time off Co-Drivers (which becomes
even more impressive later). Fourth in the championship tells more about bad
results rather than a weak Bronze driver, and PJ was far from that. He earned
just the one pole, and had the fourth best qualifying average of the year, but
that number is skewed due to a technical infraction at CTMP that resulted in
the 99 starting last. Hyett’s worst
earned starting position from a qualifying session was on the second row of the
grid. The same can be said, however, of last year’s DotY for the Bronzes, Dan
Goldburg. Dan had the second-best qualifying average, 2.6. The race pace was
right there as well. He was 2nd best for Position, and third best
for both Pace and Time off Co-Drivers, teamed up again with Paul Di Resta. But
the results weren’t there. No poles, no wins, and only 2 podiums in a
hyper-competitive class weren’t enough, and resulted in a third-place finish in
the championship. Goldburg was beaten in
the championship by Clarke, who massively stepped up in 2026. Jeremy had the 4th
best Position but the second-best Pace, and still struggled a bit in Time off
Co-Drivers, but he was going up against a superstar we will get to later. He
was, by far, the man to beat in qualifying…and many tried but not many did!
Clarke’s average starting position was 1.7, with his 4 poles and a worst
starting position of third! He figured out Saturday, and twice was winner on
Sunday as well. He lost the championship by 20 points, and lost the Rolex by
5.59 seconds. If Clarke’s car had won the Rolex, they would’ve won the
championship by 10 points.
But it wasn’t Jeremy Clark who won
the championship, the Jim Truman award, and the invite to Le Mans, that was
George Kurtz. George was the 5th best Bronze for average position,
averaging more than 5 spots behind Hyett. Pace, George was again the 5th
strongest Bronze, but 8 tenths of a second behind Hyett. Time off Co-Drivers is
where things get a little skewed. Kurtz had a VERY strong team around him, more
so I’d say than any other LMP2 team. Kurtz was on average just over 2 seconds
off what his co-drivers could do, whereas Hyett was 1.1 seconds off. This is a
championship where teams win and lose, and he did take home almost all of the
big prizes this year. But he’s not the Driver of the Year. I do want to take a moment to acknowledge the
performance of another man who could’ve taken the title. Misha Goikhberg
stepped into the LMP2 class after running in almost every other class IMSA has
to offer. Misha first ran in 2014, so he’s been around for a minute. With 109
starts after Petit Le Mans in PC, Prototype, GTD, and now LMP2, Misha is one of
the most well-rounded experienced drivers in the series. It took a minute for
him to figure out the cars, but especially toward the end of the year Misha had
it. He tied for 2nd best Bronze for Position, 4th best
for Pace, and 2nd for Time off Co-Drivers. If he comes back, and if
he gets a co-driver with as much hunger to win as he possesses, Misha will be a
serious challenger for Champion in 2027.
Bronze Driver of the Year: PJ
Hyett
Silver:
It’s
hard to judge the Silver drivers since we see them only 5 times a year, but in
the time they were present, they certainly made their presence noticed. I want
to start with a driver who again
delivered massively, the only Silver driver all year to set the Fastest Lap of
a race…Sebastian Alvarez. Alvarez had the second best Position and Pace
averages, and was beaten only twice all year in his own car, by Vautier at
Petit Le Mans and Bourdais at Daytona. Every other race, Alvarez was the
fastest driver in the Tower car. He had better averages than Sowery, who was a
race winner at Petit and Daytona. Toby Sowery was the 4th best for
Position, third for Pace, and was the fastest guy in the car only at Sebring.
He was a weapon, however, and I give a lot of credit to Sowery as to why Kurtz
and Quinn won the LMP2 championship. His worth was not unnoticed, and in his 5
starts they recorded the two wins and two second place finishes, as well as a
fifth. Last year’s Silver of the Year had a much less shiny season. Hunter was
the third best on Position, yes but was almost a second off for Pace and half a
second for Time off Co-Drivers. A change of team was the biggest difference for
Hunter, but he was still up against Mikkel Jensen, so the change of gap to
co-drivers isn’t easily explained. McElrea was fastest in the car at Watkins
Glen and Petit, but it wasn’t by much. Another Silver who deserves praise from
2026 is Parker Thompson. Parker had a strong start to his LMP2 career, posting
up the 5th best Position for Silvers, the fourth best Pace, and the
second- best average to Co-Drivers. He was fastest in the car at Daytona, but
all 4 of the drivers were well off pace at Daytona so that’s not a fair
representation. At Road America, he was the best in the car again, and much
closer to the overall pace. But all of these Silvers pale in comparison to our
Driver of the Year.
