| First Full Season in Category Has Yielded Impressive Results September 17, 2025By John OreoviczIMSA Wire Service |
| DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It’s fair to say that DragonSpeed’s emergence as a title contender in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class has been one of the pleasant surprises of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. The effort is very much a work in progress, as DragonSpeed prepares to celebrate its one-year anniversary of entering GT category competition in the WeatherTech Championship at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The team compiled an enviable record including three Rolex 24 At Daytona victories in four years in IMSA’s Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class from 2019-2022. Elton Julian’s DragonSpeed team then switched things up by fielding a Ferrari 296 GT3 in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class last year at Indianapolis before adjusting its driver lineup and goals to compete in GTD PRO in the season-concluding Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. This year, DragonSpeed committed its No. 81 Ferrari to GTD PRO from the start, with technical assistance from longtime Ferrari stalwart Risi Competizione. The melding of that partnership took hold at last year’s Motul Petit Le Mans and has only grown from there. Albert Costa sits a strong second in the standings, 53 points behind leaders Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims (No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R) and 138 points ahead of defending class champion Laurin Heinrich and his 2025 co-driver Klaus Bachler in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). |
| Like Heinrich in 2024, Costa has not had a season-long co-driver this year. DragonSpeed has most frequently fielded Costa’s longtime friend Giacomo Altoè alongside Costa in sprint races, while Ferrari factory ace Davide Rigon has been the team’s most common IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup driver. Costa has rolled with the changes to put together a championship-worthy campaign. After starting the season with a sixth-place finish at the Rolex 24 driving alongside Rigon, Miguel Molina and Thomas Neubauer, Costa drove the DragonSpeed Ferrari to the first of the team’s four Motul Pole Awards so far this season at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring where he, Altoè and Rigon finished fourth. In May, Altoè took pole and he and Costa earned second place at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The tricky, tight and short streets of Detroit posed the only real hiccup of DragonSpeed’s season. Rasmus Lindh stepped in at the last minute to fill-in for Altoè and the team finished a season-worst eighth. But a rebound followed at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen when Costa and Rigon finished third, setting in motion the team’s current run of four straight podiums. DragonSpeed’s perfect strategy allowed the returning Altoè and Costa to claim their first win of the season in mid-July after starting 10th in the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. They carried that strong form through August, as Altoè sped to the pole at Road America and VIRginia International Raceway where he and Costa notched podium finishes in both races. “It’s not easy,” Costa said regarding the challenge of working with different co-drivers in the same season. “Luckily, I learned in this sport – especially in endurance racing – you need to have a lot of team spirit. I’m always very friendly with everyone, if you know me. I try to be close because the drivers need to be like brothers, and the team like a family. So, I always try to have the best atmosphere I can.” Costa is quick to credit the team and all the drivers who have contributed to DragonSpeed’s prime opportunity to challenge the long-established factory Corvette operation for the GTD PRO crown. “Without them, we wouldn’t be in this position in the championship,” Costa said. “With Giacomo, I always say he is my shadow. We learn from each other. I’m just thankful to everyone who has made it possible. From the first time I drove with Davide (Rigon), I learned so much because he is so professional and has a lot of experience. And he’s so quick! With him, from day one in Daytona, we understood each other. Thanks also to Molina and Neubauer because they helped me to be here with the points for Daytona. “It was not easy, because sometimes the driver was new,” he continued. “Like Rasmus – it was his first time in this car at a strange circuit. It was difficult to learn on a weekend like that. “But I am very proud of Giacomo for qualifying on pole three times, and the team has been doing a lot of good work at home that allows us to be prepared at the start of every weekend even though we are not testing. We feel we have good race pace, but everybody is so strong, and you really have to fight for it.” Despite starting from pole and finishing second in the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, Costa lost a bit of ground (entered the weekend 30 points behind and left it 53 back) in the championship because Sims and Garcia and the No. 3 Corvette won. Costa still came away happy, calling it a “tough race, the kind you enjoy fighting every lap.” Altoè, Costa, and DragonSpeed are very much the underdogs in the battle with the behemoth Corvette organization, which has won more than a dozen American sports car championships since 2001 in top-level GT classes. DragonSpeed has done its prep work this year from video research and simulation work rather than testing, as well. DragonSpeed will benefit from Rigon’s return for the final two Michelin Endurance Cup rounds of the year at Indianapolis (Sept. 21) and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta (Oct. 11), with Altoè then back at the latter event. Costa is the defending GTD class winner at Motul Petit Le Mans, where last year he shared a Conquest Racing Ferrari with Manny Franco and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli. “I know I will give 100 percent or more,” promised Costa. “It’s going to go down to the end.” |
