IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP: MOTUL SPORTSCAR ENDURANCE GRAND PRIX

August 2, 2026

Andrea Caldarelli

Jeremy Clarke

Tom Dillmann

Bijoy Garg

Sandy Mitchell

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We have our GTD PRO and LMP2 winners here. We'll start with GTD Pro, we have Sandy Mitchell and Andrea Caldarelli. Sandy, congratulations. First win here in IMSA for the Temerario. What does it mean for you and the team to get that win here for that new car?

SANDY MITCHELL: Yeah, it's absolutely massive. I think there's so much work behind the scenes throughout this year as well as developing the car last year. Yeah, continuing that development into this year, whether that's at the race events but also testing in the background.

Yeah, just super proud of everyone at Lamborghini and Pfaff as well for continuing to just keep pushing forward with the car. Of course, it's been challenging at times. It's never easy to come into such a competitive championship like IMSA and be competitive straightaway. To have a P2 and P1 at this point in the championship is more than we would have expected.

So yeah, just super happy for everyone that's involved in the program because it's been a real big effort.

THE MODERATOR: Andrea, your thoughts on the racing that took place throughout six hours here at Road America.

ANDREA CALDARELLI: Well, we cannot spice it up more than that. I don't know what we can do more than that (smiling). Six is enough.

I mean, it's been I think a great race. We knew last year this place deserve an endurance race. It was bit of a chaos last year with a lot of penalties and so on. Since then I feel that everything started to chill out a little bit more with the driving.

I mean, I really love this series for this. You have really to go out there and be smart with your strategy, but at the same time also having good skill in traffic and fighting. It really, really means a lot for us, this win, because it's such an iconic race. For a new car, the first year, it's really, really special.

THE MODERATOR: Our LMP2 winners, Jeremy Clarke, Bijoy Garg and Tom Dillmann.

Jeremy, back-to-back wins, a lot of momentum here. What did it take to pull it off today?

JEREMY CLARKE: Yeah, I think the team's worked really hard keep the car in the window we needed to be fast, bring home victories at the end of the day.

I have think continued to build on that momentum we had a couple weeks ago. Had a really good test here. Just continued to build on that momentum.

Came in, qualifying wasn't exactly what we wanted, but we were still in the fight. I think all three of us put together a great race today. Had a little bit of bad luck at the beginning, but it worked out for us in the end.

THE MODERATOR: Bijoy, your thoughts on what was a pretty eventful six hours.

BIJOY GARG: Yeah, it was quite crazy. Obviously you can pass decently here just because of the straight. In the end, track position turned out to be a lot more important than we thought. It was always a pretty hard fight for position.

Yeah, I mean, we got a couple calls that didn't go our way. A couple yellows didn't go our way either. Ultimately that's part of the game in IMSA. It's never over till it's over. You always have to stay motivated and just remind yourself that a yellow can come your way at any time really.

Yeah, in the end it's never over till it's over.

THE MODERATOR: Tom, there were some yellows that didn't go your way. The last couple yellows, how big were those as a help?

TOM DILLMANN: Yeah, the work we did in the test paid dividend today. My two teammates did a great job. I think we had the best bronze and the best silver in the field today. We were a bit unlucky at times. Especially with the yellow, we were leading by 20 seconds, got a bad yellow.

Yeah, in the end we had the race under control. It was not a gamble for us. We saw the chance of a yellow coming was higher than not. So yeah, I could control the race, a lot of restarts obviously with all the yellows. Yeah, I think we had a lot of pace in the car to control it today.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go to questions.

Q. Andrea, the first half of the race seemed to be dominated by the two Porsches. How did you get into a position where you were able to control it to the end?

ANDREA CALDARELLI: Yeah, I think the Porsches, they looked very fast, even yesterday in qualifying. At the beginning we were just holding position, then we got couple of good calls on the pit. There was one yellow, the last one, that we changed from Sandy to myself, which we pit and the yellow came just couple of laps after. That gave us couple of, like, another position.

Then there was one yellow more that actually I'm really proud with the team and the communication we had because I was out there, because we were off sync with the strategy. They told me in the beginning to save energy during the yellow, then the end they said push, push, push, because there were people in the pit lane.

I found the Prototype in front of me which was going really slow. I push him hard to speed up, flashing, almost hitting him behind - not hitting him, but almost (smiling). That actually gave us the P1 that we kept until the end. We crossed the line and all the cars came out of the pit behind me.

