IMSA: Durability Key for AXR, Cadillac’s First GTP Win of Season
Whelen Motorsports dominated the Tirerack.com Battle On the Bricks to give Cadillac its first win of the season with Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti. Aitken drove a mega hour-and-20-minute stint to finish the race and held off the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Cadillac in a late restart.
“It feels amazing to get our first win of the season,” said Bamber. “Obviously, it’s been a long time coming. We’ve had a lot of chances, opportunities, but now to finally get one in the bag, it’s great for Whelen. It’s fantastic for Cadillac.”
The No. 31 stayed out of trouble during the chaotic six-hour race that resulted in a total of 38 penalties and seven full-course cautions. Following a two-minute shootout to the checkered flag, Cadillac secured a 1-2 finish, with Bamber crediting the durability of his Michelin tires.
“Tire performance was great,” said Bamber. “Obviously we’re on the hard tire here, so the durability was really, really good. We didn’t really have too much degradation. No issues throughout the whole day. And warmup was great. So, you know, we kept it up front, did what we needed to do. Now we roll onto the next challenge at Petit.”
Tirerack.com Battle On the Bricks Results:
GTP: No. 31 Whelen Motorsports Cadillac, Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti
LMP2: No. 11 TDS RACING, Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen, Hunter McElrea
GTD PRO: No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports, Mike Rockenfeller, Sebastian Priaulx
GTD: No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari, Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff
This was the fourth round of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. A longer race means more room for strategy, specifically tire strategy. Learn more in this race’s Michelin Tire Tech Minute.
Up Next:
The IMSA season concludes at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with the 10-hour Motul Petit Le Mans. The race starts at 12:00pm ET. You can watch the race in its entirety on Peacock and on NBC from 3:00pm ET–6:00pm ET.