Porsche Penske Motorsport bookended the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a victory, capturing the Motul Petit Le Mans season finale Saturday.
Driving the No. 6 Porsche 963, Laurens Vanthoor held off the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde by 1.205 seconds at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
“I made one little mistake, but luckily I could fend him off,” Vanthoor told NBC Sports’ Chris Wilner. “Traffic is brutal, man. It’s dark, it’s a narrow track, and you need to be lucky as well. Lucky everything went right.”
FINAL STANDINGS: Points after Road Atlanta
It’s the first overall win in the 10-hour race on the 12-turn, 2.54-mile road course for Porsche Penske Motorsport, and it’s the first top class win for Porsche at Road Atlanta since 1987.
#6: Porsche Penske Motorsport, Porsche 963, GTP: Laurens Vanthoor celebrates in victory lane
Brandon Badraoui/Lumen Digital Agency
The win also ended a seven-month drought for Porsche Penske Motorsport, whose previous win came at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March. The team had opened the season by winning its third consecutive victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Both victories were by PPM’s No. 7 963; Road Atlanta marks the first win for the No. 6 963 since May 2025.
“Last race, and it’s pretty much all in, and it’s elbows out and fighting as hard and fair as you can,” Vanthoor said. “I felt like I had nothing to lose. We had a difficult year, the 6 car, and the results didn’t always adjust to the work we were doing. So I figure we had to set something right.”
It’s the last race for the No. 6 trio of Vanthoor, Kevin Estre (who scored his first IMSA victory) and Matt Campbell.
“We’ve achieved a lot together,” Vanthoor said. “It’s our last race together as a trio. And now it’s the only race I have left to win is (the 24 Hours of) Le Mans. A lot of boxes were ticked off today, so I guess it’s worth it.”
The No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R finished third.
In an eventful race, there were 16 caution flags and a 30-minute red flag for lightning. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 963 crashed with 90 minutes remaining when Felipe Nasr lost control on an aggressive move in traffic while near his teammate.
In other categories:
- LMP2: The No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07 with drivers Alex Quinn, George Kurtz and Toby Sowery captured the victory as Quinn and Kurtz clinched the championship. It’s the team’s first title in three full-time seasons of competition.
- GTD Pro: In the first victory for Car Blanche, Mattia Drudi, Valentin Hasse Clot and Marco Sorensen won in the No. 68 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, which was making its first IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup start in the category. Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi finished third to clinch the title in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. It’s the team’s third IMSA class championship but first in GTD Pro.
- GTD: The No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 trio of Russell Ward, Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje won from the pole position as Ward and Ellis captured their third consecutive championship. It’s the first time in IMSA’s modern era that a the same full-time driver lineup won three titles in a row, and Winward Racing tied the record set by Scuderia Corsa (2015-17) for most GTD team championships.
2026 Petit Le Mans results
Results
Results by class
Fastest laps by driver
Fastest laps by driver after race (over the weekend)
Fastest laps by driver and class after race
Race distance and average speed
Fastest lap sequence
Leader sequence
Lap chart
Race analysis by lap
Stint analysis
Time cards
Pit stop time cards
Best sector times
Flag analysis with race control messages
Weather report
