The #11 Vision 1 Motorsports Dallara P217 has won the 2026 VSCA Endurance Cup in LMP2, sealing the title at Road Atlanta by the narrowest route available: level on points with the #87 Ric Team Racing Dallara, but ahead on the tie-break after finishing second in Petit Le Mans.
Rico Kollmeier and Matthew Routon brought the #11 home second in class after starting ninth, completing 364 laps and leading 38 of them in a bruising season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The result moved Vision 1 Motorsports to 39 points, tied with Ric Team Racing, with the #14 Grow Racing Team ending third on 35 points.
Vision 1 Motorsports Wins Title on Petit Le Mans Tie-Break
The LMP2 Endurance Cup fight arrived in Braselton far tighter than the overall championship picture. Ric Team Racing led on 32 points, Grow Racing Team was one point back, and Vision 1 Motorsports sat third, three points off the lead.
After ten hours around the 2.54-mile, 12-turn Road Atlanta circuit, the #11 Dallara had done just enough. Paul Botting Motorsport won the LMP2 race with the #113 Dallara, the #11 Vision 1 Motorsports entry finished second, the pole-sitting #30 Fury Simsport Dallara took third, and Ric Team Racing finished fourth.
That second-place finish proved decisive. Vision 1 and Ric Team Racing ended the 2026 VSCA Endurance Cup tied at 39 points, but the #11 took the crown because it held the stronger tie-break on second-place finishes, earned with Saturday’s runner-up result.
“It is a relief, and it feels great,” Kollmeier said after the race. “It is great to get it for the second time in a row. It shows that our approach is the right one.”
Petit Le Mans Produces a Chaotic Championship Decider
The finale was one of the most interrupted races of the season. Race Directors called a record-setting 13 full-course yellows, with 4 hours and 29 minutes spent under yellow flag conditions. The rhythm of the race was repeatedly broken, and technical problems with the FCY procedure added another layer of complexity for teams already managing traffic, strategy and weather.
Rain showers during the middle portion made Road Atlanta even more treacherous. As the rain intensified, visibility fell sharply, spray hung over the Esses and the braking zones became increasingly uncertain. For an LMP2 title fight built on small margins, those hours were as much about staying out of trouble as they were about raw pace.
Vision 1 Recovers from Ninth and Leads at Key Moments
Vision 1’s day began with complications. The #11 was listed ninth on the LMP2 grid and was also issued a start-from-pit-lane penalty for an entry declaration violation. Early pit sequencing left the car fighting from the lower half of the class order, and Kollmeier was lapped by the class leader before the opening full-course yellow.
The #11’s race was not clean or simple. There were multiple pit-lane and incident-point-related setbacks, including a drive-through for too many incident points just after the six-hour mark and another late in the race. Yet the car remained in the fight, and, crucially, it stayed classified as running at the finish with no DNF or disqualification.
Vision 1 first led the LMP2 class around the 3h15 mark under yellow, with Kollmeier at the wheel. Routon later took the #11 back to the front during another caution period just after the seven-hour mark, before Kollmeier led again with roughly 40 minutes remaining.
Kollmeier said the team initially believed a race win was still possible, only for circumstances ahead to shift the priority toward the championship. “We had the win in sight,” he said. “Due to an unfortunate incident in front of us, it got taken away. We quickly calculated and saw that the championship was still alive this way, and we immediately started to secure our position. When it was certain, the confidence in ourselves took over.”
The final stint became a balancing act. The #113 Paul Botting Motorsport Dallara emerged as the race-winning car, but the #11 had enough in hand to secure second. That was the exact result Vision 1 needed to transform a three-point deficit entering Road Atlanta into an Endurance Cup title.
Ric Team Racing and Grow Racing Team Fall Short
Ric Team Racing had led the LMP2 Endurance Cup standings after Round 4 and remained in the title picture until the flag. The #87 Dallara started third, led 59 laps and finished fourth, one lap down, but that was not enough to prevent Vision 1 from drawing level on points and taking the tie-break.
The #87’s race included a warning for incident responsibility with contact at Turn 7 around the 2h40 mark of race time. Ric Team Racing appealed, arguing that the #87 had completed an overtake on the #94 SWF Motorsports Porsche before braking and that the GT car had braked later into the corner. The appeal stewards upheld the original decision, leaving the warning in place.
