Petit Le Mans tends to save its loudest opinions for the last hour. Round 11 of 11 in the 2025 VSCA SportsCar Championship — and the finale for both the full-season LMP2 championship and the five-round Endurance Cup — delivered ten hours of traffic management, penalties, fuel math, and emotion on Saturday at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia.
The 2.54-mile, 12-turn track is famous for two things: speed, and not leaving you anywhere to hide. Both showed up early. Sam Vaughan put the #3 Tri-State Racing Dallara P217 on pole with a 1:12.184 lap and led the class to green. The opening laps, though, immediately flipped the script. Within six minutes, Dominik Isenberg took the lead for the #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara P217, and from there, the LMP2 contest became a rotating brawl for control. Over the course of the race, the lead in class changed hands 21 times.
Race control didn’t get much of a warmup period either. Only two minutes into the event, the #30 Fury Simsport Dallara P217 was handed a drive-through penalty for a race start violation, after the car had rolled off the grid too late on the formation lap. That early call set a tone: this would not be a night for free passes. Over 10 hours, LMP2 teams were hit with multiple drive-throughs for contact, off-sequence pit lane entries, pit speeding, pacing violations, and incident point limits. Four full-course yellows, totaling 95 minutes behind the pace car, broke up the rhythm at 40 minutes, 3 hours 34 minutes, 4 hours 21 minutes and again at 6 hours 23 minutes, each time reshuffling strategy and stirring tempers.
Despite that chaos, Vision 1 Motorsports turned Petit Le Mans into a closing statement. The #11 Vision 1 Motorsports Dallara P217 — driven by 37-year-old Rico Kollmeier (Herford, Germany), 39-year-old Mario Cappellucci (Pueblo, CO), and 25-year-old Jeremy Carter (Alexandria, VA) — absorbed penalties, contact, traffic, and constant pressure and still won the LMP2 class by 39.002 seconds.
The win not only sealed first place in the race, it also clinched the Endurance Cup title for Vision 1 Motorsports. After back-to-back Road Atlanta victories, the team leaves 2025 with trophies and momentum, which is pretty much the definition of “leaving on your terms” in this series.
Race unravels, ties itself back together
On paper, the #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim car looked like the class of the field. It led 307 laps — the most of any LMP2 entry — with Isenberg, Viktor Sönnergren (22, Jönköping, Sweden), and Ryan Suralik (16, Sterling, VA) cycling through long stints up front. Even during yellow-flag pit cycles, the #23 repeatedly found its way back to clean air. In fact, several restarts saw it immediately reclaim the lead through Turn 1 like it had called dibs.
But Petit Le Mans rarely rewards “on paper.” Instead, it rewards “still running at Hour 10 with track position and no new problems.” That last part is where it unraveled for the #23.
The #23 traded the lead nonstop with Vision 1 and, at times, with the #14 Grow Racing Team Dallara P217 and the #11 Vision 1 car. But penalties started to stack. First, there were drive-through penalties for incident points. Then there was Race Control’s call after contact with the #3 Tri-State Racing Dallara P217 in Turn 4, where officials ruled the #23 initiated contact that sent the #3 spinning into the wall and into required repairs. Late in the race, after a side-by-side exchange in the chicane, Race Control also assessed a 30-second post-race penalty to the #23 for not leaving sufficient room on corner entry against the #11.
All of this mattered because this wasn’t just any race. This was the Endurance Cup finale, where points are also awarded at the 4-hour, 8-hour marks and finish, and teams were openly managing risk versus payout. Vision 1 Motorsports admitted they had to stretch one stint after serving multiple drive-throughs in order to clear the eight-hour Endurance Cup points mark. That’s one of those details you don’t always see on the broadcast but that often decides championships.
Meanwhile, Grow Racing Team ran what you might call the quiet opposite of the #23’s night. The #14 Dallara P217, driven by 42-year-old Ricardo Anselmo (Guimarães, Portugal), 27-year-old Jorge Leitão Dias (Viseu, Portugal), and 44-year-old Tiago Maduro Dias (Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal), was not always at the front. In the middle hours, they were dealing with spins, fuel targets, pit procedure issues, and even a stint where they had to dig out from two laps down. They were not immune to Race Control either — the car served penalties of its own, including one for incident points and high-pressure fuel-saving stretches when an overlay issue complicated pit stops.
But they stayed in the fight. They took the lead more than once in the final third of the race, and they were still in podium shape when it counted. When the clock hit the end of ten hours, Grow Racing Team crossed the line in second place overall in class, behind Vision 1 Motorsports.
