Motul Petit Le Mans - Post-Race

Press Conference Transcript

BRASELTON, Ga. (Oct. 11, 2025) – An interview with all four class winners and second-place overall finishers at Motul Petit Le Mans, as well as four class champions of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Champiionship.

THE MODERATOR: We have the No. 21 Af Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 team. From your left to right, Alessandro Pier Guidi, Lilou Wadoux.

Alessandro, take us through kind of how things wrapped up here for the team. I believe you guys last won the Michelin Endurance Cup, so mission accomplished?

ALESSANDRO PIER GUIDI: Yeah. Actually yes. We came here, main goal, the first target was to try to achieve the championship. We planned all the strategies to be in the best position. I did two at the four hour and eight hour. Then we tried to go to the end.

My two teammates and the team did an amazing job, let's say, 70%, 80% of the race. We were very quick. I think we did a very good job with the car, with the strategy, pit stop, everything.

At the end to win Petit, you must be perfect. This year we have been lucky a few times, but at the end we put all together in the right moment.

THE MODERATOR: Let's move to Simon. Your first IMSA victory. How does that feel winning your first race like this, especially against pretty tough competition out there?

SIMON MANN: Yeah, for sure. Alessandro did very well. The team did a fantastic job, but being able to win my first IMSA race at Petit is for sure a dream. I mean, such a legendary race, and to be able to come out on top is obviously fantastic.

Obviously the target was the championship, so to be able to win the race is an extra bonus for sure.

THE MODERATOR: Lilou, second win here at IMSA. How do you like racing here?

LILOU WADOUX: For sure, I think it's my favorite championship. I like the track. It's nice. And it's difficult to win here. Like, it's proper resting until the end of the race. Yeah, it's my second victory, and I'm so happy to watch this with the team and this line-up because in the beginning of the year we had some up and down.

Yeah, I'm happy to finish the season like that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Two questions. Lilou, first for you. First woman to win a Petit Le Mans class win since 2005. You mentioned how tough it is to race in IMSA. With combining those two together, how more gratifying does this win make for you?

LILOU WADOUX: Oh, for sure I am happy to be the first one, but at the end I'm a driver like (indiscernible). When I have a helmet on my head, nobody know if it's a girl or boy.

Yeah, I'm super happy to have this, because it's not nothing to win a Petit Le Mans. Yeah, at the end I want to continue like that, but to be compared like those drivers.

Q. Second question for all three of you all, whoever would like to answer. From Thursday on, it just seemed like -- especially in GT the Ferraris, they were just so well-tuned, well-connected to the track. What was it that just had the 296s dialed in and connected all weekend long?

ALESSANDRO PIER GUIDI: For us, it's quite a good track for Ferrari here, historically. So 296 is not different from the others. We have a well-balanced car. We did a very good job, I think, we came here doing a test day one or two months ago. I don't remember exactly. I think helped.

A good setup, a good car, the best as we could, and yeah, as you said, Ferrari was quite quick in the GTD class. But I think the car was nice, and the team did an amazing job putting it all together. That's always the result.

Q. This looked like a pretty perfect run except for one moment where you were in a spin down there in turn ten. Was there any concern that would be much more than it turned out to be?

ALESSANDRO PIER GUIDI: Actually, I was trying to stay as much out of the trouble as I could, because my first goal was crossing the four-hour -- the eight-hour mark and close the championship. And actually, it wasn't a nice moment.

Luckily, everything went well. I didn't lose as much time. I have been able to recover the car quite quick. Didn't go into the gravel. Stay on the track. Yeah, it wasn't nice, but sometimes it is racing.

We know with this amount of car, this amount of category, contact can happen. I'm sure no one did on purpose. At the end it's just racing.

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by GTP champions in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. GTP champions in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963. From your left to right Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell, co-drivers for today. Next to Matt, Laurens Vanthoor, and we also have Urs Kuratle, Porsche Director of Motorsport LMDH.

Things got a little interesting this morning. Had to draft in Laurens. Tell us what it means to bring home another title here.

MATHIEU JAMINET: Yeah, the day didn't start as good as we wish. It took us one hour, 40 to get to the track, which is good news because there is a lot of fans out there. So this is positive, but we nearly missed the recon lap, so managed to work and park on the side of the road to get there.

