– This accident is causing discussions: Jack Aitken in the Action Express Cadillac #31 (Aitken/Bamber/Vesti; 18th) attacks Kevin Estre in the Penske Porsche #6 (L. Vanthoor/Estre; 17th) on the outside lane during the last restart of the 6-hour race at Road America, held for the first time as part of the IMSA. Estre moves over and sends both to ruin.
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The beneficiary of the collision is none other than Porsche factory driver Laurin Heinrich, who inherits second place with the private JDC-Miller Porsche #5 (van der Helm/Heinrich/Frederick; 2nd). This keeps Heinrich’s championship chances intact, albeit more theoretical with a 128-point deficit.
The podium streak of Action Express Racing, which had lasted since the start of the season, was broken by the accident. However, the final word has not yet been spoken. IMSA has announced a “comprehensive review” of the collision, so the results remain provisional.
Both drivers had different views afterwards. “A DNF for us in the last ten minutes of the race,” Estre shared on social media. “We were fighting for a podium.”
“But at the restart, the #31 tried to pass on the outside on the left side in turn 1. He only had his car nose beside me. I could have left a bit more space. He could have just as well backed off. I don’t think you can put 100% of the blame on anyone here.”
“But surely there is this ‘could have, would have, should have’, I should have left a little space on the left. We made contact when we braked, and then we were both just passengers and ended up in the wall – that was it.”
“It’s a shame because we had driven a great race up to that point. One thing is certain: right now we have to drive like crazy just to be in this position at all. That’s just how it is.” With this, he criticizes the Balance of Performance (BoP), in which the factory Porsches have been rated significantly heavier since their wins at Daytona and Sebring.
Aitken, who was said by observers to have been better off not attacking on the outside lane as the points leader, expresses himself much more critically about the level of aggression on the track and laments a missed opportunity to extend his championship lead.
“I really think it’s a shame because although we maybe weren’t quite where we wanted to be in terms of speed, we drove a really fantastic race and managed to get ourselves into the fight for the win and the podium,” said the Cadillac factory driver.
IMSA Elkhart Lake 2026: 6 hours in 41 minutes
“And I just think that the driving style of some others around us was over the line. Like I said, it’s a shame because a lot of work goes into these days and after a really strong year we could have had another good result. But we’ll pick up the pieces, move on, and tackle the last two races.”
The collision was the climax of a wild race with 48 penalties and nine yellow flags in six hours. In total, two of the six hours were run behind the pace car. Even before the end, there had been several contacts between the red Cadillac V-Series.R and the two factory Porsches. Two hours before the end, Aitken kicked the Penske Porsche #7 (Nasr/Andlauer; 6th) off the track, costing it two laps.
The confrontation with Estre began about 75 minutes before the end when Estre used traffic to overtake Aitken, who was in second place until then. In the last half hour, the positions between the two changed back and forth multiple times. The longer the fight lasted, the harder the battles became. There were several touches.
The fight was interrupted when Roman de Angelis in the THOR Aston Martin #23 (Gunn/de Angelis/Riberas; 5th) disposed of Tom Blomqvist’s Meyer-Shank Acura #60 (Blomqvist/Braun; 20th) in turn 13.
Wayne Taylor Racing ends over two-year drought
At the restart ten minutes before the end, there was simultaneously a collision in the LMP2 field in an extremely rough race in this class, which also saw a severe accident by John Field in the Intersport Oreca #37 (Jarvis/van der Snel/Field). At the same time, there was a collision at the front between Estre and Aitken, which ended the race for both.
Thus, the Aston Martin was on course for its best result so far with second place, but the penalty against Roman de Angelis for the Blomqvist accident pushed the Valkyrie back to fifth place. Heinrich benefited from this, although the JDC-Miller Porsche had to come to the pits at the start of the last hour with the “fried egg flag” because the passenger door opened.