Third place in class went to the #89 Keystone Simsport Dallara P217. The lineup of 32-year-old Erik Terry-Haag (Hermitage, PA), 30-year-old Taylor Parsons (Coquitlam, BC), 21-year-old Lukas Santos (Brainerd, MN), and 34-year-old Phillip Forrester (Gainesville, GA) finally saw a full-race execution come together. Keystone wasn’t the outright fastest over one lap, but in traffic they looked calmer in the last three hours than they did in the first thirty minutes. That’s progress you can measure.
New LMP2 champion #23 Dallara headlines Top Ten
The rest of the top ten was shaped by survival, penalties, attrition, and distance rules. The #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim finished fourth in class after leading most of the race.
Fifth went to the #158 iRacing Today Motorsports Dallara P217 of Michael Adamczyk (31, Tacoma, WA) and Adam Mailhot (33, Hartford, CT), a car that spent long stretches in podium territory but saw its night complicated by repeated drive-throughs, pit speeding, and traffic moments.
Sixth place went to the #22 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara P217, driven by 30-year-old Sebastian Isenberg (Dortmund, Germany), 30-year-old Scarlett Di Marco (Shropshire, England), and 28-year-old René Thalassinos (Bornheim, Germany). The #22 spent portions of the race in the top five but took several penalties of its own, including a pacing violation under full-course yellow.
Seventh place belonged to the #3 Tri-State Racing Dallara P217 of 40-year-old Chris Cadiz (Montclair, NJ), 34-year-old Garret Spenst (Frisco, CO), and 33-year-old Sam Vaughan (Jersey City, NJ). For Tri-State, Petit Le Mans started like a coronation — pole position, early speed — and turned into a survival drill. By Hour 2, the #3 was cycling through repairs, black flags, and repeated required stops. By the end, they were running, but deep in the lap count.
Eighth place went to the #96 Albrecht Motorsports Dallara P217 of 39-year-old Sven Albrecht (Frankfurt, Germany), 44-year-old Maik Steinicke (Strausberg, Germany), and 41-year-old Marc Scherschel (Neunkirchen, Germany). The car was classified “Fail - 70% Min Distance,” which means it did not complete 70 percent of the class winner’s distance and therefore scored no championship points.
Ninth place went to the #30 Fury Simsport Dallara P217 of 25-year-old Matthew J Luke (Albany, NY). Fury Simsport’s race was compromised within the first five minutes by the race start violation penalty and a costly spin. They were later marked “Fail - 25% Min Distance, Demotion to Reserve List,” after falling short of 25 percent of the class winner’s laps. No tenth-place finisher was classified in LMP2.
Drama surrounding Race Control Decisions
If you’ve followed this season, you know teams are not shy about voicing opinions. Road Atlanta only turned that volume up.
Several teams questioned Race Control in the paddock after the race. The main point of tension was contact between the #11 Vision 1 Motorsports car and the #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim car in the chicane, and how penalties were assigned. Race Control ultimately issued a 30-second post-race penalty to the #23 for failing to leave racing room while attempting a pass, and also added an additional post-race penalty of one lap plus 30 seconds for a separate contact incident with the #3 Tri-State Racing entry in turn four.
To Vision 1 Motorsports, that exchange was aggressive but understandable in context: two cars going for the same real estate late in a championship decider. To Twin Turn Simracing, whose car had led hundreds of laps and appeared to be on track for both the Petit Le Mans win and a dramatic Endurance Cup grab, those rulings felt race-altering.
The fallout was immediate and serious. In protest of Race Control’s calls, Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim driver Viktor Sönnergren quit VSCA after the race. He was joined by team co-owner and assistant manager Sebastian Isenberg, who also left the series, seemingly in protest of the Race Control decisions. That puts a cloud over what should have been a victory lap moment for that organization. Despite everything, the #23 Twin Turn SR entry still left Road Atlanta as the LMP2 SportsCar Championship winner for the season, locking down the full-season title with 3677 points. But instead of a champagne shot, the conversation in the paddock became, “Are they even coming back in 2026?”
That is not an idle question. The #23 didn’t just win the championship. It won it convincingly. The entry finished the year ahead of the #11 Vision 1 Motorsports car by 111 points and ahead of the #3 Tri-State Racing car by 242 points. If that car and its core drivers truly walk away, the competitive map of LMP2 changes overnight.
Vision 1 Motorsports came out of Petit Le Mans with something different, but just as big: the Endurance Cup. Over five rounds of long-distance races, the #11 sealed the title with 48 points. Twin Turn SR’s #23 entry finished second in the Endurance Cup, just 3 points behind, and Keystone Simsport’s #89 placed third, 6 points behind the #11. That gap — 3 points, 6 points, single digits — tells you how thin the margin was after ten straight hours of elbows-out.