Then we realize we have no third driver, so Larry jumped in, which he did great, by the way, so thank you, Larry, to jumping in. Saved our ass.

Then we went racing finally, and it went well. We had a very good car going into the race. The team did a really good prep. We still had some question marks after qualifying, you know, but we made the right choices on setups, and to say we had a good package is always nice. Yeah, here we are. Grabbed the podium and championship, so can't complain.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Mathieu. Tough act to follow, Matt. What's it mean to you?

MATT CAMPBELL: I think he summed up the day pretty well. Phenomenal to get another championship with Mathieu. That's two years in IMSA partnering together and two championships, so very proud of that.

Doing it next to a good friend with Mathieu, we've formed a really good partnership over the last years. Even though we might not have driven together in the last couple, coming back together this year it's worked phenomenally, and we've really hit the ground running.

For sure wasn't the whole year we wanted. From the start of the year lacking a little bit behind the 7, but I think it really showed our consistency and our drive together that put us in this position for the championship title. So very, very special day. A day I won't forget.

Extremely grateful to the whole team and Mathieu and also Larry stepping in. Unfortunately, Julien had the issue, but yeah, great day, and clinching every championship, so it makes it that much more special for the team as well.

THE MODERATOR: What are your thoughts on what transpired for you today? All of a sudden you needed to step in and pinch-hit.

LAURENS VANTHOOR: Yeah, it was a pretty unique day for me in that way. I think half an hour before the race we decided we had to do that. I think one hour in the race they told me, Larry, you're next. I said, Which car? We don't know yet. That was kind of how the day went.

In the end, there was no time to think about it. I just wanted to help Matt and Mathieu and the team. Mathieu gave me the car in the lead. First time in the 6 in the weekend, and hopefully not making a mistake. Do not mess up the championship.

It was a day for me to help them and not make mistakes, and I'm happy I could help a little part. Very happy to have been a part of the success of Porsche Penske. I think it's quite impressive, so it's an honor to be a part of it.

THE MODERATOR: 63 IMSA titles for Porsche. Especially given the news of the week, how sweet is this?

URS KURATLE: Yeah, first of all, I couldn't be prouder of the team and the drivers also. Thanks, Larry. He is well-paid, so it's okay.

We won championships. Having a back-to-back championship is quite remarkable, and I couldn't be any prouder to be part of the team.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How did the strategy change with having Larry in both cars, because I think pre-race the idea was to have the third driver do the middle stint in the middle of the day, and that had to sort of shake things up a bit.

URS KURATLE: It became a little bit of a mathematical game for driving times, et cetera, but after strategies, yeah, as usual they managed the situation really good, and drivers are flexible, everybody. The team was flexible today. At the end of the day, it did not matter too much.

Q. What happened with the 7 and Felipe on the final lap? Do you know exactly? We didn't see it on the screen.

URS KURATLE: Yeah, I personally have to review it on the screen, but I see he was a little bit pushed out at the end, but we have to see. I have to review it. I haven't seen it in TV actually yet.

Q. Larry, how was it sort of driving both cars? Did they feel different setup-wise? Did you have a different seat that had to get fitted into for the 6? Were there any other challenges at this last-minute thing?

LAURENS VANTHOOR: No, very luckily we had the same base seat in both cars, which was on purpose. My inserts fitted in that seat.

It's a Porsche 963. As he said, it was a bit different. There are different ways of applying some tools, some software, but I felt comfortable in the car from the first laps. It actually went a lot smoother than you would think and than you would expect. Luckily, let's say. It was an interesting day.

Q. Mathieu, those closing stages of the race were quite complex with the late pit stop. Did you know you were going to have to pit to top up on fuel or...

MATHIEU JAMINET: Yeah, obviously we tried to stretch it and hoping to make it to the end. There was some saving that last stint, but yeah, the result of yellow was possible so at some point we just decided to follow 31 and, yeah, just giving up on taking too much risk and, yeah, trying to go more on the podium and trying to win the race and just taking too much risk and maybe taking yourself out of the race.

In the end quickly we realized, yeah, this is the target, and we kind of bring home at some point.

