Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken enter the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks on Sunday in the same spot they left last year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race -- first.
But the circumstances are far different.
The No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R enters the 2-hour, 40-minute race on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course as the defending winners. It’s also leading the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) team standings by 185 points over the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian ARX-06.
A year ago, the No. 31 Cadillac wasn’t even in championship consideration.
Its victory at IMS was the team’s first in 30 races, dating to its previous win in 2023 at the Twelve Hours of Sebring. It also marked the program’s first podium since a runner-up finish in May 2024 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The victory instantly changed the trajectory of the team.
The No. 31 Cadillac followed its Indianapolis victory by winning Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta to close the 2025 season. It has added two more victories this season, winning on the streets of Detroit during the same Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear weekend as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and at Watkins Glen International.
That’s four victories in the last nine IMSA races entering Sunday’s race that begins at 3 p.m. ET (click here for tickets).
The Cadillac also finished runner-up in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Long Beach and Laguna Seca and was third at Sebring. Its eighth-place finish in the most recent race at Road America came after Aitken battled for second place with 10 minutes remaining but was eliminated due to contact with Kevin Estre in the No. 6 Penske Porsche Motorsport Porsche on the final restart.
“We had an amazing run on the podium nearly for one year straight with the IMSA calendar,” Bamber said. “Obviously, the last race didn’t really go the way we’d planned or expected it, but we were still in the fight to win the race.
“Indy’s typically been a pretty strong track for the 31 car, so looking forward to that. Just really great momentum in the program.”
The No. 31 team returns to Indianapolis with something it didn’t have last year: a championship lead.
Aitken leads the GTP driver standings by 118 points over Laurin Heinrich, who competes for Porsche Penske Motorsport this weekend. Bamber is fifth after missing the Long Beach race in April while competing for Cadillac in the FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar class. Frederik Vesti, the team’s endurance race driver, filled in for Bamber, sharing the car with Aitken as the pair finished runner-up.
Last year at Indianapolis, Vesti joined Bamber and Aitken for the six-hour endurance race.
The No. 31 Cadillac started from the front row and ultimately dominated the race, with the trio combining to lead 210 of 243 laps.
Aitken qualified second, just .041 of a second behind Tom Blomqvist’s pole-winning time. The No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian ARX-06 was later moved to the back of the GTP field following a technical infraction discovered during post-qualifying inspection, putting Aitken on pole for the start.
He led from the beginning, but the race quickly became a battle of strategy and energy management.
The No. 31 Cadillac was one of only two GTP entries using a three-driver lineup, and all three drivers played a role in navigating the changing conditions and energy requirements of the race.
Aitken thought his driving was finished before the team called on him again for the closing stint.
He spent the final hour managing energy while holding off a charging Blomqvist. Ricky Taylor eventually moved the No. 10 Cadillac V-Series.R into second with 16 minutes remaining, but the No. 31 remained in control.
A final caution with less than 10 minutes remaining gave the second-place Cadillac enough energy to reach the finish, but it was too late to challenge Bamber, Aitken and Vesti.
The No. 31 Cadillac crossed the finish line .988 of a second ahead of Taylor and Albuquerque, while Blomqvist and Colin Braun finished third in the No. 60 Acura.
Cadillacs led all but seven laps.
A year later, the No. 31 returns to IMS with a different kind of pressure.
The team no longer needs Indianapolis to revive its season. It arrives with a championship lead, a string of strong results and the confidence that came from finally breaking through at one of the most important races on the schedule.
Bamber knows the formula that worked last year remains the same.
“Just going about the same thing race after race, which is trying to execute these races well,” Bamber said. “It’s about execution. It’s worked for the most part and we’re probably just not going to change anything. I feel when you try to go on the defense, it normally works worse. We’re just going to keep with our same tactic and strategy, and hopefully it still ends up in the same spot.”
