Win the championship. Lose your ride. What a bizarre scenario for Dane Cameron, IMSA’s most successful driver since the championship’s relaunch in 2014.
But that’s precisely what took place earlier in the month, shortly after the completion of Motul Petit Le Mans, when the Porsche Penske Motorsport driver was farewelled by the team and manufacturer after sealing the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title for the brand with co-drivers Felipe Nasr and Matt Campbell. Did Cameron lose a step? Or did full-season partner Nasr have a banner year? No answers were given in the decision to part ways with the new four-time IMSA champion.
With a statement-making victory to open the season at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, a second endurance win at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, and seven podiums from nine races, the call to replace Cameron is especially odd, but the 36-year-old knew a change was imminent.
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“It’s strange, for sure, but I knew before the last race,” Cameron told RACER. “It’s a weird feeling to go through the whole motion of winning the championship, chasing it, still fighting for it, and knowing you’re not coming back to the project. Obviously, I’m really proud of the year. Daytona was a pretty huge moment for me, just as something that’s been incredibly difficult to win. It’s a really nice feeling to have that one off your back. That was the one thing I wanted, above all else, so to get that and the championship in the same year is awesome. But they didn’t want to move forward with me, which is a new feeling to come off the back of a championship, having won a fair few now and again.”
In the 11 seasons that have come from the new-era WeatherTech Championship which was formed as a blended family for the former American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am Rolex Series, Cameron earned Drivers’ championship honors in 2014 with Turner Motorsport in GTD in a BMW Z4, in 2016 with Action Express Racing in a Corvette Daytona Prototype in the top Prototype class, in 2019 with the factory Acura Team Penske squad in a Acura ARX-05 in the DPi category, and once more in 2024 for the factory PPM team in GTP with a Porsche 963 hybrid.
Four championships and 20 race wins over that span of nine IMSA seasons — one was spent idling in 2022 as the 963 effort came together, and he was deployed to the FIA WEC in 2023 with the 963 — has moved the 36-year-old into lofty territory.
But if ever there was a reminder of how the joys of racing are counterbalanced by the cold side of business, Cameron’s new reality speaks to the sport’s volatile nature. Although it remains unconfirmed, he’s likely headed to a top LMP2 team in 2025 – AO Racing is thought to head the list – where his speed and experience are coveted.
“Having to be picking up the phone and trying to drum up the next opportunity is also strange, but you know, it is what it is, as our friend [Juan Palbo] Montoya says,” Cameron said. “Life goes on. It’s just racing. I do have something I would say is lined up; not really ready to go public. But I feel pretty good about what’s coming up next, for sure.”
Having won a IMSA DPi title for Penske and Acura with Montoya, Cameron was a natural fit for Penske’s return to sports car racing with Porsche. In a relationship that began in 2018, the Californian was the last of Penske’s DPi drivers to continue in a frontline role for the team, and while the change is still settling in, it sounds like Cameron welcomes a change of pace.
“It’s been a really tough project, honestly, so in some ways, it’s sad to leave such a big, prestigious program, but it’s been really tough on me, tough on my family, and there’s been some really pretty bad moments, to be honest, some pretty low moments,” he said.
“So I’m feeling ready to turn the page as well, and get back to basics and have some fun and feel fortunate to have my wife and my family to support me. I was an open-wheel guy at one time, but I call myself a career sports car guy. I always just wanted to be a race car driver. I really didn’t care what it was, what flavor it was, who was going to be in the other seat, if there was even another seat. I just wanted to drive and indulge that passion that we all have when we were kids in karting.
“So, yeah, I’ve achieved probably way more than I ever dreamed that I would in sports cars, and I still feel I have a lot more to give. I’m super proud to have four championships; it feels like a really big number to say. But I really feel like five and six are pretty attainable, to be honest, so I don’t plan to stop now or anytime soon.”