Q. At that position you were ahead of the Acura, so you knew you had the Manufacturer's Championship. Was that in your mind as well?

MATHIEU JAMINET: That's correct. Yeah, we knew we (indiscernible) everything. I think the 7 was a bit further back. Yeah, it was up to me and the team to for sure not do a mistake, a stupid mistake, that could be very costly in the very last minutes. I was pretty relaxed, but yeah, didn't make sense to push too much and take too much risk at that point.

Q. Given the news of the week and the potential implications, did it cross your mind that this would be potentially your and Mathieu's last race together?

MATT CAMPBELL: Yeah, for sure. These things cross your mind, but at the end of the day we all focus on the job at hand. We wanted to try and clinch this championship. What happens after this weekend is obviously a little bit out of our control, but nevertheless, try and make the most of these special moments because, yeah, to do it with this guy, it's a really good feeling, once again. Yeah, what the future holds we'll have to wait and see.

Q. When did Cam jam as your collective name stick around? About when did that start in?

MATT CAMPBELL: It could be earlier than that. We've been together since 2019. Obviously two years in IMSA and now two championships, so it's a very special partnership. Actually, since more or less we've been driving together, we've only finished outside of the either first or second in championship once. We've always been in contention all these years.

To finally be back together now after a couple of years away, it's really, really cool to be able to be in this position and say we're champions once again because, yeah, it's a phenomenal partnership. It's been working extremely well for a long time. Yeah, to come home with No. 1 is very special.

Q. Mathieu, anything to add?

MATHIEU JAMINET: No, let's see what the future brings. Might be same; maybe not. (Indisernible) -- if we are not on the same car, then it will be outside the racetrack, so we'll see.

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Penske Racing President, Jonathan Diuguid. This is the seventh championship for the team, second consecutive. Give us some perspective, if you could, to what this title means to this team.

JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, I think it's difficult to put into perspective, to be honest, because you never go into a season expecting it.

But I think what put us here was the hard work of not just one driver, one group, or one person, but as a collective group and never giving up even though we were in the doldrums of the middle of the season, where the results weren't coming and frustration levels got high, but showed up here leading all the championships and left here leading all the championships.

That's kind of what we're -- what the main goal is and what we're trying to do and really happy to be able to be successful because some of them are really tight.

I think we were running the double digits very early on in the race, and one thing went our way, and we never gave it up after that.

Q. To Matt and Mathieu, my question for you two is, if there was one point in the season where it looked like it was like, okay, we can actually seize this championship, what was that point in the season where you guys said we actually think we can do it?

MATT CAMPBELL: I think we can both probably say and agree it was for sure Laguna was a turning point. I would say it was after Laguna where it really started to, you know, look like something was maybe going to be possible. Consistency is key in a championship run, and more or less from Laguna onwards that's where we were consistent and getting those valuable points.

Let's say we weren't always the most competitive car, but we were sort of punching above our weight in those races towards the end of the year and scoring those points, which is important, and making sure we finished races.

I would say that was definitely a bit of a turning point where we were able to see maybe there was something possible. For sure in the last races, you know, not making mistakes, doing good job, and yeah, that was a key point for our championship.

Q. Mathieu?

MATHIEU JAMINET: Well --

JONATHAN DIUGUID: It wasn't when we changed the chassis, that wasn't the turning point?

MATHIEU JAMINET: No, it started to get more (indiscernible) right after that, but yeah. I would say the expectations was to fight for a championship, to be very honest. Obviously when you start the season, you want to win. At the end of the day, this is what motivates us.

I've been pretty close with Nick the last few years. A few things didn't work out, out of our control, and we missed a shot. Yeah, this year coming back with Matt for sure we knew there would be a very good chance.

Yeah, start of the year was a little bit frustrating, but I always knew we have a championship shot. It was about staying on track, not making mistakes, and it's going to come our way.

This is exactly what happened, and we support each other. We do it on bad days. It was perfect. It worked out pretty well. Yeah, I cannot be more happy than today, that's for sure.

Q. I just wanted to get your perspective on the last minute Larry fill-in on the 6 and how that changed strategy. Because I think the plan was to run the third drivers for the middle portion of the race, and how did that shake things up with the two cars?