Grow Racing Team, second in the standings coming into the finale and only one point behind Ric Team Racing, endured the roughest day of the main contenders. The #14 Dallara led 38 laps but finished ninth, completing 285 laps.
The #14 received a 35-second post-race penalty for incident responsibility with contact on the main straight around the 1h35 mark, with Tiago Maduro Dias listed as the driver. A second 35-second post-race penalty followed for contact at Turn 6 around the 4h30 mark, with Jorge Leitao Dias listed as the driver. Grow Racing Team finished the Endurance Cup third, four points behind the champion.
Season Turns from Consistency to Defense of the Crown
Vision 1 Motorsports’ title was not built on a dominant start. At Daytona, in the Maconi Setup Shop 24 Hours of Daytona, the #11 started fifth in LMP2 and finished fourth, 14th overall, 79.120 seconds behind. Kyle Allen, Cory Cercone, Rico Kollmeier and Kyle Mundell led 29 laps, recorded 34 incident points and left the opener second in the Endurance Cup standings on 12 points, two behind the #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim.
At Sebring, the #11 again started fifth and finished third in class, tenth overall and one lap down. Allen, Cercone and Kollmeier led two laps, recorded 28 incident points and ranked second on fastest lap. Vision 1 slipped to third in the standings on 20 points, five behind the #23, which still led after the Monster Energy 12 Hours of Sebring.
The most difficult result came in the Abruzzi Six Hours of the Glen at Watkins Glen. Kollmeier and Routon started tenth and finished tenth in LMP2, 46th overall and 41 laps down. The #11 still led eight laps and recorded 16 incident points, but it fell to fourth in the Endurance Cup standings on 22 points, five off the lead after Round 3.
Road America changed the shape of the campaign. In the Advanced Sim Racing Endurance Grand Prix, Kollmeier and Routon started tenth and won the LMP2 class, finishing 12th overall. The #11 did not lead a lap in that race according to the official campaign data, but the win moved Vision 1 back to third in the standings on 29 points, only three behind Ric Team Racing heading to Road Atlanta.
Petit Le Mans completed the turnaround. Kollmeier and Routon started ninth, finished second, led 38 laps, recorded 21 incident points and moved the #11 up two places in the Endurance Cup standings to first.
Champion’s Campaign by the Numbers
Across the five races that counted toward the 2026 VSCA Endurance Cup, the #11 Vision 1 Motorsports Dallara contested all five rounds and finished every one of them. Its record was one class win, three podium finishes, four top-five finishes and five top-ten finishes.
The team’s best result was first and its worst was tenth. Its average starting position was 7.8, while its average finishing position was 4.0. The #11 recorded no DNFs and no disqualifications across the Endurance Cup campaign.
Vision 1 Motorsports led 77 total laps in the championship races and held the Endurance Cup lead after one of the five rounds: the one that mattered most, after Petit Le Mans. The final total was 39 points.
The drivers credited with the #11’s Endurance Cup campaign were Rico Kollmeier, who raced in all five championship rounds, Matthew Routon in three, Kyle Allen in two, Cory Cercone in two, and Kyle Mundell in one.
Back-to-Back LMP2 Endurance Cup Champions
This title carries extra weight for Vision 1 Motorsports. The team successfully defended its 2025 LMP2 Endurance Cup crown, becoming back-to-back champions in the class, while also navigating a major internal change during the season.
Earlier this year, team founder Damien Behnke retired from racing and withdrew from public life in the sport, with ownership transferring to Kyle Allen. For a team facing that kind of uncertainty, retaining the Endurance Cup title at the end of a season decided on a tie-break gives the achievement a sharper edge.
Kollmeier kept his closing words short, but they matched the mood around the #11 pit after the finish. “Great year,” he said. “Let’s go for another one.”
For Vision 1 Motorsports, the 2026 VSCA Endurance Cup was not won by crushing the field. It was won by surviving Daytona, banking a Sebring podium, absorbing the damage at Watkins Glen, striking back at Road America and then doing exactly enough at Road Atlanta. In LMP2, that was enough to keep the crown.
Related Links