The entire IMSA field will return to Road America race in just over a week featuring a starting grid of 54 cars and an endurance format, with a duration of six hours, unlike the 2-hour-40-minute format seen previously.

Cadillac, Cadillac Whelen, and Jack Aitken dominate the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championships GTP while Porsche, Laurin Heinrich and #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport dominate the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTP.

Let’s look at the six championship standings so far and the transcript of select questions to Jack Aitken, driver of the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, as he was a guest on an IMSA media teleconference to discuss the upcoming Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix on August 2 from Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championships GTP

Drivers

With his last two wins at Detroit and Watkins Glen, Jack Aitken has taken the lead from Laurin Heinrich of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP Drivers with 2145 points, 102 points ahead Laurin Heinrich and 245 points ahead the duo Nick Yelloly and Renger van der Zande. This season, Aitken has achieved six consecutive podium finishes in the six races held so far. Aitken will drive the #31 Cadillac V-Series.R - Cadillac Whelen with Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti.

Aitken in #31 Whelen Cadillac — 📷 © Luc Warnotte at Watkins Glen. Winning #31 Whelen Cadillac

You’ve had a lot of success recently, how do you keep it going at Road America?

Aitken: “I think just treat it like a normal day, normal weekend. Obviously, we're in a pretty good groove at the moment, as a team, as a crew. I think we've had some good progress this year with the evo update on the Cadillacs as well, and that's been, it was a lot of hard work in the offseason to get that ready and ship shape and doing what we wanted it to do, and that's helped. So, a lot of things come together. I don't think we are in a position where we're really desperately trying to hold onto a streak. You know, it's a great thing to have, but the reality is we're coming into every weekend, trying to do the best job we can. The streak will end at some point, and I don't know if that'll be this weekend with a hat trick of 4th places, or if we can keep it going even longer, but, we feel good, and just want to keep enjoying it and we're working well, so why would we change anything at the moment?”

The race is now six hours, how to you prepare for that?

Aitken: “I mean, we have three drivers instead of two, but that's not a decision that the majority of the field usually takes. Having Fred (Vesti) back with us is nice, and he's already tested the car at Road America and done a good job of getting back up to speed with it. Other than that, it's a bit more interesting from a street strategic point of view. We're kind of expecting it to be a very yellow, heavy race, just going on previous years, and the way that the endurance races often go. So there's a little bit more thought on that side, but otherwise, you know, the two-hour, 40-minute races are long enough that you get multiple stops, so it doesn't affect as much as you might think. So, yeah, not a huge amount.”

Teams

Cadillac Whelen #31 leads with the same number of points as Aitken in the Drivers championship (2145), this time with #93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian second with 1900 points. The trio Porsche 963 commons with #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport rounding the top three with 1887 points ahead of sister #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport with 1774 points and #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports with 1705 points.

You have a decent championship lead. Is it a confidence booster or slightly more added pressure?

Aitken: “I think it goes back to what I was saying at the start that there's no reason to change the way that we've been racing. because it's been working well. We’re certainly not doing the win it or bin it strategy at the moment and obviously it wouldn’t make sense to switch over. I think we're just looking to be as quick as we can, and then make sensible decisions in the race, and that gets you, like, 99 percent of the way there, and it always will. I've been in a few championship fights now. It’s hard to not have some pressure come into the team. But, that's what we keep repeating, that we're doing things well, and we just need to stick to those guns. There will be weekends when, even if we do things right, we're not going to get the results that we have been getting, and that's just life. That's racing. It's going to happen, doesn't mean that we're doing the wrong things all of a sudden. So, we’re going to keep trucking, try not to worry too much about the point situation until maybe the last few hours of Petit Le Mans. It looks like a big leap, but frankly in IMSA, the point swings can be quite aggressive. So, I don't think it’s over by any stretch.”

Having the dual program between WEC and IMSA, how has that helped this year?