JONATHAN DIUGUID: Julien was pretty gutted to be in the situation he was in this morning, and not to give any of that away or whatever. But it was a pretty hectic hour before the start of the race, to be honest.

My hat's off to John Doonan and Beaux (Barfield) and Paul Walter and everybody that made themselves available to help work through that difficult situation to change the driver last minute. Larry, honestly, stuck his hand up when it started going the wrong direction and said, Hey, I'll do whatever you guys need to do.

From that point, it was just management between the 6 and the 7 cars of the drive time. Obviously the 6 car did a more conventional driver rotation, but in the end I don't think it affected the 7 car negatively in either way.

In general, that's the strength of the group we have. I think Jaminet has the base seat for everybody, so we can swap seats from car to car without major issues. Larry was ready to go and jumped in. Did a great job.

Q. Laurens, I know we talked about you jumping in the car. How was the pressure of the whole situation because you're not just jumping in a different car. You're jumping in a car that's in the middle of a championship fight, and you're going to be a key part of that during the race. I guess you didn't have a lot of time to think about it before you did it, but...

LAURENS VANTHOOR: No, honestly, there was no time to think about it. It had to be done.

Yeah, like I said before, I got the car in the lead, and I know these guys are fighting for the championship. The very last thing you want to do is make a mistake or to mess it up.

Honestly, at this point you don't think about it. Now in hindsight maybe, but I was just trying to do the best that I could in the situation. Yeah, very, very happy for both of them that they managed to pull this off and could help 1%.

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by LMP2 champion, No. 99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07, Dane Cameron, PJ Hyett, co-driver. PJ can't join us this evening, but we also do have the co-driver in this event, Jonny Edgar.

Dane, again, the mission coming in was pretty clear. There were some twists and turns along the way, it seemed, but I guess just tell us what it means to win now five championships and what it was like to do it with this group.

DANE CAMERON: Yeah, honestly, pretty amazing. That's obviously the goal when you start the year, and believed in the project and the pieces that were there that it had this potential to bring a championship. Just needed a little bit of, yeah, just a little glue to hold everything all together and elevate things a little bit more.

Just grateful, thankful that PJ and Gunnar thought that I could be the guy. I thought there was some potential there to do it.

Yeah, like I said, the mission was to get some wins for Spike after a tough year for them last year. Of course, the moon shot is to get the championship. Yeah, that all came together.

So a difficult year in certain parts and a very strong, consistent year in other parts. I think of all the years that I've won the championship. This is probably the longest ten hours that I've spent here. It was a pretty long day, pretty stressful day. Looked like it was kind of going to slip away there at a couple of points.

But, yeah, tried to run with the rest of the staff that we have here, just deliver the message that you just need to -- that it probably would get bumpy at some point, but just to stay calm, to stay with it, to keep fighting all the way to the end.

At the end of the day, I'm really grateful and thankful for Jonny doing a really great job for us. It's nearly all the races that we have we have Jonny, so it's a bit of a shame in a way that two races makes the difference for him also not being champion. He was really spectacular for us this year and a huge part of this result. Thankful to have him.

Honestly pretty incredible. Five is quite a special number.

THE MODERATOR: Jonny, how special is it for you to contribute to what happened here with this team today and obviously throughout the season?

JONNY EDGAR: Yeah, it's been amazing to be part of the team. Thankful for the opportunity to drive with him. Yeah, driving with someone like Dane, obviously before this year Daytona winner, four-time IMSA champion -- yeah, Dane helped a lot, just lot of details that I think the experience brings. That's helped.

Obviously PJ has been great all year, and I think the team has done a great job. Yeah, I'm happy to have helped a bit towards the championship. Yeah, I think some of the endurance races we were unlucky, so it's a shame we never managed to win one.

I think especially Daytona it was looking quite good, and we had an issue. Yeah, the team has been amazing. I think everything we've been able to control, we've normally done a good job. Even when races have, yeah, at moments it's gone bad, we managed to recover.

