There are endurance racing victories, and then there are those rare wins that seem to put a neat exclamation point on an entire season. Porsche found the latter at Road Atlanta, where the factory Porsche 963 survived ten hours of rain, cautions, crashes, and late-race tension to win the 2026 Petit Le Mans.
Factory drivers Kévin Estre of France, Laurens Vanthoor of Belgium, and Matt Campbell of Australia brought the No. 6 Porsche 963 home first in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale, completing a remarkable sweep of North America’s great endurance races. For the first time, a manufacturer has won Daytona, Sebring, and Road Atlanta in the same season. Porsche also left Georgia with the manufacturers’, teams’, and drivers’ titles in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.
Heavy rain arrived early, while 16 safety-car periods and a red flag repeatedly scrambled the running order. Ten hours of racing eventually came down to something much simpler—and considerably more nerve-racking: a 12-minute sprint to the finish.
Laurens Vanthoor was in the No. 6 Porsche for the final run and had two jobs. He needed to keep the competition behind him, and he needed to make sure there was enough fuel in the tank to reach the checkered flag. He managed both. Vanthoor resisted every late attack, crossing the line just 1.205 seconds ahead and delivering Porsche its first overall Petit Le Mans victory with a prototype in the event’s top class.
For much of the race, it appeared Porsche might have an even bigger result coming…
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 Porsche 963—the car that had already won Daytona and Sebring—spent long stretches near the front alongside the eventual winning No. 6 machine. Felipe Nasr shared the hybrid prototype with Germany’s Laurin Heinrich and France’s Julien Andlauer.
Then, with roughly 90 minutes remaining, the race changed abruptly. Nasr made contact with another car while attempting a pass and crashed, ending the No. 7 Porsche’s day. It was a particularly frustrating ending for a car that had helped define Porsche’s IMSA campaign, but endurance racing has never been especially sentimental about these things.
Porsche ultimately finished the 2026 IMSA season second in the manufacturers’ championship, while former Porsche Junior Laurin Heinrich completed his first season racing the Porsche 963 as championship runner-up. There was another trophy to take home, however. For the third consecutive year, Porsche captured the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup titles. The endurance championship covers the season’s major long-distance events at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Road America, and Road Atlanta.
And four seasons into the LMDh era, the Porsche 963 has accumulated a résumé that is becoming difficult to overlook. Since the regulations arrived in 2023, the Weissach-built hybrid prototype has become the most successful LMDh car in IMSA competition. Porsche has collected eight titles in the North American series during that span, while the 963 has scored 15 race victories.
JDC-Miller MotorSports strikes bad luck in the final hours
The factory cars weren’t the only Porsche 963s caught up in Road Atlanta’s typically unforgiving afternoon. JDC-Miller MotorSports entered its No. 5 Porsche 963 looking to add another strong result after the customer team’s victory at Laguna Seca. Instead, its Petit Le Mans ended against the barriers. With about two hours remaining, Tijmen van der Helm was working his way through GT traffic when the No. 5 Porsche was forced off the circuit and crashed. Van der Helm escaped without injury, but the car was unable to continue. The Dutch driver shared the Porsche with Swiss factory driver Nico Müller and American Kaylen Frederick.
Porsche’s GT contingent
In GTD Pro, the Porsche 911 GT3 R entries from AO Racing and Manthey both spent time at the front, and the familiar AO Racing “Rexy” Porsche remained in the hunt for victory all the way to the finish.
Harry King, Nick Tandy, and Alessio Picariello ultimately brought the No. 77 Porsche home second in class. Manthey’s 911 GT3 R looked capable of joining it near the front, but a shortage of fuel in the closing stages dropped the car to seventh.
The GTD class produced more Porsche drama
The Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R finished second, while the identical 911 GT3 R entries from Wright Motorsports and RS1 each led portions of the race during the ten-hour contest. Neither was able to convert those spells at the front into a podium finish, with Wright Motorsports finishing seventh and RS1 taking twelfth.
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