With no fewer than nine cautions, the Wisconsin round delivered relentless action from start to finish. At times, perhaps even a little too much, with numerous retirements along the way.
Some left Elkhart Lake with renewed confidence, others with plenty of regrets. Here are our Winners & Losers from the IMSA SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix.
Winner – Wayne Taylor Racing
It had been more than two years since Wayne Taylor Racing last stood on the top step of the podium. The team’s previous victory dated back to the streets of Detroit on June 1, 2024. Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque also delivered WTR’s first-ever win with the V-Series.R Cadillac.
The weekend became even sweeter with the sister #40 Cadillac of Louis Delétraz and Jordan Taylor finishing third, its first top-five result of the season. It marked Wayne Taylor Racing’s strongest GTP performance in two years.
“Felipe and I have been doubting ourselves, and the team doubts themselves, and we just stuck together,” Ricky Taylor said. “Nobody blamed each other, and knew it was coming and believed in, you know, the team as a whole.
“But individually it’s been really hard and I’m just so happy for the guys. The team just needs this so badly. It’s been two years. Yeah, it’s something to build on for sure.”
The victory came in a race interrupted by nine full-course cautions, but that does nothing to diminish its significance. More than just another win, it may well mark the beginning of the second chapter in the Wayne Taylor Racing–Cadillac partnership.
Loser – Jack Aitken
At the time of writing, IMSA had yet to penalise either Jack Aitken or Kévin Estre. Running second and third respectively, the pair collided on the final restart with just 11 minutes remaining, eliminating both the #31 Cadillac and the #6 Porsche from contention.
It was a painful setback in what had otherwise been a flawless season for Aitken. Responsibility is probably shared, as Estre himself admitted afterwards. But the obvious question remains: why did the Briton take such a risk when a ninth consecutive podium was virtually within reach, and with the championship at stake?
“It was just a bit sad for motor racing that other people need to stoop to those levels, to take cars out in order to hold their position. It’s pretty clear…” Earl Bamber said.
Within seconds, Aitken saw both a major result and a significant championship opportunity disappear, despite holding the upper hand over all of his closest title rivals.
Whether he was to blame or not, greater caution would almost certainly have served him better. He’s still leading the championship, but there is little doubt he was Road America’s biggest loser.
Winner – Pfaff Motorsports
Few saw this one coming.
Only days after the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 claimed its maiden victory in DTM thanks to Mirko Bortolotti, Pfaff Motorsports delivered the Italian car second GT3 win and, more importantly, its first in endurance racing.
A revised brake package introduced specifically for Road America gave the drivers greater confidence, but strategy and execution ultimately made the difference for the Canadian squad.
“I’m thankful to all the partners who stuck with us through the dark days,” General Manager Steve Bortolotti said. “I said from the start at my first time with the car in June of last year at the first rollout it was incredible how it ran so much issue-free, and it continues to. The reliability of this car is incredible, and the pace will come with time.”
Pfaff ended a 36-race winless streak dating back to the 2023 12 Hours of Sebring. Before that, the team had captured back-to-back IMSA titles with Porsche, winning GTD in 2021 and GTD Pro in 2022.
Andrea Caldarelli and Sandy Mitchell took the chequered flag ahead of the #77 AO Racing Porsche of Harry King and Nick Tandy, with Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg completing the podium in the #4 Corvette.
Loser – Aston Martin & Acura
For a few moments, Aston Martin believed it had achieved the Valkyrie LMH’s best result to date.
Roman De Angelis crossed the finish line second behind the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, a performance that would have marked the British manufacturer’s strongest finish with the Valkyrie in any championship.
The celebrations, however, proved short-lived. A post-race drive-through penalty for contact dropped the #23 entry back to fifth.
Disappointment was just as palpable across the Acura Meyer Shank Racing garage. Starting from pole position, the #93 Acura eventually slipped to fourth after a costly penalty ruined what had looked like a genuine shot at victory.
“It was a crazy day,” Renger van der Zander explaine. “We lost the torque sensors, so we had to turn down power, and from there on we were sitting ducks.”
To make matters worse, the sister #60 failed to reach the finish after Tom Blomqvist crashed into the wall with less than 20 minutes remaining following the final restart.
The Heart of Racing can at least take plenty of positives from a race that briefly allowed the Valkyrie to fight at the front.
For Acura, however, time is running out. With just two races remaining before the ARX-06 is retired, the Japanese manufacturer has only two more opportunities to give one of IMSA’s most successful GTP cars the farewell victory it deserves.
Winner – Inter Europol Competition
Race after race, the same conclusion becomes harder to ignore: it’s a real shame that Inter Europol Competition’s Hypercar discussions with Acura/Honda never came to fruition.
And race after race, another question inevitably follows: how is Tom Dillmann still without a full-time seat in endurance racing’s top class?
Alongside Jeremy Clarke and Bijoy Garg, the Frenchman once again delivered a masterclass, expertly managing the endless restarts to secure Inter Europol Competition’s second IMSA victory of the season. Even more impressively, he was four tenths of a second faster than the rest of the field when comparing the average of each driver’s fastest 50 percent of race laps.