Like today, early on we had a puncture, and it was not looking great, but then, yeah, a couple of hours to go we were in P2 again leading in points. Then, yeah, once 22 had an issue, it was just about bringing it home and taking no risks that we kind of -- yeah, two and a half hours to go, we kind of backed off. Then it was just about surviving until the end.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Dane, I believe there might have been an issue during the final driver change with the seat belts. Was that what happened that sort of led to sort of a slower stop there?

DANE CAMERON: Yeah, we didn't get one plugged in there, and I was trying to get it. I tightened some other ones, and it gets a little more complicated then.

Yeah, just threw the door open as I was trying to deal with it to call for help a little bit. So, yeah, happens every once in a while. It was unfortunate it was there, but obviously we were in a decent point at that standing.

Yeah, a little bit of a change there. A little bit of an issue on the belt.

Q. Was there any dramas later in the race after that or no?

DANE CAMERON: No. Like Jonny said, once the 22 had their unfortunate issue, we were pretty comfortable there to the end. It's a little bit of a known issue sometimes on these cars, so we got a little bit gun shy and that, well, let's make sure we don't have the same, and it doesn't get away from us. So we kind of just, yeah, pulled the chutes a little bit and made sure we got home with all the pieces pointed the right way.

Q. There are still questions I'm sure about driver line-ups and stuff for next year, but PJ is going to get the invite to Le Mans, and considering the team's success last year and if you are in that position again, what would it mean to sort of go back there and potentially to go for back-to-back Pro-Am LMP2?

DANE CAMERON: I would certainly be happy to be a part of that again. Yeah, when I joined the program and knew obviously Le Mans was likely to be a part of it and doing the stuff in Europe also, right from the get-go I believed that having Louis and I and PJ was something that was kind of-- I was eyeing that straight away that I thought we could win Le Mans.

It's obviously a bit of a dream until you get there, and it was kind of a dream week for us. That was, yeah, more than I would have expected. I would love to do it again, for sure. It seems to be a little bit better luck race for me than Daytona.

Q. Jonny, you're due an upgrade that more reflects your true talent that you have shown throughout your career. Having said that, it does mean that if you come back to AO Racing, it would likely be in a different role. If it is, would you have liked to continue with AO Racing at some point?

JONNY EDGAR: Yeah, I think obviously being upgraded changes my situation for next year, and yeah, obviously last week I found out. Not too sure what next year looks like for me yet, but yeah, if an opportunity came about, I would love to be back with the team.

I've loved the opportunity to race with them, and they do a great job. It's such a new team, and to have won GTD Pro last year, LMP2 this year, Le Mans winners all within three seasons, it's a great group to work with. Definitely any opportunity I got to work with any part of the team again would be great.

Yeah, in Long Beach I got to drive in the GTD car, and that went great. I really enjoyed that. Yeah, the whole team is great. Just a good group of people as well to be around.

Q. Dane, fifth championship, IMSA WeatherTech Championship. The significance of that would also -- the versatility of having done it in five different cars, five different classes, five different programs. What does all that mean to you?

DANE CAMERON: Yeah, it was touched on earlier in the week in some of the pre-event stuff, but yeah, for a bit I think it's quite special that they're all a little bit different. So to be able to adapt to different cars, different teams, manufacture, rule-set, know everything from GT3 to kind of the DPI era to now spec category, as well as the hybrid era and all these things, yeah, I think that's a really tremendous parts of sports car racing and really something I guess if you want to say from the older days of the guys that were just jump in and go and deliver results and things like that.

That was something I certainly aspired to when I made my shift to sports cars a decade and a half ago was you wanted to -- you didn't want to be only a guy who could do a certain thing. I didn't want to be only GT or only (indiscernible) or whatever. Being able to have titles in kind of, yeah, the classes is very special to me. I'm very proud of that.

I think, you know, sometimes guys get a little bit of a run for whether it's car BOP class or whatever, and this doesn't devalue any of those, but I think it's unique, and it's special, and I'm certainly proud of the fact that they've all been in competitive eras and different categories and different challenges, all the rest.

It was, yeah, certainly a goal I had when I came here. Just to get one was a dream, and to be at five is honestly, yeah, astonishing really. I'm very proud of that.

