Porsche in GTP, TDS in LMP2, BMW in GTD PRO, Ferrari in GTD Lead the Way
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 2025 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup champions secured their crowns in three different ways: leading from the front and holding on, maintaining a consistent run of form throughout the year, and delivering a late-season rally from several points down.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s five longest races cover 58 hours of total racing across the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks (six hours) and Motul Petit Le Mans (10 hours).
Porsche Penske Motorsport No. 7 Starts Strong and Holds On in GTP
In the first two races, the unofficial “36 Hours of Florida” covering seven IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup segments, the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor scored the maximum five points five times, including both race wins in Daytona and Sebring. The excellent start brought them to 31 points, eight points clear of all competitors in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP).
But with only 15 points achieved in the final seven segments in three races and with race finishes of 10th or worse in each, holding on became a nailbiter for the No. 7 full-season pair of Tandy and Nasr. It worked to their benefit that their competitors wound up taking points off each other, whether it was the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R that won the final two rounds at Indianapolis and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 or the sister No. 6 Porsche.
Just two points covered those four cars at the end of the year, with Nasr and Tandy ensuring both Porsche Penske Motorsport crews achieved an IMSA title in 2025. Teammates Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet won the full-season WeatherTech Championship GTP title in the No. 6 car.
TDS Delivers Rally to Win LMP2 Crown on a Tiebreak
TDS Racing entered both Indianapolis and Atlanta down five points in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). In baseball terms, they needed a five-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning to overcome the deficit to the leading Inter Europol Competition entry.
Indeed, TDS delivered an “triple double” encore of its 2024 finish, when they won Indianapolis, won Road Atlanta, and won the Michelin Endurance Cup. They did exactly the same in 2025, with the Road Atlanta win bringing the No. 11 ORECA LMP2 07 of Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen and Hunter McElrea into a tie with the No. 43 ORECA driven in the five endurance races by Tom Dillmann and Bijoy Garg (Jeremy Clarke missed the Rolex 24). With a higher number of better finishes – two wins to the No. 43 car’s one – the No. 11 secured this title on a tiebreak in Thomas’ last scheduled IMSA start.
The No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA, which won the Rolex 24 and Sahlen’s Six Hours, was tied for the lead leaving Watkins Glen and ended third in these standings – same as the full-season WeatherTech Championship standings.
Paul Miller Racing BMW Paces the GTD PRO Field
Longtime IMSA observers know Paul Miller Racing’s propensity for points-scoring performance at each and every Michelin Endurance Cup segment. With two Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) cars entered in 2025, the success only doubled.
The Nos. 1 and 48 BMW M4 GT3 EVOs combined to score maximum five points in 11 of 15 total Michelin Endurance Cup segments in 2025, with end-of-race wins in Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta for the eventual Michelin Endurance Cup champions Dan Harper and Max Hesse in the No. 48 car.
In an ironic twist, Connor De Phillippi drove both cars at the season finale, but by being assigned points to the No. 1 car in Atlanta he shared with Madison Snow and Neil Verhagen – which was delayed due to boost issues – he wound up snatching the Michelin Endurance Cup title from himself as he won the race in the No. 48 car. Though he won’t get officially recognized, “CDP’s” efforts were integral to both cars’ success as the team repeated its 2024 GTD PRO Michelin Endurance Cup crown.
Ferrari Out Front in GTD with Af Corse Taking Title
With strength in numbers, Ferrari made a habit of taking big scores in Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) Michelin Endurance Cup segments. Three different Ferrari 296 GT3 entries combined to score maximum five points in 10 of 15 total Michelin Endurance Cup segments.
The championship-winning trio of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Lilou Wadoux and Simon Mann did so for six of those 10 segments in their No. 21 Af Corse Ferrari, including all three en route to winning the Motul Petit Le Mans season finale. They also took the first two at Sebring in what appeared to be a potential race-winning effort before mechanical gremlins, and another at the three-hour mark in Watkins Glen.
Inception Racing scored maximum points three times with its No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3, but despite leading coming into Motul Petit Le Mans, a first-lap incident ended these title hopes. Triarsi Competizione completed the perfect 10 of maximum five-point scores, with its No. 023 Ferrari out front after three hours in Indianapolis.