Dane Cameron was considered a hot GT racing prospect when he landed with Action Express Racing in 2015.

IMSA’s newly-crowned GT Daytona champion joined the defending Prototype title winners coming off a season where he piloted a BMW M4 GT3 to four impressive victories, but at the time, his reputation as a front-runner in the series’ top class had yet to be forged.

Despite spending 2013 in a Team Sahlen Daytona Prototype, Cameron arrived at AXR with a need to prove himself in the team’s Corvette DPs, and with the 2016 Prototype crown in hand the Californian caught the attention of Honda Performance Development and Roger Penske.

Set to bid farewell to AXR after this weekend’s Petit Le Mans event to join the Acura Team Penske DPi program as teammate to Juan Pablo Montoya, Cameron was experiencing bittersweet feelings as his time with the Gary Nelson-led program sped toward its conclusion.

“It’s different; I’ve never been in this position where I’ve moved to another team in the same class and had to go against them,” he told RACER. “It’s never happened to me before; normally my deals have blown up and then I had to scramble to find something, so it makes being with Action Express for three years the first real stability I’ve had in sports car racing.

“It was the right place for me at the right time. I’d done one season in prototypes before, but didn’t have a win, and came here with the defending Prototype champions and had great teammates and great pit stops and great people surrounding me. They gave me tools every weekend that made me feel like I can win every time. Knowing where I’m going, what I’ve been able to do here to get their attention, it’s mixed feelings, for sure.”

Almost two months after it was announced, Cameron finally got a chance to meet Montoya on Thursday. The two should become one of the fiercest pairings next season, and while their skills and personalities should be an effective match, the departure from AXR will also sever one of the most impressive driver duos in Prototype.

GT veteran Eric Curran was a prototype neophyte when Cameron was slotted into the No. 31 AXR Corvette DP in 2015, and after three years spent together where he acted as co-driver and coach, Curran has become more than a match for many of the drivers in the Prototype class.

“Eric and I have had a lot of fun, and he didn’t have a whole lot of prototype experience before he came to Action Express; he had a bad experience, really, and I’ve been able to share some things that I’ve learned and all he needed was time to put it together,” he said.

“I think he’s by far the most underrated guy in Prototype right now. Everybody knows what the Taylor boys can do, but he’s really impressed me this year. He’s risen to the challenge with the new Cadillac P2 car, and not driving with him is one of the sad things about this change for me.”

Just as Cameron is preparing to pack his gear and say goodbye to AXR, he also had a laugh at the most recent IMSA race in Monterey where, after losing the lead with two minutes to go to a car engineered by his father Ricky, he’s also keen to put that memory in the past.

“Dad had a big smile on his face…I was happy for him…as much as I could be,” he said with a laugh. “They’d had a bumpy year until they got the win, and I gave it away. He was kind to me and didn’t rub it in my face too bad. He was due. I’m always happy to see him get a win, but sad that it came at my expense. Sometimes that’s how it goes. Traffic can win you races or lose it for you. Last year I had the highlight pass on the outside of Turn 2 at Mosport, and this year, I was part of the highlight on the other end. You win some and you lose some…”