ST. CHARLES, Ill., (October 14, 2024) – The Jurassic world once again reigned supreme last weekend, when AO Racing, Laurin Heinrich, and Rexy, the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 Rawr became IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Team and Driver Champions at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The fan-favorite T-Rex race car finished out his sophomore season with drivers Laurin Heinrich, Michael Christensen, and Julien Andlauer battling electrical gremlins during the 10-hour Petit Le Mans race to win the championship by a mere four points.
“It certainly wasn’t the last race of the season that we all wanted, but to come away with the GTD Pro championship is extremely satisfying,” said Team Principal Gunnar Jeannette. “Both Laurin and Julien did an amazing job driving the car while we were battling some significant issues. The crew did a great job to diagnose and fix the problem only going six laps down, but unfortunately, we never got the yellows in the race to have the opportunity to get those laps back.”
The steps to AO’s weekend success began in qualifying when Laurin Heinrich clinched the pole position, collecting 35 additional valuable championship points. With a 104-point lead over the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, even if the Aston won, Rexy only needed to finish sixth or better in order to clinch the title. What should have been a fairly easy path to victory was shaken up with early-race attrition.
In the opening stint of the race, polesitter Laurin Heinrich reported troubles shifting due to an electrical issue with the steering wheel. Over the next stint, the team continued to troubleshoot with Julien Andlauer at the wheel, finally resolving the issue after a lengthy pit stop that put the team five laps down from the GTD PRO class leaders. From there, AO Racing had nothing to do but wait, hoping that the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin would fail to finish above third place. A series of late-race cautions presented the Aston Martin drivers the opportunity to attempt to catch the leaders, but in the end, they finished third, and AO Racing’s ferocious T-Rex became the 2024 series champion with an 11th place finish, five laps down.
While Rexy suffered early race issues, Spike the No. 99 LPM2 Dragon, driven by PJ Hyett, Paul-Loup Chatin, and Matthew Brabham started third and drove to the lead by lap 61, staying in the top two positions for another 60 laps. In the end, the No. 99 finished in seventh, closing out the team’s Rookie LPM2 season with four pole positions and one podium.
At the IMSA WeatherTech Night of Champions, AO Racing received a cache of trophies in addition to the expected team and driver awards. PJ Hyett, Team Owner and driver of Spike, the No. 99 LMP2 Dragon was bestowed the Motul Pole Award in honor of his impressive four-race streak of securing pole position in qualifying.
This year, IMSA debuted a new award, recognizing team achievement in the area of marketing. In recognition of the team’s innovative characters, creative merchandise, record autograph session attendance, fan engagement, and rapidly growing fan base, AO Racing became the first team to receive the inaugural honor.
The crew of AO Racing were also recognized for their hard work, with the team’s GTD PRO mechanics being awarded the Michelin All Hands Award, an award given to the team who spends the least amount of time in pit late throughout the course of the 10-race season.
The team will return with Spike and Rexy in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s LMP2 and GTD PRO classes in 2025, with details to be announced at a later date.
