How the stars of IMSA fared at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 94th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is officially over, with Toyota Racing’s trio of Mike Conway, Nick De Vries and Kamui Kobayashi taking victory in the #7 Toyota TR010-Hybrid. 

Although that was a standout performance by one of the powerhouses in the FIA World Endurance Championship, there was plenty of representation in the French endurance classic from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. 

Here is a class-by-class breakdown of how some of the best from North America’s premier sports car series stacked up.

Hypercar

Sheldon van der Line, alongside WEC regulars Robin Frijns and Rene Rast, sharing the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 for BMW M Team WRT, finished second overall, completing 381 laps and finishing 10.913s behind the #7 Toyota. 

Louis Deletraz, normally in a Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac in IMSA, was part of the the #12 Cadillac V-Series.R for Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA, and finished just off the podium in fourth with co-drivers Norman Nato and Will Stevens. 

Aston Martin THOR Team’s Ross Gunn, sharing the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie with Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell, ended up eighth, two laps down. 

Directly behind was Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, the sole IMSA-only entry in the field, scored ninth overall (two laps down) with the combination of Filipe Albuquerque, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor in the #101 Cadillac V-Series.R. 

“We had the pace at the beginning of the race,” Jordan Taylor explained to Radio Le Mans. “At the end of the night we had one little mistake that put us back. In this race, once you get out of track position and lose the gap, or you get the wrong slow zone and the wrong traffic, it kind of builds from there. We were on the back foot early on. Then we spent two to three stints working for the (JOTA) #12 car, doing some tire testing to see what would work for them at the end of the race.”

Roman De Angelis, co-driving Aston Martin THOR Team’s #009 sister car entry with Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen, finished 14th overall, nine laps down.

Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber, the most recent winners in the last IMSA round at Detroit with Whelen Cadillac, ended up sharing the Team JOTA’s #38 sister car entry with Sebastien Bourdais. The trio led the majority of the first half of the race before power steering issues derailed their effort just past the halfway mark, completing 218 laps. 

BMW M Team WRT’s #15 sister car that led the field to the green flag, headlined by Dries Vanthoor and accompanied by Raffaele Marciello and Kevin Magnussen, were a non-factor and also failed to finish the race; completing 272 laps.

LMP2

#43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 Gibson: Jakub Smiechowski, Tom Dillmann, Nick Yelloly

Photo by: James Moy Photography via Getty Images

It was a repeat win in the Le Mans Prototype 2 class for Inter Europol Competition, which earned a 1-2 finish led by the combination Nick Yelloly, Tom Dillmann, and Jakub Smiechowski in the #43 ORECA 07 Gibson. It was the second consecutive triumph for Yelloly and Dillman, the 2024 IMSA LMP2 champion, with Smiechowski claiming his third in the last four years. 

“It’s amazing to be back-to-back Le Mans winners,” Dillmann told the TNT Sports broadcast. “That was some race, the last 12 hours with Nick pushing. It was great competition. We were fighting for every tenth on track. It was unbelievable. The team is always awesome here. You need so many parameters to come together to make it work. A 1-2 is fantastic.” 

CrowdStrike Racing by APR nailed the double, earning the LMP2 Pro/Am win at Le Mans in addition to its IMSA LMP2 victory at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January. The winning trio of George Kurtz, Alex Quinn and Laurin Heinrich controlled the bulk of the race in the # 4 ORECA. It’s the first win at Le Mans for Kurtz since 2023. Additionally, he and Quinn were part of the same team’s LMP2-winning lineup earlier this year in Daytona. Heinrich, a Porsche factory driver that was part of the overall win at the Rolex 24 with Porsche Penske Motorsport in IMSA’s Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class, further bolstered his resume with Le Mans silverware. 

James Allen, Dane Cameron, and PJ Hyett also banded together to put the #99 ORECA for AO by TF on the final step of the LMP2 Pro/Am podium.

Penske Porsche Motorsport’s Julien Andlauer, sharing the #30 entry for Duqueine Team with Doriane Pin and Richard Verschoor, led a majority of the race before a brake failure derailed their efforts. They were credited with a DNF (did not finish), completing 307 laps. 

Duqueine Team led a bulk of the race before a brake failure sidelined the No. 30 ORECA that included Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Julien Andlauer alongside Richard Verschoor and Doriane Pin.

Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Kevin Estre, sharing the #14 ORECA for TDS Racing with Mathias Beche and Tobi Lutke, completed 355 laps en route to 21st overall. The #3 entry for DKR Engineering, headlined by Acura Meyer Shank Racing’s Renger van der Zande, completed 344 laps and finished 31st overall with co-drivers Sebastian Alvarez and John Farano. 

A couple of IMSA Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) Pro regulars Ben Barnicoat (#183 AF Corse) and Harry King (#9 Proton Competition) ended up 23rd and 25th overall, respectively. 

LMGT3

#33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R: Ben Keating, Jonny Edgar, Nicky Catsburg

Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo

Nicky Catsburg, the GTD Pro championship leader in IMSA with Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, was part of the winning LMGT3 lineup, sharing the #33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R with Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar. 

It’s the 10th win at Le Mans for Corvette, and first since 2001, coming 25 years ago, and fourth for the TF team in its 10th year of operation. Keating has his third Le Mans class win (2022, 2023), Catsburg his second (2023) and Edgar his first.

“What an historic day for General Motors and Corvette Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said Mark Reuss, President of General Motors. “To earn Corvette Racing’s 10th class victory at Le Mans is a tremendous achievement for our motorsports, design and engineering teams. Huge congratulations to drivers Nicky Catsburg, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating, and our partners TF Sport. You have earned your place in the history books! It’s an incredibly proud moment for all of us and it shows that, working as one team, GM can beat the best in the world.”

Vasser Sullivan Racing’s Jack Hawkworth, sharing the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3 with Hadrien David and Tom Van Rompuy, finished second in class. 

IMSA’s Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) points leader Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello finished third aboard his #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 he shared with Jonny Adam and Gabe Newell.

The #13 Autosport Chevrolet Corvette LMGT3.R of Orey Fidani, Matt Bell, and Lars Kern were also competitors in the famed race, but only managed to complete 61 laps.

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