Cadillac Conquers the Bricks For First IMSA Win of 2025

Cadillac’s three-car Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) attack showed strongly in qualifying for the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. But it looked even better in the race.

On Sunday, Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, and Frederik Vesti combined to lead 210 of 243 laps in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R at IMS to dominate the penultimate round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. They won the six-hour contest that also counts toward the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup by 0.988 of a second over Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Cadillac fielded by Wayne Taylor Racing, with Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun rallying to earn third place in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06.

Blomqvist appeared to have claimed the Motul Pole Award on Saturday, only for the No. 60 Acura to be sent to the back of the GTP field for a technical infraction found in post-qualifying inspection. That opened the door for the No. 31 Cadillac, which Aitken qualified second fastest just 0.041 of a second off the disallowed pole time.

Aitken led from the start, but when the second caution flew just 12 minutes into the race, the Cadillac Whelen team called him into the pits, triggering a energy management strategy battle between the dozen GTP class competitors. The constant throughout the remainder of the race was the speed and consistency of the No. 31 car, which was one of just two entries utilizing a three-driver lineup for the six-hour endurance race.

After thinking his driving was done, Aitken unexpectedly found himself called upon to finish the race. While attempting to conserve energy during the last hour, he held off a charging Blomqvist until Taylor moved the No. 10 Cadillac into second place with 16 minutes left on the clock.

Taylor and Albuquerque were forced into an alternate pit stop sequence when Albuquerque suffered a punctured tire at the halfway point of the race, putting them a lap down. They short-filled several times as they threw out all the stops to regain and remain on the lead lap.

A crash involving Toby Sowery in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07 with less than 10 minutes remaining brought out the seventh and final caution of the race and ensured Taylor had enough energy to make the finish. He and Albuquerque matched their best finish of the season with second place as Cadillacs led all but seven laps on the day.

It was the second IMSA win for the Cadillac Whelen team at Indianapolis (from a total of 30) and its first since the 2023 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. It’s also the team’s first podium since finishing second at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in May 2024. Bamber now owns nine victories in IMSA competition; Aitken has triumphed twice, while this was the first time Vesti reached IMSA’s victory lane.

“It’s a bit of a relief to get the first win of the year under the belt,” said Aitken. “We were a little bit fortunate to get the pole after the No. 60 Acura had trouble, but I think the number of laps we led today shows how well we were working as a team. It was a really fun race at the end. Really tough, but a lot of fun trying to hit the (energy) number and hold the track position at the same time.”

The No. 10 Cadillac duo were pleased to come away with a podium finish after a tenacious comeback drive.

“We were last at the restart (with an hour left in the race), so figured we may as well try something,” Taylor said. “That was kind of fun, to try and move forward, and then that yellow at the end gave us the fuel we needed to make the finish. We gave ourselves our best shot.”

“That was frustrating because the pace was good,” added Albuquerque. “We were lucky that a yellow came at the right time, because we were able to secure second place.”

None of the Cadillac teams are in contention for the GTP championship, so Sunday’s victory was the brightest moment of the year to date for the American marque.

“We had really high hopes at the start of the season,” Bamber said. “We’ve had a lot of good cars, but things really haven’t gone our way. We’ve been working day in and day out to get this win, so it’s really nice to be back on the top step of the podium. We feel like we’ve got really good momentum and are laying a great foundation now.”

It was a subdued day for the three GTP title protagonists. Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963) posted the fastest lap in the race but finished seventh and will take a 131-point lead over their Porsche Penske Motorsport teammates Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy (who finished 12th) into the season finale. Defending Indianapolis winner Philipp Eng and his 2025 teammate Dries Vanthoor (No. 24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V-8) are 145 back.

TDS Racing Completes Indy Three-Peat in LMP2

Perfection at Indianapolis, thy name is TDS Racing. For the third straight year, TDS Racing won the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) portion of the TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks. Co-drivers Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen have been a part of all three victories, and Michelin Endurance Cup third driver Hunter McElrea has been around for the last two.

“To be able to come back here to kiss the bricks three straight times,” Thomas said, “that's special for anybody in racing.”

In a race that saw missteps by numerous class competitors, the TDS Racing trio ran mostly clean in the No. 11 ORECA LMP2 07. And while they were officially credited with leading just 38 of the 241 laps that the LMP2 field completed, it wasn’t indicative of the team’s dominance – particularly when Platinum-rated Jensen was behind the wheel.

The Dane drove the final two hours, 40 minutes – the entire length of a standard WeatherTech Championship race – and was clearly superior to the competition on this day. As the clock ticked down in the final hour, Jensen ran second to Toby Sowery in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, building a gap of more than 20 seconds on the cars behind him while knowing Sowery still had to pit. Once Sowery stopped for fuel, Jensen wasn’t to be stopped from victory.

“I think we were constantly the fastest today,” Jensen admitted.

Co-drivers Thomas and McElrea credited their two-day test at Indy for making the car even better than it was as the winner the past two years at the iconic track.

“We tried to approach it like, yes, we're already at this level on this track, but we need to be better,” Thomas recalled. “And honestly, we got better at the testing, and we showed up here at FP1, we were faster than we've ever been. I think I made a real step in driving here. This was maybe my best day ever as a Bronze today, so I think that really helped with the coaching. And I'll tell you, these two guys are probably the fastest on the grid.”

For McElrea, it’s his third WeatherTech Championship win in just 10 starts – all with TDS.

“I'm just lucky, honestly, to be a part of such a good program,” he said. “Steven's kind of proving he's one of if not the best Bronzes going around right now. Mikkel’s obviously established enough. I'm pretty new to endurance racing still, so kind of riding off the coattails of them is not a bad job. They've won three times in a row here. I've obviously been two of the three, but I won here in Indy NXT in 2023 as well, so I'm jumping on the three in a row train.”

Following the late restart and two-lap dash to the checkered, Jensen finished 0.714 seconds ahead of the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA driven by Jeremy Clarke, Bijoy Garg and Tom Dillmann. Third place went to the No. 74 Riley ORECA of Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Josh Burdon.

The No. 99 AO Racing ORECA (fifth place Sunday) with drivers PJ Hyett and Dane Cameron unofficially lead the LMP2 season standings by 85 points over Daniel Goldburg and the No. 22 United Autosports USA ORECA (fourth place Sunday) heading to the season finale, the Motul Petit Le Mans on October 11 at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Results are HERE