The grand finale of my first season going racing was right here at home. It actually solved a great lifelong mystery of mine. One of the few non-NASCAR racing memes to penetrate my childhood bubble was a gravelly-voiced radio ad talking about something called “Petit Le Mans” that played constantly in the summertime on 99X, the alt rock radio station to which I listened exclusively. I had no idea what it meant. I didn’t even know it had anything to do with auto racing. But it impressed itself upon my preteen mind as something I needed to figure out someday.

It turns out to be one of the greatest sports car races in the world, and since it takes place at my home track, I had to be there for the whole thing to cap off my 2025 racing season. Naturally, I got there before the haulers were even parked. Luckily, after a little while, a sizable contingent of the Bluesky racing squad came in for it, so it was a party every day.

This was my first time seeing Road Atlanta packed with people, and it was an absolute blast. To begin with, one of my favorite race cars of all time was there, and not just for show; it turned laps!

End-of-season vibes were high, and many antics ensued. I got to hang out with James Hinchcliffe for a bit in the fan zone as part of a Pfaff Motorsports sponsor do. We were treated to a (foot) race between Pfaff’s dinosaur intern, Brachiobrian, and a sporting young man.

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We got to see our beloved Mazda MX-5 Cup’s season come down to the wire at one of the greatest tracks I could imagine them racing at.

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Race 1 was a damn shame for Tyler Gonzalez, who was caught up in funny business and wrecked out of championship contention. He got another car out for race 2, but I found his totaled ride in the paddock later, waiting to be put out to pasture.

I had various end-of-year missions to accomplish, such as getting my Eversley hat signed by Ryan Eversley and getting a grid shot with him, co-driver Celso Neto, and the Precision Racing LA squad on the Michelin Pilot Challenge grid.

We also found Nolan Siegel a little farther up the grid, and his team were good sports about letting us isolate him like probably everyone else at the race wanted to.

Naturally, Road Atlanta was a flattering venue for that series as well:

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Before the season ended, I had to bid au revoir to my beloved AWA Corvette, with whom I spent an inordinate amount of time.

I had a mission within that mission, though, which was to meet AWA’s legendary engineer, Jeff Braun (father of Colin, who was somehow even busier that weekend), who is a host of one of my favorite podcasts ever, It’s Not the Car. I talked to the whole AWA team at once at one point, and no one knew where he was. I came back very early on the morning of the race and loomed for many minutes, and the mission was accomplished.

Jeff gave me a ton of time and explained how the only goal for Petit was to beat the #70 Inception Racing Ferrari, which would secure AWA its second Bob Akin Award spot in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They would go on to do so, but not in the most delightful of circumstances; the #70 was involved in a horrible head-on crash on lap 1 of the 10-hour race. Fortunately, everyone was okay.

The WeatherTech paddock was an incredible place prior to the race. One of the most moving events was the ceremony marking the last race (for now?) of the Lamborghini SC63 prototype, where the whole team came out to sign the car and pose for pictures. It’s sad to lose a car from this amazing generation of prototypes, and the #63 had a great last race, too, finishing P4.

Not to be outdone in pomp and circumstance (though they were outdone in the race), Wayne Taylor Racing lined up in this very formal military-style formation.

Of course, it was the other Cadillac that won, and it was clearly the best all year. The #31 had just won at Indianapolis, and when I spoke to Jack Aitken before the finale, he called his shot. “Back to back, baby!” He was right.

I did make sure to tag the Acuras before they rolled out to the grid. Both cars raced with Turning Fortune affiliation.

The unambiguous star of the weekend for me, though, was the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH, which really is every bit as amazing as people say. It was cool enough standing still:

But — and I know everyone says this, but — you really have to hear it to believe it.

The pre-race grid ceremonies were absolutely packed and accompanied by live musicians. I cannot overstate how ready Georgia was to see 10 hours of sports car racing.

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And that we certainly did.

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