IMSA Wire: GTD PRO Championship Decided by Most Minor of Margins

Heinrich, No. 77 AO Racing Porsche Hung on by Mere Four Points
October 21, 2024By Jeff OlsonIMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Those four points.
Laurin Heinrich kept talking about the excruciatingly close margin that gave him the 2024 driver’s championship – and AO Racing the team championship – in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class after his postrace celebration at Motul Petit Le Mans.
He wasn’t focused necessarily on the compactness of the winning margin, but rather where the four points should be credited.
Did they come from the pole position the previous day? Perhaps. Did they come from any – or all – of the team’s three GTD PRO wins in the during the 10-race IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season? Somewhere in there are four points that made it all happen.
“I can think of 100 situations where we could have lost one of the four points,” Heinrich said. “The margins are so small. In the end, you can say the four points came from our pole in Daytona. They came from our pole here in Petit. Some key races for sure.”
The gathering of points by Heinrich and AO started early and carried on for nearly nine months. After winning the Motul Pole Award for the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, Heinrich, Michael Christensen and Seb Priaulx finished second in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R behind the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 co-driven by Daniel Serra, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Davide Rigon. It was Heinrich’s first IMSA race and AO’s first race in the GTD PRO class.

Maybe, Heinrich surmised, the four points came in May in the Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where he teamed with Priaulx to win.
“That must have been one of the best wins, I would say,” Heinrich said, reminiscing on the No. 77 Porsche and its capabilities at the demanding circuit.
Or, quite possibly, the four points came from the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in September. After winning the pole position, the car failed tech and was relegated to the back of the grid for the start of the race.
“When everyone came Sunday morning to the track at Indy, I didn’t see any team member who was still upset about what happened the day before,” Heinrich recalled. “They were all so motivated and focused that we could score a good result still in the race. I never had that before, and I think that really also flipped the switch in me.”
Heinrich and Michael Christensen combined to win at Indy, setting the stage for the four-point miracle at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Oct. 12.
After winning the pole there, Heinrich, Christensen and Julien Andlauer needed to just hold it together in the race to clinch the driver and team championships. It wasn’t quite that simple.
Mechanical issues sent the car to the pits and dropped it back to 11th place, five laps off the pace. Ross Gunn, Heinrich’s closest challenger in the driver standings, took the lead by 16 points when his No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo moved to second place. When it dropped to third, Heinrich moved back into the championship lead by four points.
On and on it went, back and forth, driving Heinrich mad, especially when he wasn’t driving.
“That was, for me, probably the hardest part,” he said. “Being in the car, you are focused on driving. You do your job, but you are hitting your marks, but then sitting on the pit stand where you can do nothing but just look at these screens. That was quite tough. … The team helped me to stay sort of motivated because it was for me quite difficult at that moment.”

Eventually, the No. 23 co-driven by Gunn, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis finished third behind the race-winning No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 co-driven by Jordan Pepper, Mirko Bortolotti and Franck Perera and the runner-up No. 62 Risi Ferrari piloted by Serra, Rigon and Pier Guidi. The 11th-place class finish was just enough for Heinrich and AO to hang onto their titles.
The IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup for the top performances in the five GTD PRO endurance races went to the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 co-driven by Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and Neil Verhagen. Speaking of close margins, they prevailed over the No. 62 Risi Ferrari by just two points under the different scoring format that awarded points at different junctures of each endurance race plus at the finish.
In the end, though, the slim margin for driver, team and manufacturer season championships went to Heinrich, AO Racing and Porsche – in a year when the No. 77 was the only car to record multiple wins. Seven other cars each had one victory.
“What a year,” said Heinrich, who at 23 became the youngest WeatherTech Championship champion in a Pro class. “In the end, it’s decided by four points. And if I think back throughout the season, what are four points? It’s all these small decisions you take in the qualifying or in the race, and I couldn’t – I can’t – thank my team enough, and also my teammates.”
He proceeded to list them: Priaulx, Christensen, Andlauer and Klaus Bachler.
“I really appreciate their support,” Heinrich said. “Because in the end, they joined me, and they were not fighting for their own championship, and they were just there to help us – the team and me – win our championship. I think it really speaks for them.”