“My two teammates did a great job,” he said. “We were a bit unlucky at times. On one yellow, we were leading by 20 seconds at the time. But at the end we had the race under control.”
“We controlled the race, a lot of restarts obviously but a lot of pace in the car to control it today. Of the wins we had this season, for me, this was probably the one we dominated the most.”
The #43 Oreca finished ahead of the #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry of Alex Quinn, George Kurtz and Toby Sowery, while Tobias Lütke, Mathias Beche and David Heinemeier Hansson completed the podium for TDS Racing.
The victory allows Inter Europol to close the gap in the championship, although Quinn and Kurtz continue their remarkable consistency with a third consecutive runner-up finish and a fourth podium in five races.
Still, one question remains unanswered: how many more performances like this will Tom Dillmann have to produce before a Hypercar manufacturer finally gives him the opportunity he deserves?
Loser – BMW M Team WRT
For much of Sunday’s race, BMW M Team WRT looked to have the fastest car on the grid.
The spectacular Spider-Man livery on the #24 grabbed plenty of attention, but it was the pace that truly stood out. Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde led 38 laps, more than any other crew.
And yet…
The #24 retired with brake issues, while the sister #25 of Marco Wittmann and Philipp Eng battled cooling problems before salvaging seventh place.
“Our disappointment is huge”, Head of BMW M Motorsport Andreas Roos explained. “It’s always very frustrating when you drop out or fall back due to technical issues. But it’s even more bitter when you’ve shown such strong pace all weekend and had a good chance to fight for victory.”
“The BMW M Hybrid V8 has proven to be very reliable this season. That’s why we need to take a close look at what caused the problems. We still have two races left — and we are determined to turn things around and secure at least one win. The whole crew deserves that.”
While BMW M Team WRT has become a genuine race contender in WEC, the Belgian squad still cannot convert its raw speed into victories in IMSA.
At this stage of the season, pace is no longer the issue. Turning that pace into results is.
Winner – Laurin Heinrich
A few months ago, few would have pictured Laurin Heinrich as a genuine GTP title contender. Yet the young German continues to defy expectations.
Finishing second aboard the #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 he shares with Kaylen Frederick and Tijmen van der Helm, Heinrich capitalised on Jack Aitken’s retirement to slash the deficit in the championship standings.
“We didn’t expect a result like this,” he said. “It was clear to us even before the start that we’d have almost no chance on our own. So we were relying on others to make mistakes. That’s exactly what happened.”
“The pace got tougher and tougher with every restart. Fortunately, we were able to stay out of all the trouble and thus score a lot of points for the championship by finishing second.”
What makes the result even more remarkable is the context. Heinrich has now claimed three podiums in the last four races with a private team taking on the biggest factory operations in the category, alongside two team-mates who lack the pedigree of most GTP line-ups.
After one final outing with JDC-Miller at Indianapolis on September 20, Heinrich will return to Porsche Penske Motorsport’s #7 963 for the Petit Le Mans season finale on October 3.
Loser – Porsche Penske Motorsport
Porsche Penske Motorsport continues to find itself overshadowed by… JDC-Miller MotorSports. That may well be the most striking storyline of all.
Granted, the 2026-spec Porsche 963 has been hit far harder by the Balance of Performance than last year’s car. But that alone cannot explain the German-American results at Road America.
The #7 Porsche of Julien Andlauer and Felipe Nasr accumulated three penalties and also lost valuable time after being pushed into the gravel by Jack Aitken who, somewhat surprisingly, escaped without a penalty. As for the #6, its race ended in the now-infamous clash with that same Cadillac with just 11 minutes remaining.
“But on the restart, the 31 tried to do a move on the left side on the outside in Turn 1,” Kévin Estre explained. “He just had his nose here. I could have left a little more room. He could have backed off as well. I don’t think there’s 100 percent fault to give to anyone.”
“One thing is for sure is that we have to drive like maniacs to be in that position at the moment. That’s the way it is.”
It all comes back to the same issue. The current Balance of Performance simply doesn’t allow the factory Porsche entries to race on equal terms with their main rivals because of inferior raceability. Drivers are repeatedly forced into aggressive overtaking moves — or equally aggressive defensive driving — simply to stay in contention, much like Toyota has been forced to do in WEC in recent years.
Porsche may already have wrapped up both the Michelin Endurance Cup Drivers’ title (Julien Andlauer/Felipe Nasr) and the Teams’ championship ahead of Petit Le Mans, but that was nowhere near enough to put a smile back on the faces of The Captain’s men.
Winner – Lilou Wadoux
Already the first woman to win an overall race in WEC and the reigning IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTD champion, Lilou Wadoux added another milestone to her growing résumé at Road America.
On Saturday, the Ferrari factory driver became the first woman in eight years to claim pole position in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
A historic achievement… One she was reluctant to describe that way.
“It’s good, but I am quite happy as a driver to earn pole position.” she said before adding: “I have to give credit to the other girls who showed we are able to do the same.”
Race day proved more difficult, with Wadoux and her team-mates finishing 11th in the GTD class.
Even so, the result hardly changes the bigger picture. Once again, the Frenchwoman demonstrated during the race that she now belongs among endurance racing’s benchmark drivers.