I think was a bit of luck, but the same time was a massive strategy job from the guys.

Q. The podium at Detroit was a big surprise. How big of a surprise is this, especially being an endurance win, given some of the early season struggles?

ANDREA CALDARELLI: I think this is more surprising than Detroit, to be honest. Detroit was obviously street track. First time actually we went in a street circuit with the Temerario. We didn't know what was coming. It was a bit of an eventful race. Yeah, it could happen. We were not super quick in terms of pace, but it was a good race.

This one I think feels more special because we did everything right. Even though we didn't come here for testing like most of the other teams couple weeks before, we were bit behind in qualifying, but we work really hard overnight, and we found let's say we try the setup that work in the race, but we didn't know if it was going to work.

I think we had everything. We had strategy. We had pace. We had car that actually doesn't break down. It's a massive thing that we don't have to forget on the first year of a car, we don't have any reliability issue. This one feels especially for an endurance race, which is the first victory for a Temerario in an endurance race, it's very special.

Q. Sandy, could you assess the new brake package you had this weekend.

SANDY MITCHELL: Yeah, it's part of the sort of small upgrade package that we're planning to roll out in worldwide for the car in the races to come during the rest of the season. Yeah, it seemed to work well this weekend. We were happy with how that went.

Yeah, I think it's going in the right direction, but I think it's one small part of a lot of things this weekend that we improved as we are race by race learning a lot as a team and drivers and everything.

Yeah, it was a really good step forward, as Andrea says. We didn't quite have the pace in qualifying, but at the end of the race there, once the tire were a bit more used, we had really good pace at the end. We were able to hold off the cars behind.

Yeah, this result feels a lot more special than Detroit because I feel like, yeah, the calls from the team were incredible all the race. We got every yellow, every call right. We were always putting ourselves back into the top three, top five. That really made the difference today.

Q. Andrea, you have so much history with Lamborghini. What does getting the first win for the Temerario project mean to you personally? How do you think the folks back in Italy will react to this?

ANDREA CALDARELLI: Yeah, I'm coming into my 10th year in Lamborghini. I feel like I am a part of the wall back in Italy of the office (smiling).

It feels really special because I saw where we were last year, literally one year ago, 12 months ago. To come here and win, it's insane to think about in 12 months what the guys in Italy have done because, yeah, we don't have to underestimate how hard is for a small group of people.

At the end of the day, we are not as big as other manufacturers. To start the project from zero, knowing that anything can go wrong and good. You never know with a new car. To react all the time, when there is a problem, and this result really show how dynamic we are and how we really care about this project.

Q. Tom, I wanted to ask you, you were in the car at the very end, I thought there was some concern on fuel, had not for the yellow flags at the end. Can you talk about that.

TOM DILLMANN: Yeah, we were tight, but I don't necessarily want to say if we would make it without the yellow or not (smiling).

Q. Fair enough. The 22 had just spoken about how confident they were about kind of coming back through. Then for the race to end the way that it did, I mean, how chippy would you say the day was in your class racing? There was a lot going on.

TOM DILLMANN: There was a lot going on. We really had good pace in the car. We worked really well last week. We were very strong on fuel, as well.

So to me out of the four wins we have is the one I felt we are the most dominant. Let's say I felt like we had our hand on the field today. Yeah, it was about executing. You never know. You need so many parameters to work well to win these kind of races.

But yeah, when you have the pace, it helps.

Q. You were the main character in developing this car. You just told the other colleague that was really hard work. Did you imagine your first success would be in a six-hour race after all that you did?

ANDREA CALDARELLI: You know what, I believe more that it was an endurance race than a sprint. The reason why was because we did not have any reliability issue, almost zero, since the beginning. Power train-wise, I don't reckon we had any failure after test three probably, which when we start developing the LMDh, obviously I was part of it. It was more complicated. I know what it means to put down a power train from zero. This power train, it was never put on a race car before.

I would say, yes, I was expecting more that a good result was coming on an endurance race more than a sprint.

Q. Tom, you guys were hit with a couple of penalties, obviously caught out by the yellow flag. Is it somewhat sweeter that you got this victory after overcoming things like that during the race?

TOM DILLMANN: We had an emergency service unfortunately. That was part of the bad luck with the yellow. We had to (indiscernible). I had a little issue in the pit stop. That made us lose a bit of track position. But yeah, like I said, I feel like we had so much pace today that made our life easy, yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys.