2025 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge: How We Won the Championship
A season-long battle that came down to the final round. Inside the 2025 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR championship campaign that made history.
Championships are never won in a single race. They're built across an entire season — in the points you collect at events everyone forgets, in the mechanical issues you manage without losing positions, in the qualifying laps that keep you out of trouble.
The 2025 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR title was won exactly that way. Consistent. Relentless. Professional.
We went into the season with a clear objective: minimize the mistakes, maximize the results, and let the championship table take care of itself. Hyundai gave us a car that was always within the window. The Elantra N TCR in its 2025 specification was the most balanced TCR platform in the field — not always the outright fastest in qualifying trim, but consistently quick in race conditions where tire management and mechanical reliability decide the outcome.
The turning point came at Road America. We'd been trading points with two other TCR teams through the first half of the season, and a podium finish at the Elkhart Lake round gave us a buffer we protected for the rest of the year.
Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta was where we clinched it. The team knew before the final stint what we needed — finish in the top five and the title was ours. What we actually delivered was a race win, which was the perfect ending to a season-long effort from every single person in this program.
Winning the Michelin Pilot Challenge championship puts this program in a new category. It's validation for Hyundai Motorsport, for DXDT Racing, for my coaching program, and for every partner who has backed Mason Filippi Racing.
The 2025 championship belongs to all of them.