RSR Intelligence · Issue 019

Issue 019 · Monday 5th October 2026

A weekend worth celebrating

Porsche won Petit Le Mans in the top class for the first time. Lionspeed GP delivered Porsche's first overall GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup drivers' title in Barcelona. BMW's Paul Miller Racing (PMR) secured the IMSA professional GT3 championship, while Mercedes-AMG's Winward Racing completed a third successive GTD title campaign.

That is a weekend worth pausing over. It also sharpens three different parts of the story we have been following: the breadth of Porsche's successful customer teams, BMW's championship achievements beyond Team WRT, and Winward's ability to sustain a winning programme across successive seasons.

There was plenty for others to celebrate too. Cadillac secured the full-season GTP manufacturers' championship, Car Blanche won GTD Pro with Aston Martin, and Audi and Ferrari shared Barcelona's race victories.

Porsche's prototype milestone came through Porsche Penske Motorsport. Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell took the No. 6 Porsche 963 to overall victory at Road Atlanta. Porsche says that completed the first manufacturer sweep of Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans overall in one season.

Winning three of the major American endurance races in one year is an achievement to savour. The 963 programme supplies the factory chapter of this weekend's Porsche story. Its customer GT3 teams supply another, with Barcelona providing the most consequential new result.

Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus ended the Sprint season as champions in Lionspeed's 911 GT3 R, completing Porsche's first overall drivers' title in the competition.

That changes the customer-depth picture carried forward from Issue 018. Absolute Racing's two-car success at Suzuka showed what one organisation could deliver. Lionspeed now adds a completed championship through a separate team. Porsche has another substantial customer success with its own identity.

Absolute contributed again this weekend, on Beijing's streets. Huang Ruohan and Alessandro Ghiretti won Sunday's GT World Challenge Asia race, with Origine Motorsport's Lu Wei and Loek Hartog classified second after an Audi penalty. The series organiser, SRO Motorsports Group, also reports that Absolute's mechanics built up a new chassis overnight following a fire in Friday's Bronze Test.

That overnight work is the detail worth remembering alongside the result. Before the drivers could race for victory, the crew had to put a car underneath them. Absolute's return to the winning story, with Origine alongside it on the classified podium, gives the Asian contribution both substance and a human scale.

There were further customer achievements: Peter Dempsey and Eddie Cheever completed the Bronze drivers' title for Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing, while AO Racing finished second in GTD Pro at Petit and Manthey 1st Phorm second in GTD, the category pairing professional and amateur drivers.

Taken together, these results broaden the list of Porsche operators delivering worthwhile outcomes. Our Manthey explainer examined retained specialist expertise; this weekend adds recognition for teams beyond that familiar reference. The useful change is a fuller picture of where success is coming from.

For BMW, PMR's championship deserves the centre of attention.

Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen secured the full-season GTD Pro driver and team titles, finishing third at Petit with Dan Harper in the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

That gives a North American organisation a substantial place in the account of BMW's GT3 season. WRT remains a major European reference, but PMR has delivered its own championship campaign. Any description of BMW's successful teams needs to give that achievement proper weight.

WRT completed the overall Sprint teams' title in Barcelona, ahead of Lionspeed. Its Matisse Lismont and Ignacio Montenegro had already secured the Silver honours at Zandvoort.

The combination is the BMW significance of this weekend: two separate organisations have converted their seasons into GT3 championships, across different competitions and continents. PMR's result strengthens the evidence for success beyond WRT.

BMW M Team WRT also finished second overall at Petit with the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8, just 1.205 seconds behind the Porsche.

It adds a close factory prototype finish to BMW's celebration. The GT3 titles provide the stronger evidence for this issue's interpretation of its customer programmes.

Winward's achievement carries a different weight: repetition.

Russell Ward and Philip Ellis completed their third consecutive GTD drivers' championship, with Winward taking the corresponding team title. Indy Dontje joined them for the class victory at Petit itself.

Three successful campaigns in succession give this programme a record that deserves recognition in its own right. Winward arrived at another season finale with a championship to finish and left with both the title and the race win.

IMSA records four wins and a second place across Winward's final five rounds. Ward credited the crew's determination to recover points after the Watkins Glen setback as the start of that response.

The recovery matters to the way this season will be remembered. It gives the closing run a beginning: a damaged campaign, people still working to salvage something from it, and results that carried the team back into the championship. Ward's account gives the crew its share of the credit.

The Ward/Ellis pairing is already confirmed for 2027.

That gives the next campaign a recognisable foundation. Our beyond-Winward feature has a separate task, examining sustained success elsewhere in the AMG customer network. This weekend strengthens Winward's place as the reference against which that question is being asked.

Petit also brought rival setbacks and late-race circumstances that shaped the outcome. Contact affected the GTD Pro title contest; Ellis acknowledged the fuel-saving benefit of a late caution; and Turner Motorsport retired with a loss of water pressure.

Those circumstances, together with Balance of Performance, the system used to balance the competing cars, limit what the finale can tell us about relative technical capability. The season-long titles and the identity of the teams earning them give this issue its firmer ground. Turner's retirement also closes the campaign examined in our earlier analysis, with a disappointing result whose root cause remains open.

The Indianapolis 8 Hour comes next. The current entry list includes Turner's BMW, Porsche customer teams and Mercedes-AMGs from JMF Motorsports and Lone Star Racing.

It will offer another opportunity to examine the questions carried forward from Issue 018, with the post-season features following the longer threads of support, continuity and competing commitments.

For now, the teams have earned this moment. Porsche's customer picture has grown broader, BMW has a championship achievement beyond WRT to recognise, and Winward has extended a run of success across another full season. There is plenty to investigate next, and plenty to celebrate today.

Petit Le Mans results and titles follow IMSA's current provisional records.