Aitken: “I think it's been really helpful, massively helpful. Because at the end of the day, it gives me, and Earl (Bamber), who does the same thing. Something that you can't really get these days, which is more track time. It's very difficult to spend more laps in the car, without some kind of compromise, whether it's, you know, you have to have less drivers at the track for tests or you're simply not allowed to most of the time. I feel like it's taking my driving to another level this year. I saw the same with Earl when he partnered with us for the first time last year that, I thought he was, he was driving extremely well. He brings a lot of knowledge outside of the car, that was very helpful, and helped to align a lot of the teams, because although it's the same hardware between here and here and WEC, the teams can still run the cars in their own way, you know, whether it's different ways of doing the car build or setup philosophies or even just running procedures there's a lot that you can find out, improve test. So just helping everyone on the Cadillac program to centralize all of that and pick the best of the bunch. It's really important for the progression of the program, I think.”

Manufacturers

Cadillac leads the Manufacturers championship with 2182, 80 points ahead Porsche (2102) and 154 ahead Acura (2028).

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring. The 3 Cadillacs V-Series.R

Do like going to Road America?

Aitken: “Yep, it's like the other guys have said, it's definitely a highlight in the calendar. It's one of the tracks, I think, that can still scare you a little bit. It's definitely a bit of a thrill because it's very high consequence, and you're never far away from potentially having quite a big accident. So it's nice, but it's also very challenging and racing wise, it's difficult to pass, but I think with it being quite often being a fuel race or strategic there are opportunities to move up and down the field. And it'll be even more so this year of the six hours. So yeah, definitely one of my, my favorite tracks.”

How hard is it to set up the cars for Road America?

Aitken: “I think it's similar in a lot of ways to Watkins Glen, fast and flowing, and requires a car that works well aerodynamically, so you're really trying to optimize the platform, working with a car that's quite stable. It's a fine balance you want a car that has front to be able to place it and to be accurate, especially in the high speed stuff, like the carousel and the kink. Because the penalty for being offline is extremely high. But you need a car that you can rely on as well on the other side. So there’s no major sharks but it's similar to Watkins Glen. I'm very lucky to have teammates that are quite flexible. We generally don't, don't need to argue too much about what direction we are going and that makes life very easy. So yeah, never, never a big point of discussion for us.”

IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTP

Drivers

The three Porsche factory drivers who won Daytona and Sebring are head to head in the lead of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTP Drivers with Laurin Heinrich, 40 points ahead of the duo Felipe Nasr & Julien Andlauer with 39 points.

Earl Bamber - Frederik Vesti & Jack Aitken follow with 30 points.

Laurin Heinrich will co-drive the #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 in his quest for the title supported by Kaylen Frederick and Tijmen van der Helm. Porsche Penske retains its driver pairings of Kévin Estre - Laurens Vanthoor and Julien Andlauer - Felipe Nasr.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Watkins Glen. JDC-Miller Motorsport Porsche 963 #5

How has running both the WEC and IMSA programs helped this year?

Aitken: “I think we're looking for the same things really. So, success on either side of the pond is appreciated and encouraged and we all take a bit of joy when we see any Cadillac team doing well. I know the Action guys were supporting all of the Le Mans crews, and watching from home quite intently, although they would have loved to have been there themselves as well. There was a lot of camaraderie and good spirit there, and the same thing JOTA watched for a lot of Daytona, even had some people on the ground with us, which was fantastic, and there's a good team spirit there. So, yeah, it's a nice atmosphere and at the end of the day, we all want the program to do well, even occasionally when we're racing on the same bit of track. It's all for the same course.”

What are your thoughts on Road America?

Aitken: “I think it's a combination of, it's not a very forgiving track, so if you do go off there's a high chance that you'll either hit something or get stuck in the gravel. That’s a common feature in a lot of the IMSA tracks. So it's not the only reason. I think the track itself does produce pretty good racing, but it's difficult to make pass. There are a few big braking zones where you can try. And a lot of places where you can go side by side, but it needs cooperation. And we've had plenty of races, I think, over the last year, however many years, several years, where cooperation is not always given. You get body parts, debris, cars off in the gravel, and all of those things can lead to cautions. Whether being an endurance round now as well, you do have a lot of cars, a lot of drivers that are not full-time, full season entries, with a bit less time in the seat, and that can also contribute to yellow. So yeah, there's a few different things going on.”

Teams

Daytona and Sebring winning #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport team leads with 39 points ahead of #31 Cadillac Whelen with 30 points and sister #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport with 27 points.

