IMSA Competitors Fare Well At Le Mans

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The high volume of IMSA competitors, drivers, teams and crews all fought valiantly throughout the 93rd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The best success in the race for those with 2025 IMSA ties came in the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class, a class which races in the full IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and joins the full-season FIA World Endurance Championship grid at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Inter Europol Competition emerged at the head of the 17-car LMP2 class with the trio of Tom Dillmann, Nick Yelloly and Jakub “Kuba” Smiechowski in their No. 43 ORECA LMP2 07, for the team’s second major endurance race win of 2025 and second at Le Mans.

The 2024 IMSA LMP2 champion Dillmann along with Bijoy Garg and Jeremy Clarke shared a similar No. 43 Inter Europol ORECA to win the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March, the most recent LMP2 WeatherTech Championship race.

Meanwhile AO Racing, running as AO by TF at Le Mans courtesy of its European Le Mans Series LMP2 title in 2024, secured an elusive first win for “Spike” the purple dragon that adorns its No. 199 AO by TF ORECA in the Pro/Am subcategory of LMP2.

Team owner P.J. Hyett shared the winning entry with his full-season IMSA co-driver Dane Cameron and Louis Deletraz. Deletraz, Jonny Edgar and Robert Kubica shared the AO by TF car in the 2024 ELMS season, with their success earning this car’s entry to Le Mans.

Smiechowski is the only one of these six drivers with a previous Le Mans win, having also been at the wheel of Inter Europol’s previous Le Mans class winning LMP2 car in 2023.

Yelloly, who also won the most recent WeatherTech Championship Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class race in his No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 in Detroit at the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, had a tense finish to the race after an otherwise controlled effort with his teammates.

A pit lane speeding penalty threatened to upend their race, but issues for their closest rival, the No. 48 VDS Panis Racing ORECA, ensured the penalty wouldn’t affect the race further.

“It’s a dream come true,” Yelloly said on the global race broadcast. “I’ve been fortunate to be in winning cars in 24-hour races in the Nürburgring and Spa. To add Le Mans to the list is special.

“I thought I threw it away to be honest. We were on a slightly different fuel strategy, so I had to push to get a gap. I just locked the rears ever so slightly and over-sped the tiniest bit. A penalty is a penalty, but then I saw smoke from the car behind.”

The No. 48 car of Esteban Masson, Oliver Gray and Franck Perera was second ahead of the No. 199 AO by TF entry of Hyett, Cameron and Deletraz.

Like Inter Europol, AO Racing also won its class at this year’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, with its IMSA Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) lineup of full-season drivers Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler with third driver Alessio Picariello.

This marks AO Racing’s fourth race win across two series (WeatherTech Championship and the FIA WEC), three car numbers (77, 177 and 199), three classes (GTD PRO, GTD and LMP2 Pro/Am) and three liveries (“Rexy,” “Roxy” and “Spike”) this year.

AO Racing has two GTD PRO wins in IMSA, one apiece for its “Rexy” and “Roxy” Porsche variants, a one-off GTD win on the streets of Long Beach with drivers Edgar and Laurens Vanthoor, and now the first win for “Spike” the Dragon.

“What Louis and Dane did was incredible. It’s a testament to the entire team. I love those guys,” Hyett told the Radio Le Mans live broadcast ahead of podium ceremonies.

The polesitting No. 29 TDS Racing ORECA of Mathias Beche, Rodrigo Sales and Clement Novalak finished fifth in LMP2, and second among Pro/Am entries.

Jim Trueman Award winner Nick Boulle’s No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA he shared with Luca Ghiotto and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer ran in podium contention most of the race but ended fourth among Pro/Am entries at the checkered flag.