IMSA News: Action Express Leads Cadillac 1-2 at Indy

Cadillac celebrated its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory of 2025 at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks, with Jack Aitken steering the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R to a thrilling win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Aitken, sharing the GTP-class car with Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti, fended off Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor by 0.988 seconds in a dramatic two-lap sprint to the finish on the 2.439-mile road course.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The victory marked Cadillac as the 17th of IMSA’s 18 manufacturers to win a race in an IMSA-sanctioned series this year and was Action Express Racing’s 30th class win. A late full-course caution, triggered by a collision between LMP2 cars with nine minutes remaining, set up the tense restart. Aitken seized the lead from Taylor’s No. 10 WTR Cadillac and held firm, delivering the first win of the season for his team and manufacturer.

The race began under warm, cloudy skies, with Aitken grabbing the early lead from pole. A flurry of cautions—first for debris, then for a spinning LMP2 car—prompted early pit stops, briefly handing the lead to Taylor’s No. 10 Cadillac and the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Aitken regained control by passing both Matt Campbell and Taylor before the next pit cycle. Later, Vesti outdueled Acura’s Kakunoshin Ohta for the lead, building a 10-second gap before handing off to Bamber.

With 90 minutes left, Bamber returned the car to Aitken. A piece of bodywork on the track triggered another caution, resetting the field with an hour to go. Aitken faced pressure from BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde and concerns about energy reserves but maintained his lead. The final caution, caused by a clash between LMP2 drivers Ben Hanley and Toby Sowery, set up the two-lap dash, where Aitken’s flawless restart secured the win—Action Express Racing’s first since the Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Taylor and co-driver Filipe Albuquerque, despite a mid-race puncture, charged from 10th to second in the final hour, capitalizing on the last caution to ensure enough energy to finish. Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun, in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06, overcame a post-qualifying penalty and a drive-through to take third.

In LMP2, TDS Racing’s No. 11 ORECA, driven by Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen, and Hunter McElrea, claimed a third consecutive Indianapolis win. Jensen surged to the lead after the final pit stops, navigating chaos that saw multiple LMP2 contenders falter, including a three-wide incident and a late crash. Inter Europol’s No. 43 ORECA (Tom Dillmann, Jeremy Clarke, Bijoy Garg) finished second, with Riley’s No. 74 ORECA (Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga, Josh Burdon) taking third.

The GTD PRO class saw Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastian Priaulx triumph in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3, while Inception Racing’s No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3, driven by Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff, and Ollie Millroy, won GTD for its first WeatherTech Championship victory. All class winners also claimed unofficial honors in the fourth Michelin Endurance Cup round.

The championship battle now shifts to the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on October 11, with Porsche Penske’s No. 6 (Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell) holding the GTP points lead despite a seventh-place finish, while AO Racing’s No. 99 ORECA leads LMP2.

Quotes from Top-2 Teams

No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R

Jack Aitken: “We’ve got a great team from A to Z and that includes my teammates. Any one of us could have finished it off. With the length of the race and how it was going, it was better to get a fresh one in. It was intense, so I’m glad we did. With about an hour to go, we looked like we weren’t going to be able to make it on fuel. But there were some cars in the same position behind us. And I just went on a real big save to see what I could do. And we managed to hold the lead and actually start saving what we needed, which was massive. It was working out. The 10 came through and was a sight for sore eyes, so they helped play a bit of defense. And then with the yellow at the end, it saved us as well from any further troubles.”

Earl Bamber: “It’s been an amazing weekend for the Whelen Cadillac. We were talking this week, and we’ve been knocking on the door a lot. We were knocking on the door at Road America. We knocked on the door at Watkins Glen, and we said soon it’s going to open for us. Today it opened. Jack did an amazing job. Everyone on the team did great pit stops. We’ve been the best on pit lane this year and now finally everything went our way. It’s awesome. We’ve got Petit in two weeks and Fuji next week, so let’s go.”

Frederik Vesti: “This is huge for the team and for me. I’m super proud of everybody at Cadillac and Whelen. It’s been a hard year so far, but to step on the top step of the podium is massive for us. It’s been a strong, amazing weekend from the Whelen Cadillac. The team worked together, and this result proves that it was a team effort. My stint I am extremely happy. I led every single I was out there and pulled gaps multiple times. I’m proud and happy of the whole team. We’re ready for more.”

No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R

Filipe Albuquerque: “I’m speechless, because at one point I was so mad at my race. I had a puncture, I was fighting. I was in the middle of everything at P10. We went a lap down; we had no chance at all and no yellows coming. Then Ricky went on doing what only Ricky can. A yellow came, we went back to the lead lap, fighting back with a completely different strategy. We were putting pressure on everybody to push. It was interesting. We needed a yellow, otherwise we needed to pit and drop back to P10. The yellow came at the exact right moment and we got P2. It’s a great result. P2 today is like a win. We were lucky, we must say that. It’s funny that one week ago I was racing and the yellow came one lap too late. It’s incredible how in life, it takes away and it gives you back. It’s nice, it’s a good feeling. A Cadillac 1-2 is awesome. You always want to be the winner, but today, it feels like a win because we came from a long way back.”

Ricky Taylor: “Some days, things don’t fall your way and some days, they do. It has been a really rough year for us. Today the team did everything right. Filipe drove an amazing stint. Unlucky with the puncture, but I think we took the risks we needed to take with fuel savings and overtaking to gamble to get a Cadillac win. Between the Cadillacs, we had three different strategies and I think that is what we need to do as a brand going forward. Couldn’t be happier. It was fun to be in the car at the end. Thanks to the team, Cadillac and DEX. Hopefully, we can get our first win at Petit Le Mans.”

Race Results