A major result for Matt Campbell in the IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road Atlanta over the weekend headlines a strong showing of results for Australian drivers abroad.

IMSA SportsCar Championship – Road Atlanta

Matt Campbell has concluded the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship season on a high, claiming an outright and class podium at Road Atlanta in the 10 Hour Motul Petit Le Mans and claiming the 2025 IMSA GTP Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championship for Porsche Penske Motorsport.

Campbell and teammate Mathieu Jaminet wound up with a 187-point provisional edge in the driver’s standings, while Porsche expanded its slim two-point edge over Acura at the start of the race to a 42-point cushion.

The Porsche Penske Motorsport team got off to a great weekend, securing sixth on the grid with a fastest lap time of 1:10.284 to put it near the front row.

Campbell opened up the race for teammates Laurens Vanthoor and Jaminet in the #6 Porsche 963, before Jaminet guided the car slowly to the front of the pack within the first three hours of racing. Jaminet entered the pits at the midway point of the race, handing the car over to Vanthoor who did well to maintain the lead.

Campbell then reclaimed the driver’s seat under lights with three hours to go, having to engage in a lengthy battle with Cadillac Whelen’s Earl Bamber throughout the ninth hour of racing. Jaminet finished the 10th and final hour of the race.

Jaminet was forced into the pits for a brief fuel top-up with 13 minutes remaining, rejoining the track in fourth position. Jaminet was able for surpass former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean in the final 10 minutes to finish the race on the bottom step of the podium and secure the GTP Championship on points.

Jaminet and Campbell also teamed to win the IMSA Grand Touring Daytona Pro Championship for Porsche in 2022.

“That’s two years in IMSA together and two championships,” Campbell said.

“Coming back together this year after a couple years apart has worked phenomenally and we hit the ground running. We really showed our consistency and experience together, and that put us in position for this championship title.”

Fellow compatriots Josh Burdon finished the race 20th outright and eighth in class, dropping a couple of spots from qualifying, after a solid drive in the second driver’s position in the LMP2 category. Meanwhile, Tom Sargent finished in 33rd outright and sixth in the GTD category. Having clocked the 15th-fastest class time in qualifying, Sargent and the Wright Motorsports did a great job of climbing the GTD order.

GT World Challenge Europe – Barcelona

The final stop of the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS featured 60 cars in a packed field, racing around the Circuit de Barcelona. Among them, Australians Jayden Kelly racing for Greystone GT Racing, and James Allen in the driver line-up for Optimum Motorsport.

Kelly and his Greystone teammates Zac Meakin and Michael O’Brien secured a top 20 combined qualification time to start in the front half of the starting grid and fourth fastest among Silver Cup teams – Kelly himself tallying a fastest lap time on 1:41.409.

Allen pulled together a 1:41.485 fastest qualifying lap, good enough to contribute to the team’s combined time which put them 28th on the starting grid, and sixth among Gold Cup competitors.

Greystone would lose half a dozen positions prior to Kelly jumping into the car for the second driver stint. After the first changeover, Kelly, a McLaren Trophy Europe Champion for 2025, performed well to get the McLaren 720S GT3 EVO back to the middle of the field in 24th before the final pit stop.

There would be no more movement up or down the race order for the trio, finishing the race after 91 laps in 24th outright and sixth in the Silver Cup class.

Allen’s teammate Porter got out to a fast start, climbing seven spots in the opening laps to put the team’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo close to the front third of the order.

Allen then commenced the second portion of the race after an early driver changeover, reemerging back in the field in the mid-50s. After the rest of the changeovers, the #5 car sat comfortably in 12th momentarily before a second bunching of changeovers took place, slingshotting Allen into second and eventually into first, producing a chance for the team to come away with a race win.

Allen led briefly with 90 minutes remaining in the session, but would tag in Ali for the final leg of the race. Ultimately a couple of penalties would hit the Optimum Motorsport team and knock them out contention and finish the race 18th outright and one spot off the Gold Cup podium in fourth.

New Zealand Rally Championship – Rally Bay of Plenty

Despite a strong start to the Rally Bay of Plenty, an unfortunate misstep for navigator Larisa Biggar put a premature end to the event for the Australian, alongside Kiwi driver Caleb Macdonald.

In a social media post, Biggar recounted the pair’s performance leading up to their retirement near the end of the third stage.

“After a hot start for SS1 & SS2, the Evo 6 felt fantastic – sitting 7th overall in the New Zealand Rally Championship,” Biggar wrote.

“Everything between us in the car felt great too. The Big Belly Rally crew did a quick check in service and sent us to SS3.

“We were on the pace for 33km of the 34km stage until we had a high speed excursion rolling down the road and around the corner.”

The pair finished SS1 with the 13th-quickest stint in 8:30.2 minutes. Biggar and Macdonald then doubled down on their efforts with the 10th-quickest time in SS2 at MacDougall Quarry in 8:02.3 minutes.

Biggar also cited the pair’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI will not be able to get up to rally-shape for the final round of the New Zealand Rally Championship in Whangerei, calling on supporters to consider assisting finding the team a replacement vehicle.

“No doubt we’ll need the support of our beautiful rally community to make it happen,” Biggar continued.

“We will stay positive and aim to achieve our goals. Pushing the limits means sometimes you find it.”

Italian F4 – Misano

The rookie Italian F4 season of Dante Vinci is now in the books, following a great showing at the final round in the Italian F4 Championship in Misano.

Starting 12th on the grid for the first of three races, Vinci’s overtaking skills were on full display. The Australian jumped five positions over the 25-minute session, finishing seventh overall and third among the rookies to claim six championship points.

Starting in 12th again for his second run, Vinci was unable to find the same overtaking opportunities, finishing 14th after 17 laps. In race three on the weekend, the Van Amersfoort Racing driver finished 16 laps of the circuit and finished 30th, hampered primarily by a crash 15 minutes into the session, resulting in an unplanned pit stop, and a 10-second time penalty.

In his last race of the Italian F4 Championship season, Vinci also started 22nd on the grid in a Race 2 recovery session from Round 5 in Imola, which was cancelled due to wet weather at the time. It was a session cut short for Vinci, who was taken out at turn two with five minutes remaining in the race, putting him in 23rd to end his rookie F4 campaign.

Vinci finishes Italian F4 with 23 championship points, putting him a spot outside the top 20 for the season, highlighted by a superb performance during the first race at Monza in late-May.

While the F4 season has come to a close for Vinci, the Australian has one last event for 2025, heading to Monza for the third and final round of the E4 Championship on 26 October.