ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Pit strategy pit Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque out front for the final couple of hours Sunday (Aug. 2). Being there meant that he was able to stay in front of a monumental battle between Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken and Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Kevin Estre.
The battle came to tears on the final restart when Estre and Aitken collided and crashed in turn 1. That allowed Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor to win the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix under caution. It is WTR’s first win since 2024.
“I don’t really know this [winning] feeling anymore. It’s so special.” Albuquerque said during the post-race press conference. “I think that if you want more action than this, you’re crazy.”
Second went to JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Laurin Heinrich, Kaylen Frederick and Tijmen van der Helm, followed by the second WTR Cadillac of Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor. Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly were fourth, then The Heart of Racing’s Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn.
Yelloly started from the overall pole in his Acura. In the opening laps, he was able to maintain a small advantage over teammate Tom Blomqvist.
The first caution of the race came out 12 minutes in when Myers Riley Motorsports’ Sheena Monk had contact with TDS Racing’s Tobias Lutke entering the Kink. That shot Monk hard into the SAFER Barrier in a near-identical crash to the one Athan Sterling had in Saturday’s Michelin Pilot Challenge race.
Intersport Racing has had a tough 2026 season. They missed the last race due to crash damage from Watkins Glen. Early on Sunday, Jon Field went wide exiting the Carousel and crashed into the tires to bring out the second yellow. Field was ok, but they were done for the day.
That brought everyone in for their first pit stop of the day. A short-fill on the stop got Penske Porsche Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr out first. Meanwhile, BMW M Team RLL’s Marco Wittmann chose to stay out to take the lead.
At the beginning of the fifth hour, the complexion of the race changed. Nasr was hit by Aitken and spun at turn 6. He just barely dropped his left rear tire into the gravel, beaching himself and bringing out a caution.
Nasr was able to get out of the trap and resumed, but he lost a lap. To make matters worse, he copped multiple penalties that ultimately put him two laps down. In a controversial move, the officials determined that the contact was incidental, so Aitken was not penalized. Needless to say, that decision made some people unhappy.
For the sake of this discussion, Action Express Racing is owned by Jim France, the former CEO of NASCAR. He is also the co-founder of Grand-Am Road Racing, which merged with the American Le Mans Series to form the current version of IMSA.
In turn 3, more contact between Ford Racing’s Frederic Vervisch and Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Alexander Sims cut Sims’ right rear tire and put him in the gravel. That brought out another yellow. Sims would continue, but he would finish 11th in class.
When Dries Vanthoor pitted on the restart, Aitken inherited the lead with Albuquerque right there. Albuquerque had the pace to take the advantage away from Aitken within a lap.
Both of the BMWs fell out of contention in the fifth hour with mechanical issues. The Spiderman No. 24 went behind the wall with brake issues, while the No. 25 ended up three laps down.
The seventh caution came out with 45 minutes to go when Wright Motorsports’ Tom Sargent spun into the tires in turn 7. Albuquerque had just made his final pit stop and managed to keep the lead that he likely would have lost.
Tire barrier repairs meant that the race resumed with under 30 minutes to go. Albuquerque was able to open up a two-second lead over Estre, who was having an epic duel with Aitken for second. Contact was made multiple times without issue.
A crash for Blomqvist in turn 13 with 17 minutes to go brought out another yellow, stacking the field up for a run to the finish. However, that run never happened.
The harsh battle between Aitken and Estre resumed on the restart. The bashing resulted in both cars in the wall in turn 1 and the race ending under yellow.
In LMP2, United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg started from the pole, but he lost his advantage early on to Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports’ Misha Goikhberg.
On the restart, Goldburg lit up his tires and slid into the wet grass exiting turn 14, then spun back across the track. It was quite the fright for the rest of the LMP2 class, but everyone was ok.
Following Field’s crash, everyone came in for their first round of stops. Here, Inter Europol Competition’s Jeremy Clarke was able to get out first.