Post-Race Reactions
Ricardo Anselmo, #14 Grow Racing Team Dallara: "It’s truly fantastic. We still can't believe it, but we’ve been working for this for a long time, and we’ve finally made it."
"That question [What does this season-best result and first-ever podium mean to the team] is ungrateful. Many times we could have made it to the podium, but for some reason, we failed. This time everything aligned, and it's fantastic. Now, it's about continuing to work and coming back, of course, even better prepared for the next season."
"As I mentioned in the previous question, we could have done it before, and maybe it was just a bit of extra luck. As soon as I got into the car, I had a spin right out of the pits and we were 2 laps behind the leader. After that, it was all about racing with determination and trying to move up positions. The car setup was almost perfect, and with the help of the FCY and my teammates, we were fortunately able to make it. And of course, we also benefited from others' mistakes, but that’s part of the game."
Dominik Isenberg, #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara: "I can only repeat what i was telling you the whole season. Seems like I have to stay out of the #23 so we can get those wins in. But yeah, it was a real good hard race for nearly the whole race. First against the #3 crew, afterwards against Vision One. Congrats on them for getting the win and the endurance cup trophy!"
"The incident with #3 was really unfortunate, sorry for them carry such a big hit against the wall there. The #3 had a really bad exit out of Turn 3, was offline so we thought they'll let us pass under blue flag since we would be stuck behind those GTs in front anyway. Suddenly he closed the door and moved back on the racing line. It does look bad from the outside, but in that section you can only decide in split seconds. The incident with #11 was a good fight, he lost out a bit, we got a penalty for it so fair game I'd guess."
"We were just off cycle there [during FCY3], everyone was already in while we needed a full stop. But we had the pace and the milage to get back up, just something that happen during yellows with unfortunate timing."
"It was a bad timing [drive-through for too many incident points in the 7th hour] for sure, just coming out of another yellow and I think the last one, so we needed to make up some ground. We just got there three laps before the next slot of Endurance Cup points, but rushing there cost us the race in the end with further penalties. We try to learn from it, but ultimatly we had the cleanest race of the class so I take that. I don't know if I was just tired in the end but I couldn't deliver my pace in the end just like first for stints I did. I need to work on that for sure!"
Tiago Maduro Dias, #14 Grow Racing Team Dallara: "It's kind of a dream come true to secure this second place at what's probably the second most special event of the calendar, after Daytona!"
"We've really enjoyed this season and after shooting ourselves in the foot so many times this year, this result really shows how much we've grown and matured as a team and definitely makes us excited for what's to come next season."
"The word that comes to mind is maturity. We kept it tidy and consistent all the way through and managed to show good pace without getting ourselves into much trouble. We did run into some issues, particularly with one of our guys' overlay messing up our pit stops. This made for some nerve wracking last couple of hours, trying to save fuel, keep pace, and with no incidents left. Thankfully all came together in the end."
Mario Cappellucci, #11 Vision 1 Motorsports Dallara: "It feels great! It's been an up and down season so being able to finish it on a good note is great for the team!"
"It's awesome to be able to get back to back wins at Road Atlanta. I think we learned a lot last year about just trying our best to stay patient and letting the race come to us. We kept the car super clean all race."
"I think our incidents came from just getting too comfortable and trying to push the car more. Once we focused more on staying on track and keeping away from other cars, we noticed that we were able to be quicker in the long run."
"Yeah, it's unfortunate that we came together there but i think it was obvious that they were just trying to play catch up and get as fair ahead as they can. We were clearly ahead in the first turn there and they just put the nose on our inside bumper a little too aggressively."
"Definitely going to enjoy this one. Take some time to reflect on a great season for the 11 team and start getting ready for next season. Can't wait for Daytona!"
Jeremy Carter, #11 Vision 1 Motorsports Dallara: "Thank you, super happy with it! Lot of hard work from the whole team went into this, it feels great to see those efforts pay off. Petit Le Mans last year was our first win as a team, so coming back here to win again and take our first championship title as well is incredible."
"It's a tight, short lap with a lot of racing through faster and slower class cars. We focused on making sure we lost as little time as possible each time we were lapping GT3s and getting lapped by GTPs. Over a ten hour race, that adds up real quick."
"We didn't change our race strategy too much, just kept focused on staying on track and out of other cars as much as we could. We did have to stay out as long as we could after getting that second drive-through to make sure we got the eight hour mark endurance cup points, but didn't need any other changes."
