Jack Aitken enters this weekend’s Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Street America on one of the constant runs in current IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship historical past.
The 31-year-old British driver leads the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) standings with 2,145 factors within the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Collection.R, holding a 203-point cushion over second-place Laurin Heinrich (1,942 factors).
Aitken arrives at Street America driving an eight-race podium streak courting again to late final season. That stretch consists of 4 victories: wins at Indianapolis and Motul Petit Le Mans to shut out 2025, adopted by current back-to-back GTP victories at Detroit and Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen this season.
Returning to Street America
This weekend, Street America’s 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit hosts an expanded six-hour endurance spherical. Aitken will share driving duties for Motion Specific Racing alongside co-drivers Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti.
Curiously, Street America can also be the positioning of Aitken’s final non-podium end. Throughout his 28 profession IMSA begins, he has completed fourth on the Wisconsin monitor in each 2024 and 2025. Regardless of his streak, Aitken says the group is not letting statistics change their routine.
“I feel simply deal with it like a traditional day, regular weekend,” Aitken stated. “We’re in a reasonably good groove in the intervening time as a group, as a crew. I feel we have had some good progress this 12 months with the evo replace on the Cadillacs as properly, and there is numerous laborious work within the offseason to get that prepared.” Aitken additionally emphasised that sustaining the streak is secondary to executing each weekend.
“We’re not ready the place we’re desperately making an attempt to carry onto a streak,” he stated. “The fact is we’re coming into each weekend making an attempt to do the very best job we will. The streak will finish sooner or later. I do not know if that’ll be this weekend with a hat-trick of fourth locations or if we will preserve it going even longer, however we really feel good.”
#38 Cadillac Hertz Group Jota Cadillac V-Collection.R: Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, Jack Aitken
Picture by: James Moy Images by way of Getty Photos
The Twin-Program Benefit
A key aspect of Aitken’s sturdy type this season is his twin program with Cadillac, competing in each IMSA and choose rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Shared with co-driver Earl Bamber, the additional seat time has provided a definite edge given fashionable testing limits.
“It has been massively useful,” Aitken defined. “On the finish of the day, it offers me and Earl one thing you possibly can’t actually get nowadays, which is extra monitor time. It’s totally tough to spend extra laps within the automotive with out some form of compromise. …. I really feel prefer it’s taking my driving to a different degree this 12 months.”
Expertise and Championship Perspective
Now in his third full-time IMSA season, Aitken, the 2023 GTP Endurance Cup champion has constructed deep familiarity with North American tracks and racing technique. Over his profession, he has earned 5 IMSA victories.
Aitken attributes his current run to a mixture of “maturity,” sturdy group synergy with Motion Specific, and a sensible understanding of racing luck.
“I really feel like I am reaching a maturity with IMSA,” Aitken stated. “I do know the championship significantly better than I did earlier than and simply extra snug with the tracks, extra in tune with the races and what usually occurs on the technique aspect of issues. And in the identical breath, I’m very snug with the group: Motion Specific and Cadillac. I feel I’ve received some nice relationships that signifies that I get pleasure from my work and I flip up, all the time.”
#31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Collection.R: Jack Aitken
Picture by: Jake Galstad / Lumen by way of Getty Photos
With the championship struggle tightening because the season progresses, Aitken stays centered on efficiency over consequence.
“It could clearly be unbelievable as a result of to win any championship of that scale,” Aitken stated. “IMSA is correct up there within the racing world, not simply within the endurance or sports activities automotive world. It’s a championship that I actually get pleasure from racing in, which suggests rather a lot as properly. And to do it with those that I get pleasure from working with, that may imply rather a lot as properly.
“You stability that in opposition to because the extra championships that I do and the extra races I do, the extra that I measure success in a little bit of a special manner, as a result of you possibly can solely do what’s in your management, what’s in your palms, so I am taking increasingly more pleasure nowadays from doing these issues properly, and that signifies that you do not take the DNFs or the unhealthy outcomes fairly as laborious while you really feel such as you’ve accomplished your job. But it surely additionally signifies that while you win, you are a bit extra circumspect about it.
“I can be over the moon if we will do it and be very happy with what we have achieved. However I’ll nonetheless be very proud, even when we do not do it. So I suppose that is what I am making an attempt to say.”
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