Win the championship. Lose your journey. What a weird state of affairs for Dane Cameron, IMSA’s most profitable driver for the reason that championship’s relaunch in 2014.
However that’s exactly what occurred earlier within the month, shortly after the completion of Motul Petit Le Mans, when the Porsche Penske Motorsport driver was farewelled by the crew and producer after sealing the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title for the model with co-drivers Felipe Nasr and Matt Campbell. Did Cameron lose a step? Or did full-season associate Nasr have a banner 12 months? No solutions got within the choice to half methods with the brand new four-time IMSA champion.
With a statement-making victory to open the season on the Rolex 24 At Daytona, a second endurance win on the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, and 7 podiums from 9 races, the decision to interchange Cameron is particularly odd, however the 36-year-old knew a change was imminent.
“It’s unusual, for certain, however I knew earlier than the final race,” Cameron instructed RACER. “It’s a bizarre feeling to undergo the entire movement of successful the championship, chasing it, nonetheless combating for it, and understanding you’re not coming again to the undertaking. Clearly, I’m actually happy with the 12 months. Daytona was a fairly enormous second for me, simply as one thing that’s been extremely troublesome to win. It’s a very nice feeling to have that one off your again. That was the one factor I needed, above all else, so to get that and the championship in the identical 12 months is superior. However they didn’t wish to transfer ahead with me, which is a brand new feeling to return off the again of a championship, having received a good few from time to time.”
Within the 11 seasons which have come from the new-era WeatherTech Championship which was shaped as a blended household for the previous American Le Mans Sequence and Grand-Am Rolex Sequence, Cameron earned Drivers’ championship honors in 2014 with Turner Motorsport in GTD in a BMW Z4, in 2016 with Motion Specific Racing in a Corvette Daytona Prototype within the prime Prototype class, in 2019 with the manufacturing facility Acura Crew Penske squad in a Acura ARX-05 within the DPi class, and as soon as extra in 2024 for the manufacturing facility PPM crew in GTP with a Porsche 963 hybrid.
4 championships and 20 race wins over that span of 9 IMSA seasons — one was spent idling in 2022 because the 963 effort got here collectively, and he was deployed to the FIA WEC in 2023 with the 963 — has moved the 36-year-old into lofty territory.
But when ever there was a reminder of how the fun of racing are counterbalanced by the chilly aspect of enterprise, Cameron’s new actuality speaks to the game’s risky nature. Though it stays unconfirmed, he’s possible headed to a prime LMP2 crew in 2025 – AO Racing is believed to move the listing – the place his pace and expertise are coveted.
“Having to be choosing up the telephone and making an attempt to drum up the following alternative can also be unusual, however you recognize, it’s what it’s, as our buddy [Juan Palbo] Montoya says,” Cameron mentioned. “Life goes on. It’s simply racing. I do have one thing I’d say is lined up; probably not able to go public. However I really feel fairly good about what’s arising subsequent, for certain.”
Having received a IMSA DPi title for Penske and Acura with Montoya, Cameron was a pure match for Penske’s return to sports activities automobile racing with Porsche. In a relationship that started in 2018, the Californian was the final of Penske’s DPi drivers to proceed in a frontline position for the crew, and whereas the change continues to be settling in, it feels like Cameron welcomes a change of tempo.
“It’s been a extremely robust undertaking, truthfully, so in some methods, it’s unhappy to go away such a giant, prestigious program, nevertheless it’s been actually robust on me, robust on my household, and there’s been some actually fairly dangerous moments, to be trustworthy, some fairly low moments,” he mentioned.
“So I’m feeling prepared to show the web page as effectively, and get again to fundamentals and have some enjoyable and really feel lucky to have my spouse and my household to assist me. I used to be an open-wheel man at one time, however I name myself a profession sports activities automobile man. I at all times simply needed to be a race automobile driver. I actually didn’t care what it was, what taste it was, who was going to be within the different seat, if there was even one other seat. I simply needed to drive and indulge that zeal that all of us have after we have been children in karting.
“So, yeah, I’ve achieved most likely far more than I ever dreamed that I’d in sports activities automobiles, and I nonetheless really feel I’ve much more to provide. I’m tremendous proud to have 4 championships; it appears like a extremely massive quantity to say. However I actually really feel like 5 and 6 are fairly attainable, to be trustworthy, so I don’t plan to cease now or anytime quickly.”