Can you talk about the physical fitness needed to compete at this level?

Aitken: “Yep, made the trip to the cafe and then came back. That's my style of exercise (laughs). And it's going to stay that way. Joking aside we have some time to do a little bit but in the heat of the season, it is difficult to attribute time to it, in the same way that you can off season. Combined with the fact that we're driving the cars pretty often at the moment, you're pretty race ready and acclimated. It’s still a challenge if it's hot. I'm particularly not a fan of the heat being from the U.K., but there's nothing you can do about it and we’re pretty used to it at this point, so it is what it is. I'll do the occasional run or bike ride for a bit of fun, but that's about it.”

Is there something different that you can kind of that you're starting to notice that you're able to extract out of yourself this year compared to the last few years? Is there just something that you've been able to hit on that maybe you weren't hitting on over the last couple of seasons at the same level?

Aitken: “When we were talking about the double-program stuff earlier, that's definitely helped. More tracks time is never a bad thing, and I do feel like I've benefited from it. I also just feel like I'm reaching a maturity with IMSA. This is my is my third full-time season, so I know the championship much better than I did before and just more comfortable with the tracks, more in tune with the races and what generally happens on the strategy side of things. And in the same breath, I’m very comfortable with the team with Action Express and Cadillac. I think I've got some great relationships that mean that I enjoy my work and I turn up, always, you know, happy to be there and things are going well, so it always helps. But I have to say that, you know, I think we run a fantastic streak, but part of that is down to fortune and a bit of good luck here and there. There are definitely times when we probably shouldn't have finished on the podium or, or been on the top step and we somehow managed it. I believe in in balancing the stuff all balances out in the long run. So I'll probably do some bad luck at some point. So you know, I think it's going really well and I'm very happy about it. Like I said, I'm enjoying it, but I also think I'm the same driver I was before. You know the championship is not tied up by any means. Just going into the last few races with eyes open and try and do the, as good a job as I can and look forward to relying on my teammates and my crew.”

Manufacturers

The IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup GTP Manufacturers is lead by Porsche who scored the 5 points at each 6 hours mark at Daytona and 4 hours marks at Sebring. Cadillac follows with 35 points thanks to two 5 points at Watkins Glen, five P2 at Daytona and Sebring, a P3 at Daytona as well as the minimum 2 points for the very first mark of the championship.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona. Both Porsche Penske Motorsport 963

How big would a championship be to you?

Aitken: “It would obviously be fantastic because to win any championship of that scale IMSA, is right up there in the racing world, not just in the endurance or sports car world. It’s a championship that I truly enjoy racing in, which means a lot as well. And to do it with people that I enjoy working with, that would mean a lot as well. You balance that against as, as the more championships that I do and the more races I do, the more that I measure success in a bit of a different way, because you can only do what's in your control, what's in your hands, so I'm taking more and more pleasure these days from doing those things well, and that means that, you know, you don't take the DNFs or the bad results quite as hard when you, you feel like you've done your job. But it also means that when you win, you're a bit more circumspect about, about it. I will be over the moon if we can do it very proud of what we've achieved. But I will still be very proud, even if we don't do it. So I guess that's what I'm trying to say.”

Do you have to relearn these tracks when you come back?

Aitken: “I feel like once I've learned it, it's good to go in the memory bank unless you haven't been there for a long time, but the first time I went to Road America, it was quite a shock to the system because that was still my first year of IMSA. So still recalibrating a little bit from European trucks where you generally get a lot more space, a lot more forgiveness. I think it was just, it was either just after or just before they'd done the resurfacing and it was so cold that it was actually snowing that day, so grip was not you know, plentiful. And that added to the experience and generally I found it pretty terrifying. It's probably the only time in recent history that has taken me a long time to get up to speed. But just because I was sure that I was going to hit something and it would probably be quite hard. So now that I've come back and done it in the summer, it's great and I love it. The back end of the circuit, when you get through the carousel, the kink and Canada corner, even the last couple corners, they've got a great flow to it. You really get a great sensation of speed with how hemmed in you are by the trees. So, it's turned into one of my favorites, but the American tracks in general, like I say, are much less forgiving, and you do bear that in mind when you're getting up to speed on them.”