Q. Dane, I want to kind of delve into this a little bit. 2025, you are fresh off a title with Penske and GTP. You come down to LMP2, a team that hasn't won in the division. Really a still second-year program, still pretty young. Got the first wins, and now here you are with a championship. How does this title rank in regards to the four, especially considering what all you and the team dealt with this year?

DANE CAMERON: Yeah, I don't know if I could ever pick favorites from any of them. They're all very different. The journey is different from all of them. The situation is different from all of them, but yeah, I would say this one is as valuable or as meaningful to me as any of them, as much as it is to win an overall and to do it with a Manufacturer. This is just as much.

I don't have any less love or value for this one being a spec category or pro-am thing like that. It's hugely competitive here. There's a ton of talent, you know, guys that are also racing in Hypercar programs, guys that are on their way to Hypercar program. It's every bit as competitive as any other category.

Yeah, it's been a little bit of the last couple of years -- even though we won the championship last year, it was personally a tough stretch for me. For me to feel back kind of on my own two feet a little bit is good. Yeah, I'm very, very proud of this one.

THE MODERATOR: We have our GTD PRO champions in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsport Corvette Z06 GT3.R, Antonio García and Alexander Sims, left to right, as well as Jessica Dane, who is program manager for Corvette. Six titles, what does it take to stack up that many championships in a competition like this?

ANTONIO GARCIA: I think running for the best team. I think that's the answer. Running with the best team. Running with the best teammates, and over the years I think I had the best ones. Yeah, that's pretty much it.

THE MODERATOR: Alex, before I ask you anything about winning championships, what's going on with the hair and all this?

ALEXANDER SIMS: Whenever I get asked this question, I just say, what's going on with your hair?

THE MODERATOR: I have mine under a hat.

ALEXANDER SIMS: It's always personal with you. I just have a personality, you know? I'm me, and unashamedly so.

No, I decided I think it was (indiscernible). I can't remember. My dad had a mullet years ago. I remember seeing a family photo of him with one, so I was, like, sod it, I'll do it myself. That's as deep as it goes. Then I thought I would shave the 'stache on this morning just for a bit of fun.

Now that we won the championship, then we can also (indiscernible) about it, because otherwise, I would be looking a bit stupid if we hadn't, so I feel good.

THE MODERATOR: So about that, winning the championship, second championship here in WeatherTech. What does it mean, and what does it mean to do it with Corvette?

ALEXANDER SIMS: It's wonderful. Honestly, the year we've had has been really quite phenomenal. We've executed very, very well at pretty much every single weekend.

Our Corvette has been working well at many of the circuits, if not all of them. Although we hadn't necessarily always had the fastest car, it's been a really nice car to drive, consistent, and easy to extract the pace out of it.

Yeah, when a fourth or a third was the best possible result we could get, then that's what we got. Then, yeah, with a second or a first, like at Virginia, was possible, then we were able to get that. Consistency was executed super well throughout the year.

Antonio, Danny, both have -- well, yeah, and myself, I think we've had pretty flawless races most of the season. Very little damage on the car, things like that that would put us back. It's just been be a really nice, smooth year.

THE MODERATOR: Jess, 16 championships for the team, 40 for Chevrolet. What does that say about the legacy of this program and what does it mean to add another one here tonight?

JESSICA DANE: Yeah, the stats are fairly phenomenal, and for me I came onto this program literally a year ago, and understanding the depth and the history of Chevrolet in motorsport, Corvette in motorsport, it's something in the grand scheme of things, I'm a tiny blip on that radar.

It's really an honor to be a part of that from a personal perspective, but from a broader perspective, yeah, it's just testament to everyone at General Motors and Chevrolet and Corvette Racing who are so passionate about going racing and understanding the benefits of doing so and everything that we can extract from a championship like IMSA to benefit our wider organization.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Antonio, we just had Dane Cameron up here, who also won his fifth WeatherTech Championship title just like you today, although Dane did it with five different teams. You've done it with one team. What's the secret ingredient? What's made it to successful with this organization through these years?

ANTONIO GARCIA: I think it's consistency. Not only the year consistency, but also keeping the key elements of the team as long as you can, basically.

