That is how you finish a season. The Motul Petit Le Mans delivered an absolute thriller at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, where Mattia Drudi dragged the No. 68 Car Blanche Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo into the lead in the final hour to claim a stunning maiden IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory. Drudi shared the machine with Valentin Hasse Clot and Marco Sorensen as one of the grid's newest squads made their first IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup race start in GTD PRO. Thirteen of the fourteen starters led at least one lap, but the closing thirty minutes boiled down to a chaotic four-way war of attrition.
Preining went off road at Turn 10, then Barnicoat slowed in an effort to coax his low-on-energy Lexus to the finish even as Drudi worked his way around King. A late full course caution set-up a dash to the 10:10 p.m. finish although it aided those trying to ensure they made it home on energy. Drudi never put a wheel wrong while conserving as much energy as possible and led King across the finish line. Reflecting on the chaos, Drudi admitted he barely knew what happened in that frantic final hour while playing the fuel-saving game behind the Porsches and the Lexus.
The GTD PRO championship fight was just as mental. Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen steered the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO—co-driven by Dan Harper—to a third-place finish, securing the full-season driver and team crowns alongside the Michelin Endurance Cup titles. They entered the weekend trailing Nicky Catsburg, Tommy Milner, and the No. 4 Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R, but a chaotic day of rain, lightning red flags, and over a dozen full-course yellows upended the order. The title effectively swung when the No. 64 Mustang of Dennis Olsen shouldered the Corvette into the Turn 10 sand trap, costing Catsburg a crucial lap.
Over in Grand Touring Daytona, the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Philip Ellis, Russell Ward, and Indy Dontje powered to their first Petit Le Mans victory and a third consecutive GTD championship. Winward locked up the class title early after rivals hit disaster, but the race win went right down to the wire. Ellis fought off Riccardo Pera in the No. 912 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R—sharing duties with Ryan Hardwick and Morris Schuring—and muscled past Lilou Wadoux on Lap 320 to take the lead. Wadoux had heroically dragged the No. 21 Af Corse USA Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO back into contention after a costly stop-plus-60-second penalty involving Antonio Fuoco.
Winward's championship run nearly derailed before it started when an overnight engine change forced the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Zacharie Robichon to start from pit lane more than 60 laps down. Title rivals Turner Motorsport also collapsed early when Robby Foley brought the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO to pit road with a fatal loss of water pressure just thirty minutes in. Later, contact between Fuoco and Lorenzo Patrese sent Patrese's No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari hard into the concrete wall at Turn 1, wiping out their race and shaking up the Michelin Endurance Cup picture.
Further down the order, Charlie Eastwood steered the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R to a podium finish alongside Salih Yoluc and Mason Filippi after bouncing back from two heavy early race penalties. Meanwhile, Orey Fidani and the No. 13 13 Autosport Corvette overhauled Brendon Iribe and the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo to snatch the Bronze-only Bob Akin Award by a razor-thin 10-point margin, securing Fidani an automatic invitation to the 2027 24 Hours of Le Mans.