The restart saw five different ORECA 07s all wipe out exiting turn 14. Phil Fayer and Naveen Rao collided and spun. Goldburg, John Farano and Gerry Kraut were all collected. Since everyone was able to resume, there was no caution.
Clarke led for the remainder of his time in the No. 43 before handing over to Bijoy Garg. The former VP Racing SportsCar Challenge LMP3 champ kept the Inter Europol No. 43 in the hunt.
Despite all of the issues that Goldburg had early on, Rasmus Lindh and Paul di Resta drove the No. 22 United Autosports entry back into contention as well.
Ultimately, a penalty for the Tower Motorsports crew leaving a tire unattended on a pit stop gave the lead back to Inter Europol’s Tom Dillmann. From there, he was able to hold on to take the win with Garg and Clarke.
On the final restart, Mikkel Jensen forced his teammate di Resta onto the grass exiting turn 14. That resulted in a spin that ultimately cost both of the United Autosports teams podium finishes. The No. 22 because of the spin and Jensen in the No. 2 because he copped a drive-through penalty (equated to a 44-second penalty) for the move.
CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz, Alex Quinn and Toby Sowery were second, resulting in their points lead falling to 36. TDS Racing’s Lutke, David Heinemeier-Hansson and Mathias Beche were third, followed by AO Racing’s Dane Cameron, Jonny Edgar and PJ Hyett. Farano, Sebastian Alvarez and Tristan Vautier were fifth.
Harry King led the GTD Pro field to green in “Rexy.” The green Porsche had been quick all weekend and Sunday was no exception.
Thomas Preining in “Grello” was able to take the lead away on pit road. For much of the race, Manthey Racing’s bright yellow Porsche was the class of the field for much of the race. However, late in the race, a penalty for a failure for maintain the proper performance level resulted in a drive-through took them out of the hunt.
Following the caution for Nasr’s spin, Pfaff Motorsports’ Andrea Caldarelli got the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 into the class lead by winning the race off of the pit lane. With the chaos behind, Caldarelli was able to hold on to take the victory with Sandy Mitchell. It is the first win for Pfaff Motorsports since 2023 and the first win for the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 in IMSA competition (second overall).
King and Tandy settled for second, while Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner were third. The Ford Racing Mustangs were fourth and fifth with the No. 65 of Vervisch and Christopher Mies beating the No. 64 of Ben Barker and Dennis Olsen.
AF Corse’s Lilou Wadoux started from the pole in GTD in her Ferrari. In the opening laps, she was able to put a couple of the GTD Pro cars between herself and The Heart of Racing’s Zacharie Robichon.
Robichon was able to take over the lead during the first round of stops. The Aston Martin was the class of the field for much of the race up until the final third of the event.
Tom Gamble made his final stop with 56 minutes to go. Before everything could play out, Sargent crashed to bring out the yellow.
The shuffle that resulted put Triarsi Competizione’s Kenton Koch in the lead. Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis was right behind him. When the race restarted, Ellis pounced as quick as he could and took the lead.
From there, Ellis was able to hold on to take the win along with Indy Dontje and Russell Ward. It is Ellis and Ward’s third win of the year (second in a row) and the second of the year for Dontje.
Koch, Robert Megennis and Onofrio Triarsi finished second, followed by DragonSpeed’s Giacomo Altoe, Casper Stevenson and Alec Udell. YRB Racing’s Trenton Estep, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Marius Fossard were fourth, while Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher and Francis Selldorff were fifth.
The Heart of Racing’s No. 27 would have finished fifth. However, they were assessed a drive-through penalty (converted to a 44-second time penalty) for an unsafe re-entry. That dropped them all the way down to 15th.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix Unofficial Results
Next up is a split schedule. The GT classes will have a standalone race at VIRginia International Raceway. The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR will air live on NBC and Peacock Aug. 23 at Noon ET. For the GTP and LMP2 classes, their next event will be the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sept. 20 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the Frontstretch Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.