"It was certainly stressful watching on from the pit wall. We weren't happy about it in the moment, but looking back at it, it was just hard racing. Rico did a great job not letting it unsettle him, and still put out a great stint after it."
"Not much of an offseason for us. We're already getting plans underway for the 1000km of Suzuka special event, then it's right back into prep for the Daytona 24."
Rico Kollmeier, #11 Vision 1 Motorsports Dallara: "It definitely feels great, after been taken out last year to bounce back like this was a really worthy end of the season with this great Team!"
"Last year I was competition. This year the guys took me on and I must say the mindset is what sets this team apart!"
"We didn’t need to change much as we were already on a safety first plan and the 4x were unfortunate and unforseeable. The second one caught us short before the end points mark so we tried to get them before solving the penalty but that’s all."
"I was covering early there as we were on 19 incidents and wanted to make sure not get run into on the entry of 10a. The 23 tried to keep it tight there and unfortunately we touched, this unsettled the car and I had to eat an offtrack that put us to 20 incident points and gave us the second drive through. In the moment I was pissed now after the race I say : It was unfortunate."
"Tonight I will celebrate with this great team a successful 2025 VSCA season and a great win, will thank the guys for taking me on and maybe there will be some drinks. Offseason? What’s an offseason? After the season is before the season! No, honestly, next week is ESCC in Portimao and there will be a few races here and there. Daytona ain’t far out either so prep for that will beginn as well starting in December."
Erik Terry-Haag, #89 Keystone Simsport Dallara: "We feel really good about being able to put together a full race and finally get a solid finish, this season has been pretty rough with us not quite showing the pace a lot of our competitors have had consistently this year. LMP2 has been really strong this year, every position is earned and you gotta be on top of your game if you wanna end up on the podium at the end of the day."
"It [the rough start to the race, including the T1-T2 incident 24 minutes into the race] was an unfortunate and out of character mistake for me early on, I really got caught looking more at the GT3 car I had to my left and lost track of the Cadillac GTP car I had to my outside coming into Turn 3 and ended up taking out the leader of the race which nobody wants to do but luckily they didn't take any damage and would go on to win overall. When stuff like that happens you just gotta move on when there is 9 1/2 hours left in the race and think about it afterwards what you need to do differently in that scenario."
"The cautions are always gonna throw curveballs at teams, sometimes you gain time because of it, sometimes you lose out. The teams that can change and make the best of it are gonna be the teams you see near the front come the end of the race."
"I'm very, very tired right now. Road Atlanta gives you no breaks in the action when you are out there own your own, let alone trying to work your way through traffic while looking in your mirror watching for the GTP's trying to make there way past as well. It may not be one of my favorite tracks but it does make for an action packed 10 hours that never has a dull moment."
Twin Turn SR #23 clinches LMP2 title
With Petit Le Mans complete, the #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara P217 is officially the LMP2 SportsCar Championship winner for 2025 on 3677 points. Vision 1 Motorsports’ #11 finishes second in the full-season standings, 111 points back. Tri-State Racing’s #3 — the car that started Petit Le Mans from pole and then spent most of the race in recovery mode after damage and repeated penalties — ends the year third in class, 242 points behind the champions.
In the Endurance Cup, which covered the five long-distance rounds culminating here at Petit Le Mans, Vision 1 Motorsports’ #11 took the title with 48 points. Twin Turn SR’s #23 finished second, 3 points behind, and Keystone Simsport’s #89 finished third, 6 points behind the #11. For context, that’s about as tight as you can reasonably make a five-race endurance title without calling in a photo finish.
Beyond the math, there are storylines that may linger into the offseason. Vision 1 leaves as Endurance Cup champions and Petit Le Mans winners. Grow Racing Team finally converted its pace into an uninterrupted, podium-level result at a crown jewel event and finished second in the race. Keystone Simsport, often caught in other people’s chaos earlier this season, climbed to third at Road Atlanta and earned a podium in a field that punished even minor mistakes.
And Twin Turn SR? They won the war: the LMP2 SportsCar Championship. But they left Road Atlanta furious about how they lost the Endurance Cup. Whether that anger cools before January may shape the German team's decision process, on whether they will return to defend their title in 2026.
For now, the track goes quiet. The next green flag for the VSCA SportsCar Championship is not far away, though. The 2026 season opens at Daytona in January, starting with The Roar Before the 24 on January 3 as the non-points qualifying event, followed by the fifth annual Maconi Setup Shop 24 Hours of Daytona on January 10. Everyone calls Daytona “the one you circle.” After what happened at Road Atlanta, it might also be “the one where everyone shows up with something to prove.”
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