So if you go around the whole Corvette crew and members, there is quite a few that have been there for a long time. When that happens, everything runs very, very smooth. Obviously you are taking new members once in a while for sure. You need to keep the ball rolling, but I think that consistency and be loyal to every single member of the team, that's what it takes, because I think it's a real family.

Q. I believe this is the first championship title for the GT3 car.

ANTONIO GARCIA: Yeah.

Q. You got the first win in WeatherTech Championship last year. What's it mean to get another first for the package?

ANTONIO GARCIA: Yeah, very grateful. The car has been running really, really good. Yeah, it's just another proof of that pretty much every car that Corvette Racing, Team Chevy builds is capable of winning.

I was very lucky to win with many versions of the Corvette, but again, with the same key members, which is Pratt Miller, so everything stays pretty much the same, even if we all evolve, the cars evolve, so yeah.

Q. I'm trying to make sure I frame this correctly. Antonio, for you in particular with you being part of Corvette Pratt Miller for as long as you have been, with today's championship finale, I think I mentioned this to you on the grid when we spoke, these close championship battles, you only had 13 points, and essentially it's, like, especially if it was top 5, and fortunately you guys finished third. It was basically first car to the line wins. Tell us about those types of scenarios, and how have you in Corvette time and again in those tight situations just managed to maintain composure, because it was very back and forth throughout the day, but as the dusk and night came, it looked like you came to the fore and stayed there.

ANTONIO GARCIA: I was nervous today. Even if I'm as old as I am and as experience I have to date, I felt everything had to be perfect. So that's why I was kind of with a little bit of that extra pressure in a way.

Once the flag went, I think I forgot about everything I think it's not only me. I think the whole everybody on the team knew what to do. I think that, in a way, takes a lot of pressure away, because you know everybody that surrounds you, either them as Alex or Danny, as drivers or every single member of the team, you know everybody is going to be doing the best they can or the best.

Yeah, I mean, that's probably another -- yeah, another great day for Corvette Racing and Team Chevy, so yeah.

Q. I have a question for Alex. I think we all try to -- we all frame this as a David versus Goliath title fight. Exactly how deep did Corvette Racing need to dig throughout the course of the season to keep the proverbial David at arm's length in this championship?

ALEXANDER SIMS: Yeah, we've had to be on our absolute A-game throughout the year thanks to the great competitors that we've got in GTP PRO.

For a while, it seemed to be the 77 that was going to run us closest, and then the 81 sort of started to come strong midseason with their results and once we finished through until this weekend really, really strongly.

So it was the consistency that we were all able to achieve this year was really key that we were thereabouts every single weekend. Yeah, it's been a real pleasure, honestly, working against the competitors that we've had. It's been a lot of fun, close racing. I would like to just give credit to IMSA, the Championship, and the stance that they've taken.

Honestly I'm a big supporter of the way that they had to react I think to some of the slightly dodgy situations that were presented to them at Road America. It's kept the racing clean and really, really fair.

There have been moments where I felt I've lost out because of that. I've had to give people space, but that's only right. Then I expect that in return.

So it's been cool. It's been really good working against those guys, but full credit honestly to the primary crew that we've been working with. We've just executed super well all year long.

THE MODERATOR: We have our GTD champions in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. We have Indy Dontje, Philip Ellis, and Russell Ward. Tell us what it meant to you to help contribute to a second championship with this group.

INDY DONTJE: Yeah, it's really special. I mean, to help these guys win their second championship is some pressure, but Winward gave me a great car. The team did great pit stops, and my teammates did also a fantastic job.

In the end it almost feels like an easy job, but we made it stick, and proud to be part of it, yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Philip, coming into this race, it wasn't as close in your GTD Championship as some other championship battles or any of the other championship battles in the WeatherTech Championship. Maybe what kind of pressure was there on you guys coming into this race, knowing that you didn't have to do a lot to win it, but you had to do something?

PHILIP ELLIS: I mean, there's always stuff that can go wrong. Until it's done, it's not done. Then, obviously, we still had the manufacturer's title to fight for, so that's what we raced for today. Glad we got that as well. Super happy with that.

Not so happy that we couldn't finish it off with a podium. That would have been nice. Honestly in the end it's still our best finish to date with a P5 in Atlanta. It is something to work on for next year, for sure.

