Inter Europol, CrowdStrike by APR Win LMP2 Classes; Corvette Claims LMGT3; Toyota Wins Overall
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A bevy of full-time IMSA competitors have scored either class wins or podium finishes in the 94th 24 Hours of Le Mans, the blue riband event of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.
In a handful of cases, drivers and teams added a Le Mans win to a win at January’s 64th Rolex 24 At Daytona to kick off the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
On the overall podium and Hypercar class, Toyota Racing parlayed a mix of in-race pace and strategic nous to propel its No. 7 Toyota TR010-Hybrid to the win with the trio of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck De Vries and Mike Conway. BMW M Team WRT finished second, 10.913 seconds in arrears, with the trio of Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns aboard the updated No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 while the second Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa finished third.
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA finished just off the podium with its No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R (Will Stevens, Norman Nato and Louis Deletraz) in fourth, while the sister No. 38 (Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais) that led most of the first half of the race retired past halfway with power steering issues.
BMW’s second car, which moved to pole in the hands of Dries Vanthoor, never factored after an early race puncture followed by terminal electrical issues. Across the categories, IMSA regulars made their presence felt.
Inter Europol, CrowdStrike by APR Claim LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am Wins
Inter Europol Competition repeated its win atop the entire Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class in a 1-2 finish, while CrowdStrike Racing by APR has doubled up major 24-hour race wins in 2026 in the category. The team won the LMP2 Pro/Am race on Sunday to add to its IMSA LMP2 class win at the Rolex 24 in January.
Nick Yelloly, Tom Dillmann and Jakub Smiechowski shared the winning No. 43 Inter Europol ORECA 07 Gibson. It’s Smiechowski’s third Le Mans win in the last four years, while Yelloly and 2024 IMSA LMP2 champion Dillmann double up their 2025 triumph.
“It’s amazing to be back-to-back Le Mans winners,” Dillmann told the TNT Sports broadcast. “That was some race, the last 12 hours with Nick pushing. It was great competition. We were fighting for every tenth on track. It was unbelievable. The team is always awesome here. You need so many parameters to come together to make it work. A 1-2 is fantastic.”
Duqueine Team led a bulk of the race before a brake failure sidelined the No. 30 ORECA that included Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Julien Andlauer alongside Richard Verschoor and Doriane Pin.
Meanwhile in LMP2 Pro/Am, George Kurtz, Alex Quinn and Laurin Heinrich controlled the bulk of the race in their No. 4 CrowdStrike by APR ORECA. Kurtz and Quinn were part of the same team’s LMP2-winning lineup at the Rolex 24, and Kurtz adds this class win at Le Mans to his 2023 one and the same category. AO by TF completed the LMP2 Pro/Am podium.
Porsche factory driver Heinrich, meanwhile, continues his own banner 2026 season by adding a Le Mans class win on debut to his overall win at the Rolex 24 in his IMSA Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) debut with Porsche Penske Motorsport. He adds his Le Mans win to his three IMSA GTP wins from five starts and two teams (PPM and JDC-Miller MotorSports) this season.
Corvette Ascends to Key LMGT3 Win with Z06 GT3.R and TF Sport
The IMSA accolades continued in the LMGT3 category as well, as both WeatherTech Championship GT class leaders graced the podium.
Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) championship leader Nicky Catsburg of Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports, was part of the winning LMGT3 lineup, sharing the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R with Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar.
Edgar, AO Racing’s third LMP2 driver in IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup rounds, delivered a mammoth final stint in the car to bring it home to the finish ahead of Vasser Sullivan Racing’s Jack Hawksworth, who was in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 with Tom Van Rompuy and Hadrien David.
“Doing five stints in a row to finish the 24 Hours of Le Mans is going to be a career-defining moment for this man,” Keating told the TNT Sports broadcast. “He’s an animal.”
Edgar deferred the credit to his teammates: “It was great to drive with Ben! One of the reasons we were in a good position was Ben’s five stints at the start. From there we stayed in the top few positions. It’s so impressive what Ben and Nicky did. I’m very happy and grateful to drive for TF, so it’s nice to win.”
Corvette won in 2023 with the previous iteration C8.R in the last year of the LM GTE AM class, so this is its first win at Le Mans with the new Z06 GT3.R. It’s Corvette’s 10th win at Le Mans since its first in 2001, coming 25 years ago, and fourth for the TF team in its 10th year of operation. Keating has his third Le Mans class win (2022, 2023), Catsburg his second (2023) and Edgar his first.
“What an historic day for General Motors and Corvette Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said Mark Reuss, President, General Motors. “To earn Corvette Racing’s 10th class victory at Le Mans is a tremendous achievement for our motorsports, design and engineering teams. Huge congratulations to drivers Nicky Catsburg, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating, and our partners TF Sport. You have earned your place in the history books! It’s an incredibly proud moment for all of us and it shows that, working as one team, GM can beat the best in the world.”
WeatherTech Championship Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) points leader Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello finished third aboard his No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 he shared with Jonny Adam and Gabe Newell.
Mixed Results for WTR, AO by TF, 13 Autosport
The trio of IMSA invitational entries had a roller coaster race, although showed promise at times.
The 2025 Jim Trueman Award winner, PJ Hyett, finished third in LMP2 Pro/Am with the No. 99 AO by TF ORECA – branded “Rockie” the Pegasus – he shared with fellow 2025 IMSA LMP2 champion Dane Cameron and James Allen.
“Tough to be out of the game as I made an error a few hours ago,” Cameron told Radio Le Mans near the finish. “We didn’t have enough in the middle portion. It’s been a tricky day, but there were no repercussions other than the time lost. The AO by TF guys kept us in the fight.”
Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 101 Cadillac V-Series.R showed well more often than not in its second crack at Le Mans as a collective unit, with Jordan and Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque ninth in Hypercar.
“We had the pace at the beginning of the race,” Jordan Taylor explained to Radio Le Mans. “At the end of the night we had one little mistake that put us back. In this race, once you get out of track position and lose the gap, or you get the wrong slow zone and the wrong traffic, it kind of builds from there. We were on the back foot early on. Then we spent two to three stints working for the (JOTA) 12 car, doing some tire testing to see what would work for them at the end of the race.”
The 2025 Bob Akin Award winner, Orey Fidani, saw the 13 Autosport team’s race end early with accident damage sustained from another car forcing an early retirement for the No. 13 Corvette he shared with Matt Bell and Lars Kern.
The handful of IMSA teams and near three dozen full-time drivers who were in this race will reconvene as part of the next full WeatherTech Championship round, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International on June 28. It also serves as the third IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup round of the year.
LMGT3 Podium and No. 33 Car Photos Courtesy of Corvette Racing
LMP2 Win Photo Courtesy of Inter Europol Competition
LMP2 Pro/Am No. 4 Car Photo Courtesy of CrowdStrike Racing by APR