Above all hovered the WTR Cadillac #10 (R. Taylor/Albuquerque; 1st), which took an unchallenged victory and ended a 792-day winless period. As in the previous year, Road America was so far the only track where Wayne Taylor Racing was truly competitive.
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Although the Cadillac V-Series.R received 21 kilograms of additional weight after Watkins Glen, the General Motors subsidiary was able to celebrate its third consecutive win – only this time not by Action Express, but Wayne Taylor Racing.
“The past 18 months have been the toughest I can remember in my motorsport career,” says Wayne Taylor. The third place of the WTR Cadillac #40 (J. Taylor/Deletraz; 3rd) rounded off the successful weekend.
BMW misses penalty kick for first WRT win
The fact that it was enough for the win was also thanks to a debacle of the two BMW M Hybrid V8s. Because actually, Elkhart Lake should have seen the first WRT win in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
The M Hybrid V8 was rated exceptionally well, set the fastest lap of the race with over half a second lead over the next manufacturer, and enjoyed a double lead for a while before everything went wrong after halfway through the race.
Brake problems forced the WRT BMW #24 (S. van der Linde/D. Vanthoor; 49th) to retire. The sister car #25 (Eng/Wittmann; 7th), which also did leading work starting from tenth place, lost two laps due to a repair stop because of cooling problems. BMW missed the first WRT win exactly one year after the final triumph of the team predecessor RLL.
BMW Motorsport boss Andreas Roos does not sugarcoat: “Our disappointment is huge. It is always very frustrating when you retire or fall back due to technical problems. But it is even more bitter when you have shown such a strong pace all weekend and had a good chance to fight for the win.”
“I feel sorry for everyone involved who works very hard but is not rewarded with the corresponding results in the IMSA series this year. The BMW M Hybrid V8 has proven to be very reliable this season. Therefore, we have to look closely at what the cause was.”
Team principal Vincent Vosse adds: “We have good pace, but that alone is not enough. We also have to finish the races without mistakes and technical problems. We did not manage that. Why that was, we will analyze carefully and make another attempt at the win in Indianapolis.”
Another collision in GTD Pro
There was also another collision in GTD Pro that attracted a lot of attention because it involved the American archrivals Ford and Chevrolet. Alexander Sims ended up in the gravel trap with his Pratt-Miller Corvette #3 (Garcia/Sims; 10th GTD Pro) when he collided with Frederic Vervisch in the Multimatic Ford #65 (Mies/Vervisch; 4th GTD Pro).
Sims took the blame: “I knew I had a Porsche on my inside, and then I was right behind the Mustang #65. He was in the middle of the track, so I braked and went outside beside him. In hindsight, that was the wrong decision. It was a bit unclear. But I’m not sitting here thinking I acted foolishly. I took a risk, and this time it just didn’t pay off.”
Also in GTD Pro, BMW threw away a possible win when Connor De Phillippi had an accident at halfway in the Canada Corner. The Pfaff Lamborghini #9 (Caldarelli/Mitchell; 1st GTD Pro) eventually took the first IMSA win for the Temerario GT3. However, Pfaff simultaneously announced its withdrawal from the IMSA SportsCar Championship. There are also question marks over Paul Miller Racing.
The AO Porsche #77 (Tandy/King; 2nd GTD Pro) “Rexy” took the third second place of the season and narrowly missed the first class win since Heinrich moved to the GTP class again. Third place went to the Pratt-Miller Corvette #4 (Milner/Catsburg; 3rd GTD Pro).
In the IMSA SportsCar Championship 2026, three races remain on the schedule: The Virginia International Raceway (VIR) on August 23 is reserved for the two GT classes. For the other two classes, the season continues on September 20 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race was downgraded to a 2:40-hour race after Elkhart Lake received the 6-hour race.
Other class winners:
LMP2: Inter-Europol Oreca #43 (Dillmann/Garg/Clarke)
GTD: Winward Mercedes #57 (Ward/Ellis/Dontje)
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