Silver
Driver of the Year: Jonny Edgar
There’s no denying Jonny Edgar is having a 2026 to remember.
Le Mans Winner. WEC LMGT3 Champion elect (if he finishes 5th or
better). Winner of the 6 Hours of the Glen. Only once all year was Edgar not
the fastest driver in the AO LMP2 machine. Read that sentence again, then
remember that he shared the car with 5 times IMSA champion Dane Cameron. Edgar
was only beaten by Cameron at Watkins, where Cameron was the 8th
fastest driver and Edgar was 9th. 0.027 seconds separated the two of
them. So if Edgar had gotten better traction out of one corner, he would’ve
been undefeated within his own car for 2026. No other Silver driver was fastest
in their own car more than 3 times. Jonny is in a different league. And he’s
literally about to be, as well. Edgar will be upgraded in the driver ratings
for 2027. There’s zero argument about
that validity. But from my perspective, Jonny Edgar outperformed many of the
pro drivers this year. It’s true that he’s young and definitely has things
still to learn, but he will. If I’m looking for a pro driver for my LMP2 team
for 2027, you’d bet Edgar would be towards the top of my want list!
Pros:
This
category is always littered with interlopers, drivers who don’t do a full
season, so for our purposes we will only take into consideration those who
participated in a minimum of 6 of the 7 races. Let’s start with the champion.
Alex Quinn started the year as strongly as anyone could, winning the Rolex and
setting the Fastest Lap of the race. His Fastest Lap was over a second better
than Malthe Jakobsen, with whom he shared the car, and Malthe is no slouch!
Quinn was only beaten by Sowery at Sebring, but he had the second-best Average
Position and Pace for full season drivers. Next up in both categories is Paul
Di Resta. Paul was never beaten in his car for 2026, one of 10 drivers who can
say that but only one of two full season drivers to boast that honor. Di Resta
did not claim a Fastest Lap, however, or a race win. Only two podiums after a
season with two race wins will leave him wanting more, especially since the
sister car got the win at Sebring. Changing teams for Mikkel Jensen was always
going to be notable, but going from strength to strength meant there should be
no adaptation time. Mikkel put down the Fastest Lap for Sebring, but that race
ultimately was their only top 5 finish all year. Five of the seven races
Mikkel’s car either finished 9th or 10th. Jensen had the
4th best Position and Pace for the full season Pros, but was not the
fastest driver in the car at Daytona, Watkins Glen, or Petit Le Mans, and he
didn’t even get to drive the car at Indy. It was a year to forget for last
year’s Driver of the Year.
While I’m not going to go in depth with every driver, I do
want to pay attention to last year’s champion as well, because it highlights
the strength of both the Silver and Pro Drivers of the Year. Dane Cameron
averaged 9.6 in position, whereas Edgar averaged 8.6 and our Pro DotY hit 3.3.
Average time off Pace for Dane was 0.687 whereas Edgar was 0.654 and DotY was
0.289. Time off Co-Driver is a bigger telltale. Edgar, as we’ve already
established, was a bit of an anomaly for the Silvers, fastest in the car in all
but one race, whereas most Silvers were best in their car once or twice a year.
Cameron was close to Edgar, but was on average 0.171 slower. We compare this to
Mikkel Jensen (0.111) and Tristan Vautier (0.248), and Vautier also had a super
Silver to go up against. In that sense, Cameron actually performed very well
compared to his fast companion. This helps to remind us that sometimes the
numbers are a bit deceiving, and that’s why we need to look beyond and remember
context, because it’s not like Dane Cameron has lost any speed or forgotten how
to drive in 2026.
Pro Driver of the Year: Tom Dillmann
Considering
what Tom did in 2026 extends well beyond what he accomplished in IMSA. Le Mans
win for the 2nd consecutive year. 3rd in Asian Le Mans
Series. 5th in European Le Mans Series. It’s his impressive
accomplishments in IMSA that we look at here. Best Average Position. Best
Average Pace. Only bested in his car once all year, at Daytona by 0.061
seconds. He set the Fastest Lap of the race at Petit Le Mans and Road America,
and was only out of the top 4 for Fastest Lap at Daytona. He was fast
everywhere. Second in the championship does not tell the full story of
Dillmann’s year, because he was the fastest Pro on track consistently all year.
There are rumors about him getting a bigger stage soon, and I’d be curious to
see how he would adapt to another category, but one thing is for sure: in 2026,
Tom Dillmann was the best pro to have in your car for IMSA LMP2.
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