As you say, it wasn't a lot of pressure on us. I think it was a lot of pressure on the other teams, the competitors. As you have seen throughout the season, it's been a lot of up and downs for a lot of people. We had our mix of bad luck, and so did our competitors, fortunately.

But, yeah, it's not the most satisfying way to win the championship, to be honest, after seeing the race start, to be honest, and knowing that you've won it. It's nice, but I would have liked to win it on the track.

THE MODERATOR: Russell, as I said, second consecutive championship, and Winward Racing has turned into quite a juggernaut in the WeatherTech Championship and other places in the world. Just tell us a little bit about the team that you all have put together and how proud you are of what's going on here.

RUSSELL WARD: I think they're the unsung heroes of racing. These are the guys that are up until 9:00 every night with the car and making it perfect and just getting everything 100%.

So we had the same group as last year, and you know, we're going to have the same group next year that we have this year. So I think we're going to be an equal force next year, and just really hats off to the guys. They provide such an amazing piece of equipment for us to drive. As long as we don't put a foot wrong, I mean, it tends to come our way.

Yeah, just really hats off to the guys back at the shop in Houston and all the work they put into the car.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Russell, what would you say was the defining moment of your season? Was it any of the three wins, or was it perhaps digging from however many laps down you were at Daytona after the throttle issue to come back and finish forth with a chance to win?

RUSSELL WARD: Yeah, you know, it was an interesting year. A lot of new equipment in the car with the torque sensors and a little bit uncertainty on our part going into Daytona. I think that really set us up for the remainder of the year.

You saw pace we had at Daytona and how we were able to come back seven laps down. For us I think you hit it right on the head. That was the defining moment. When we left that race, I mean, although we didn't have the result that we wanted, I mean, we left there with our heads held high and knew that we had a really good car, and we had done a lot of development on the system.

And then went into the next race, which is arguably more difficult than Daytona, and we won it. For us it's just consistent, just plug away, I mean, every day making improvement.

Also, really the key that we found to being successful here in the IMSA Championship is you've really got to finish every single race and do the best that you can to finish every lap of every single race because it's incredibly difficult out there for the GT cars with all the different traffic and things like that and it breathes a lot of incidents.

So thankfully I've got a really experienced group of drivers here who take care of the car and are incredibly quick. I think just the whole package together is really firing on all cylinders, and really proud of the group.

Q. Earlier in the week during practice you shared a little bit about expanding Winward's footprint at IMSA. Why now is this the right time to start thinking about adding to it in IMSA?

RUSSELL WARD: Yeah, you know, we've really got a good group of people that are enjoying working with us and are consistently wanting to be a part of the team. With the new facility in Houston, it's really opened up kind of the amount of space that we have, and I think it's just the natural progression for us to extend the amount of cars that we have here, but personally I think this will be the limit.

It's difficult to put the group together and really keep that group continuity. For us, I mean, we're really excited about the new program, and hopefully we can put on a good show.

Q. What is it about y'all's relationship, the chemistry that just clicks well together? You guys continue to win races, and as you have said, Indy was a great example. Daytona, another great example of the season you guys have. What is it about you two as a team together that just works so well?

RUSSELL WARD: Yeah, you know, I am totally new to racing compared to some of the pros here that have been here for several decades. What I tend to have found is some teams, you know, you try to put the best sports players together, and they don't tend to click well. What you need to find is a group that is pushing for the result of the team does not the result for yourself.

Definitely Indy and Philip do an incredible job of how do we improve the car and what's the problem with the car, not necessarily focusing on themselves. I just think that's the key to having a good relationship with the racers and coming in there without any expectations and just racing the racetrack and trying to go as hard as you can.

These two are incredibly special race car drivers. They're humble, and they just want the best. We all put the work in before a racetrack and come here and are able to perform.

PHILIP ELLIS: Yeah, I mean, Russell touched on everything. I think the only thing you can add to that is we are really close friends off track as well, so the work doesn't really stop when we leave the race weekend.

We are all super close. We've known each other for a couple of years now, and as he said, we just click. It's just a tight group of friends. On track we just work really well together. The same with the team as well. I think that's our key to success.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports