IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP: MOTUL PETIT LE MANS

October 11, 2025

Dane Cameron

Jonny Edgar

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by LMP2 champion, No. 99 AO Racing ORECA LMP2 07, Dane Cameron, PJ Hyett, co-driver. PJ can't join us this evening, but we also do have the co-driver in this event, Jonny Edgar.

Dane, again, the mission coming in was pretty clear. There were some twists and turns along the way, it seemed, but I guess just tell us what it means to win now five championships and what it was like to do it with this group.

DANE CAMERON: Yeah, honestly, pretty amazing. That's obviously the goal when you start the year, and believed in the project and the pieces that were there that it had this potential to bring a championship. Just needed a little bit of, yeah, just a little glue to hold everything all together and elevate things a little bit more.

Just grateful, thankful that PJ and Gunnar thought that I could be the guy. I thought there was some potential there to do it.

Yeah, like I said, the mission was to get some wins for Spike after a tough year for them last year. Of course, the moon shot is to get the championship. Yeah, that all came together.

So a difficult year in certain parts and a very strong, consistent year in other parts. I think of all the years that I've won the championship. This is probably the longest ten hours that I've spent here. It was a pretty long day, pretty stressful day. Looked like it was kind of going to slip away there at a couple of points.

But, yeah, tried to run with the rest of the staff that we have here, just deliver the message that you just need to -- that it probably would get bumpy at some point, but just to stay calm, to stay with it, to keep fighting all the way to the end.

At the end of the day, I'm really grateful and thankful for Jonny doing a really great job for us. It's nearly all the races that we have we have Jonny, so it's a bit of a shame in a way that two races makes the difference for him also not being champion. He was really spectacular for us this year and a huge part of this result. Thankful to have him.

Honestly pretty incredible. Five is quite a special number.

THE MODERATOR: Jonny, how special is it for you to contribute to what happened here with this team today and obviously throughout the season?

JONNY EDGAR: Yeah, it's been amazing to be part of the team. Thankful for the opportunity to drive with him. Yeah, driving with someone like Dane, obviously before this year Daytona winner, four-time IMSA champion -- yeah, Dane helped a lot, just lot of details that I think the experience brings. That's helped.

Obviously PJ has been great all year, and I think the team has done a great job. Yeah, I'm happy to have helped a bit towards the championship. Yeah, I think some of the endurance races we were unlucky, so it's a shame we never managed to win one.

I think especially Daytona it was looking quite good, and we had an issue. Yeah, the team has been amazing. I think everything we've been able to control, we've normally done a good job. Even when races have, yeah, at moments it's gone bad, we managed to recover.

Like today, early on we had a puncture, and it was not looking great, but then, yeah, a couple of hours to go we were in P2 again leading in points. Then, yeah, once 22 had an issue, it was just about bringing it home and taking no risks that we kind of -- yeah, two and a half hours to go, we kind of backed off. Then it was just about surviving until the end.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Dane, I believe there might have been an issue during the final driver change with the seat belts. Was that what happened that sort of led to sort of a slower stop there?

DANE CAMERON: Yeah, we didn't get one plugged in there, and I was trying to get it. I tightened some other ones, and it gets a little more complicated then.

Yeah, just threw the door open as I was trying to deal with it to call for help a little bit. So, yeah, happens every once in a while. It was unfortunate it was there, but obviously we were in a decent point at that standing.

Yeah, a little bit of a change there. A little bit of an issue on the belt.

Q. Was there any dramas later in the race after that or no?

DANE CAMERON: No. Like Jonny said, once the 22 had their unfortunate issue, we were pretty comfortable there to the end. It's a little bit of a known issue sometimes on these cars, so we got a little bit gun shy and that, well, let's make sure we don't have the same, and it doesn't get away from us. So we kind of just, yeah, pulled the chutes a little bit and made sure we got home with all the pieces pointed the right way.

Q. There are still questions I'm sure about driver line-ups and stuff for next year, but PJ is going to get the invite to Le Mans, and considering the team's success last year and if you are in that position again, what would it mean to sort of go back there and potentially to go for back-to-back Pro-Am LMP2?

DANE CAMERON: I would certainly be happy to be a part of that again. Yeah, when I joined the program and knew obviously Le Mans was likely to be a part of it and doing the stuff in Europe also, right from the get-go I believed that having Louis and I and PJ was something that was kind of-- I was eyeing that straight away that I thought we could win Le Mans.

It's obviously a bit of a dream until you get there, and it was kind of a dream week for us. That was, yeah, more than I would have expected. I would love to do it again, for sure. It seems to be a little bit better luck race for me than Daytona.

Q. Jonny, you're due an upgrade that more reflects your true talent that you have shown throughout your career. Having said that, it does mean that if you come back to AO Racing, it would likely be in a different role. If it is, would you have liked to continue with AO Racing at some point?

JONNY EDGAR: Yeah, I think obviously being upgraded changes my situation for next year, and yeah, obviously last week I found out. Not too sure what next year looks like for me yet, but yeah, if an opportunity came about, I would love to be back with the team.

I've loved the opportunity to race with them, and they do a great job. It's such a new team, and to have won GTD Pro last year, LMP2 this year, Le Mans winners all within three seasons, it's a great group to work with. Definitely any opportunity I got to work with any part of the team again would be great.

Yeah, in Long Beach I got to drive in the GTD car, and that went great. I really enjoyed that. Yeah, the whole team is great. Just a good group of people as well to be around.

Q. Dane, fifth championship, IMSA WeatherTech Championship. The significance of that would also -- the versatility of having done it in five different cars, five different classes, five different programs. What does all that mean to you?

DANE CAMERON: Yeah, it was touched on earlier in the week in some of the pre-event stuff, but yeah, for a bit I think it's quite special that they're all a little bit different. So to be able to adapt to different cars, different teams, manufacture, rule-set, know everything from GT3 to kind of the DPI era to now spec category, as well as the hybrid era and all these things, yeah, I think that's a really tremendous parts of sports car racing and really something I guess if you want to say from the older days of the guys that were just jump in and go and deliver results and things like that.

That was something I certainly aspired to when I made my shift to sports cars a decade and a half ago was you wanted to -- you didn't want to be only a guy who could do a certain thing. I didn't want to be only GT or only (indiscernible) or whatever. Being able to have titles in kind of, yeah, the classes is very special to me. I'm very proud of that.

I think, you know, sometimes guys get a little bit of a run for whether it's car BOP class or whatever, and this doesn't devalue any of those, but I think it's unique, and it's special, and I'm certainly proud of the fact that they've all been in competitive eras and different categories and different challenges, all the rest.

It was, yeah, certainly a goal I had when I came here. Just to get one was a dream, and to be at five is honestly, yeah, astonishing really. I'm very proud of that.

Q. Dane, I want to kind of delve into this a little bit. 2025, you are fresh off a title with Penske and GTP. You come down to LMP2, a team that hasn't won in the division. Really a still second-year program, still pretty young. Got the first wins, and now here you are with a championship. How does this title rank in regards to the four, especially considering what all you and the team dealt with this year?

DANE CAMERON: Yeah, I don't know if I could ever pick favorites from any of them. They're all very different. The journey is different from all of them. The situation is different from all of them, but yeah, I would say this one is as valuable or as meaningful to me as any of them, as much as it is to win an overall and to do it with a Manufacturer. This is just as much.

I don't have any less love or value for this one being a spec category or pro-am thing like that. It's hugely competitive here. There's a ton of talent, you know, guys that are also racing in hypercar programs, guys that are on their way to hypercar program. It's every bit as competitive as any other category.

Yeah, it's been a little bit of the last couple of years -- even though we won the championship last year, it was personally a tough stretch for me. For me to feel back kind of on my own two feet a little bit is good. Yeah, I'm very, very proud of this one.