An Australian who came up through single-seaters, took a European title in 2023 and won the Daytona 24 Hours after a disqualification in 2025.
Allen, an Australian, has been a regular in the LMP2 category since 2017. His major results include the 2023 European Le Mans Series title, Le Mans class wins in 2022 and 2023, and the 2025 Daytona 24 Hours after a disqualification.
James Allen is an Australian sportscar driver who has raced in LMP2 since 2017. He won the 2023 European Le Mans Series with Algarve Pro Racing and took the LMP2 class at the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona by a photo finish. He also won the 2025 Daytona 24 Hours after the original winners were disqualified.
How did Allen start in single-seaters?
Allen made his single-seater debut in the 2013 Formula BMW Talent Cup, after winning several karting titles in Australia. In 2014 he ran a double programme with ARTA Engineering in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps Series and Eurocup, scoring a lone points finish in the Alps Series. He moved to JD Motorsport in 2016.
The Eurocup was tough. He finished 11th in the Alps Series and 17th in the Eurocup in 2015, when he returned to both championships with ARTA. The 2016 Eurocup brought him another 17th-place finish.
His best junior results came in the Northern European Cup in 2016. He scored his maiden podium in the category at Spa-Francorchamps, and at the season finale in Hockenheim he won race three.
Two Le Mans class wins, a European title and a Daytona victory that came from the stewards rather than the chequered flag.
When did Allen move into prototypes?
Allen entered the European Le Mans Series in 2017 with Graff Racing in LMP2, and the team won at Spa with Richard Bradley and Gustavo Yacaman. He made his Le Mans debut that year and finished fifth in class. He also drove a top-class prototype in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2018, a step up that came late in the season.
The 2017 Le Mans race was eventful. Allen beached the car during the morning, but he still finished fifth in the LMP2 class alongside Bradley and Franck Matelli.
The 2018 season was less productive. Allen dropped to 15th in the drivers' standings, with several teammate changes affecting the season. At Le Mans he retired after a night-time crash by co-driver Jose Gutierrez, and later in the year he took his WEC top-class debut with DragonSpeed.
The WEC debut went up and down. He retired at Fuji, then finished sixth at Shanghai alongside Ben Hanley and Renger van der Zande.
What did the 2019 to 2021 seasons bring?
In 2019 Allen stayed with DragonSpeed for the European Le Mans Series, partnering Ben Hanley and bronze-ranked Henrik Hedman. He set the fastest lap at the opening round, passed Roman Rusinov for the race lead, and led the No. 21 crew to victory at Le Castellet.
The team scored points at every other round, and its best finish was fourth at Silverstone. Those results earned DragonSpeed fifth in the teams' standings.
Ahead of 2020 Allen was upgraded to FIA Gold driver status. He went back to Graff, teaming up with Thomas Laurent and Alexandre Cougnaud, who was rated silver. That trio took second at Spa and third at Le Castellet, where Laurent passed Will Stevens late in the race, and the team ended the season fifth in the teams' standings.
In 2021 Allen moved to Panis Racing with Will Stevens and Julien Canal. A positive COVID-19 test before round one at Barcelona meant Gabriel Aubry took his place, and Allen returned for round two. At round four in Monza, the team's combined efforts gave Panis its first European Le Mans Series victory.
How did the 2022 double programme go?
In 2022 Allen raced a double programme with Algarve Pro Racing in the WEC and the European Le Mans Series, both in the LMP2 Pro-Am subclass. In the WEC, he, Rene Binder and Steven Thomas took two subclass wins on their way to second place overall.
The ELMS was harder to crack. Allen, Alex Peroni and John Falb finished fifth in the six-car subclass after three podium finishes.
How did Allen win the 2023 European Le Mans Series?
Allen joined Algarve Pro Racing with Kyffin Simpson and Alex Lynn for the 2023 European Le Mans Series. They won the round at Le Castellet, where a late-race overtake from Allen on Louis Deletraz gave the No. 25 car the victory. The team finished third at Aragon, then took the championship lead at Spa.
The double-header season finale brought two second places, which was enough to confirm Allen and his teammates as champions. The team stayed clean during a chaotic race at Spa, which had helped them build the lead in the first place.
Allen also won the LMP2 Pro-Am subclass at Le Mans in 2023, alongside Colin Braun and George Kurtz. He had won the same subclass at Le Mans in 2022 with Algarve Pro in the WEC, so the two years together made a strong run in endurance racing.
How did the 2023 Daytona win come about?
Allen joined Proton Competition for the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona. He proved the deciding factor late in the race, when he passed Matthieu Vaxiviere for second and then chased down Ben Hanley, his former teammate, to pass him on the line. The margin was 0.016 seconds.
The Asian Le Mans Series had already given him a taste of victory that winter. In February he won the opening race in Dubai with Algarve Pro, thanks to a quick final pit stop, and the team later finished third in the championship.
Race two ended with a puncture and a fourth-place finish. A late crash from Kyffin Simpson in race one at Abu Dhabi cost the team a possible podium, and another fourth in race two left Algarve Pro third in the standings.
Results by season
| Season | Team | Series | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Graff Racing | European Le Mans Series, LMP2 | Third overall, with a Spa win |
| 2019 | DragonSpeed | European Le Mans Series | Le Castellet win; team fifth |
| 2021 | Panis Racing | European Le Mans Series | Monza win; team third |
| 2022 | Algarve Pro Racing | WEC and European Le Mans Series | WEC second overall; LMP2 Pro-Am win at Le Mans |
| 2023 | Algarve Pro Racing | European Le Mans Series | Champion |
| 2023 | Proton Competition | 24 Hours of Daytona | LMP2 class win by 0.016 seconds |
| 2024 | Duqueine Team | European Le Mans Series | Team finished 13th of 14 |
| 2025 | United Autosports | 24 Hours of Daytona | Overall win after disqualifications |
| 2025 | Nielsen Racing | European Le Mans Series, LMP2 Pro-Am | Seventh in the eight-car championship |
What did 2024 and 2025 bring?
Duqueine was a hard season in 2024, and the team finished 13th of 14 in the standings. Allen also retired from Le Mans with the team. Later in the year he joined RD Limited in the Asian Le Mans Series, and the team finished second in the championship.
At the Sepang opener, Allen took the lead from Matthieu Vaxiviere during the third hour. His co-driver, Tristan Vautier, then held off the veteran on the final lap to win. The team finished second in race two, and they came close to the title before Algarve Pro clinched it in Abu Dhabi.
The 2025 Daytona 24 Hours brought an unusual finish. Allen raced for United Autosports alongside Paul di Resta, Rasmus Lindh and Dan Goldburg, and the team won after the original winners, Tower Motorsports, were disqualified. It was a win that came through the stewards' decision rather than on the track.
During 2025 he split his attention between the European Le Mans Series with Nielsen Racing and a GT3 debut in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at Optimum Motorsport. In the ELMS he scored a class victory, a second place overall at Le Castellet, and a podium at Portimao, which left the team seventh in the eight-car championship. In the Gold Cup class, alongside Mikey Porter and Largim Ali, he finished sixth after scoring points in all five races.
What is Allen doing in 2026?
Allen stayed at Nielsen Racing for the 2026 European Le Mans Series, alongside Alex Quinn and bronze-ranked Kriton Lendoudis. At round two in Le Castellet the trio took the Pro-Am win once AF Corse took a penalty and CLX Motorsport made a late pit stop.
The Asian Le Mans Series remains part of his winter schedule. In the most recent winter series he scored two podiums for RD Limited and finished fifth in the standings, a steady result for a team that had been second the season before.
