Story and photos by Tim Adams
The IMSA racers once again headed to the National Park of Speed – Road America for their traditional early August date. Headlining would be the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship racers in DPi, LMP2, LPM3, GTLM and GTD. Support series joining in on the weekend fun were Michelin Pilot Challenge, Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Porsche Carrera Cup North America, and Mazda MX-5 Cup. Four days filled from start to finish with racing.
IMSA has been able to follow a fairly stable schedule in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic and the Delta variant that is wreaking havoc at the time of this writing around the world. Once again, the race in Canada was cancelled, and the season ending Petit Le Mans has been moved to November this year due to scheduling conflicts brought on by Covid-19. Returning for the first time in over a year were the driver autograph sessions, and fan grid walks before the Michelin Pilot Challenge, and WeatherTech Sportscar Championship races. For this to continue, vaccinations must continue, period. Get vaccinated!!
There has been a lot happening this year in IMSA with developments in the Prototype class and the demise of GTLM headlining the news. 2022 will be the final season for Daytona Prototype International or DPi as it is known. Finally, finally, the FIA, ACO, and IMSA have seen the light and figured out that having rules that allow Prototypes to race here in the USA, and then be able to race in the WEC and at Le Mans is a good idea. Also, the WEC Prototypes will also be allowed to come over to here and race in IMSA. What a concept! It’s about damn time. Why it took so many years just makes a fan want to bang their head against a wall. In IMSA the Prototypes will be called LMDh, in other words, prototypes with a hybrid element included. In the WEC the top class will be LMH or more commonly called Hypercar.
Manufacturers are lining up following the news of the convergence of rules. Already confirmed to be racing in IMSA in 2023 are Acura, Audi, Porsche, BMW, and Lamborghini is shooting for 2024 to debut their LMDh racer. In a poorly kept secret, Cadillac is also supposed to announce they will be involved with a factory effort in 2023. Why their announcement keeps getting delayed is the topic of considerable discussion. Hopefully they put an end to all the silly speculation and make the official announcement soon.
In GTLM things are kind of complicated. Apart from GM, every manufacturer has pulled out of GTLM in IMSA. Ford left after 2018, Porsche pulled the plug after 2020, BMW is only running the 4 endurance races this year. That leaves two Corvettes, and one Porsche being campaigned privately by series sponsor WeatherTech. The Porsche has no factory support. You can’t have a class that has only 3 cars, and only one factory team. The Porsche has surprised this year though, winning at Sebring, and Road America, taking it to the factory backed Corvettes.
IMSA clearly saw the writing on the wall and will end GTLM at the end of this season. What they have done is create a GTD Pro class to run side by side with the current GTD class which features a Pro/AM driver lineup. The idea is that GTD Pro would be full factory backed teams with professional driver lineups, and GTD would continue as is with privateer teams purchasing the cars from the manufacturer and using a Pro/AM driver lineup. This presents a problem for GM. They do not make a GT3/GTD spec Corvette C8.R. They also do not make them available to be purchased by a privateer and raced. This must change. Per the rules in GTD, they must sell to privateers, and they must have a certain number of cars available. Right now, there are 4 C8.R chassis, that is it. IMSA is going to allow GM to convert the GTLM car to GTD and using Balance of Performance to make them equal to the current GTD cars. GM will them convert them back to GTLM spec to race at Le Mans in 2022. This is an expensive proposition for GM, they want to continue to race at Le Mans, so this means GTLM spec racers. They also want to race in GTD Pro in IMSA, which is a completely different spec racer. Then they need to start building C8.R’s and make them available for purchase. This is going to be interesting. Right now the only manufacturer committed to GTD Pro is GM.
Why is all this happening you say? Well, the FIA, ACO, and IMSA finally came to their senses when it comes to prototypes, but the FIA, and ACO right now have shown close to zero interest in letting GTD/GT3 cars race in the WEC or at Le Mans. Therefore, GM is in a bad position right now. Winning class at Le Mans is the greatest racing achievement any manufacturer can attain. For the good of sportscar racing the interested parties here in the USA and Europe need to figure this out.
The racing at Road America was fantastic as usual. Rain played a big part in the weekend’s activities. The first practice for the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship was cut short due to a thunderstorm. The following day qualifying was in the rain, and the entire two-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race was held in the rain. The Pilot Challenge race was won by the Turner Motorsport BMW M4 in GS, and the Touring Car was won by KMW Motorsports Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce. In the feature race Sunday afternoon, Whelen Engineering Racing won their second race in a row in DPi. ERA Motorsport won LMP2, Core Autosport won LMP3, WeatherTech Racing took the win in GTLM with their Porsche 911 RSR, and the plaid Porsche from Canada and Pfaff Motorsports took home GTD honors.
With the demise of GTLM, and only 4 races left on the calendar, get yourself out to see the Corvette Racing C8.R in its swan song. After this season the only place you will get to see it race, will be in Europe.
In 2022 all 5 classes will again be in action at Road America from August 5-7. See you there.
During the time this article from Road America was being published, two big announcements were finally made. Cadillac is staying in prototype racing in LMDh, and the FIA and ACO are replacing GTLM with GT3 starting in 2024.
First, Cadillac. This was a long rumored and finally made official move to LMDh in 2023. Cadillac not only intends to run in IMSA here in North America, but also in the WEC and at Le Mans. It will be exciting to see Cadillac compete for the overall with at Le Mans. Cadillac will work with two teams currently running the Cadillac DPi in IMSA. Chip Ganassi Racing, and Action Express.
Now on to the GT3 news. The writing has been on the wall for some time that the factory backed racing in GTLM in IMSA, and GTE-Pro in the WEC was coming to an end. WEC currently has a very strong lineup of GTE-Am, maybe this is why the FIA and ACO are waiting until 2024 to put GTE out of its misery. What this means for Corvette Racing is that 2022, and 2023, will be the last years they compete in the C8.R in its current configuration with factory backing. When making the announcement, the FIA and ACO made it very clear they do not want factory-based teams running in GT3, this leaves a Chevrolet factory backed Corvette team out in the cold.
Chevrolet is not happy, but I do not see the FIA and ACO backing down. The FIA and ACO have two very big supporting manufacturers behind them, Porsche and Ferrari have said they have zero interest in factory backed teams in the WEC or IMSA. Porsche and Ferrari will back, and support, any team who chooses to buy their GT3 racers. For the time being it looks like Chevrolet will continue to race the C8.R, converted to run as a GT3, as a factory backed effort in IMSA in GTD-Pro.
