Story and photos by Tim Adams
It is safe to say that Road America race fans love their sportscar racing. Sunday was the largest crowd to attend and IMSA race since 1979 at Road America. Unfortunately, the track never announces the official numbers, it would be very interesting to know the actual attendance figure. Every single campsite was sold out for this weekend. Once again, the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship racers were the main draw, joining them for the weekend were the Michelin Pilot Challenge, Lamborghini Super Trofeo, and Mazda MX-5 Cup racers.
Heavy storms moved through the area on Thursday evening destroying some of the vendor tents and forcing them to pack up and leave. Fortunately, the rest of the weekend the weather cooperated, and the racing was fantastic.
In the past, IMSA has used the time at Road America to hold its state of the series conference. This has been postponed this year until October at Petit Le Mans. There were some significant announcements released during the weekend. The 2024 schedule was released, and it met with a lot of discussion, most of it unfavorable. In 2024, IMSA races will conflict with 3 WEC races, and 2 major GT3 races, the Spa 24 Hour, and the Nurburgring 24 Hours. This is going to be a problem for a lot of teams, there are only so many drivers available. More than a few were left scratching their heads and wondering how they were going to field cars and drivers on the overlapping weekends. IMSA defiantly said they would not be altering the schedule to ease the conflicts.
The good and bad news is that Road America is back on the schedule in its normal place the first weekend of August. The bad news is it still is a sprint race. IMSA added an endurance race to the schedule in 2024, a 6-hour race on the road course at Indianapolis. Road America gets the shaft again. Before the IMSA/Grand-AM merger, IMSA and the ALMS started running 4-hour races at Road America on Saturday afternoon, running into the twilight. The fans loved this race, and the overwhelming majority want this type of race to return.
The race weekend schedule made absolutely no sense this year at Road America. It is billed as a 4-day weekend, yet the Mazda MX-5 Cup racers were the only ones on the track Thursday. On Friday everyone was on track with the exception being the Michelin Pilot Challenge racers. Finally on Saturday, everyone was on track. Sunday, however, featured another ridiculous 10:10am start time for the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship race, then after couple hour break the Michelin Pilot Challenge race was ran. I feel bad for the Pilot Challenge racers, it looked like close to half of the record crowd left after the WeaterTech race. How can this be fixed? Simple, make it a three-day weekend, the way IMSA and the ALMS ran it. Everyone runs all three days. Run the Pilot Challenge race from 11am-1pm on Saturday, take a three-hour break where you can run a Mazda, Lamborghini, or Porsche Cup race, then run the WeatherTech race into the twilight from 4pm-8pm. If the crowds were at record levels this year, bring back the 4-hour race on Saturday into the twilight and you will not be able to move the crowd will be so large. The fact that Indy gets a 6-hour race, with virtually zero sportscar racing history, and Road America, overflowing with endurance sportscar racing history continues to get the shaft is very disappointing.
Off my soapbox and on to the racing. The big story of course in 2023 is the top prototype class, now called GTP, or Grand Touring Prototype, harkening back to glory days in IMSA. The GTP cars now feature a hybrid component and can leave the pits under electric power, then fire the internal combustion engine as they speed off. IMSA features four manufacturers, BMW, Cadillac, Acura, and Porsche. Lamborghini will be joining the grid in 2024. The WEC features more manufacturers in Hypercar as they call their top class, but they are not eligible to run in IMSA. Hypercar, and GTP run under the same rules so they can run at Le Mans. Right now, Porsche is the only one that is making their cars available to purchase. On the grid for this race were 4 Porsche 963’s, 2 Cadillac’s, 2 Acura’s, and 2 BMW’s. The other manufacturers need to step up to the plate and make their cars available for purchase or it will become a Porsche 963 dominated class eventually.
Every race weekend features a quick 20-minute warmup early in the morning on race day. Rule number 1 is do not wreck the car. Well, the pole sitting Whelen Cadillac smacked the wall on the first lap of the 8am warmup. Hindered by the ridiculous 10:10am race start the crew frantically repaired the car, replacing the entire rear of the car. They never were able to get back the pole winning pace, but they did finish 6th, a great finish considering they replaced half of the car four hours earlier. The #7 Penske Porsche took the overall win with a comfortable four second margin.
LMP2 is an interesting class. The numbers are growing with 7 entries at Road America. It will be interesting to see if this continues. The WEC announced earlier this year that LMP2 will no longer be allowed to race in the WEC in 2024. LMP2 will only be allowed to race at Le Mans. Maybe the numbers will continue to grow with the possibility to win Le Mans, which is every team and racers dream. Hopefully the grid will continue to grow. Ben Keating, fresh off his win with Corvette Racing at Le Mans, teamed up with co-driver Paul-Loup Chatin in the Wynns sponsored Oreca LMP2.
LMP3, a spec class, heavily criticized, and rightfully so for causing a lot of accidents since IMSA added them to the grid three years ago, is thankfully going away in 2024. They will continue to race alongside GT4 machines in the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge. Taking the win at Road America was the Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 driven by Bijoy Garg, and Linus Lundqvist.
GTD and GTD Pro feature the GT3 machines that closely resemble the cars spectators can purchase. The Pro and Am cars are the same, it is just the driver lineups that determine Pro and Am, and the Pro teams are essentially factory backed GT3 racers. IMSA is the only series in the world that allows factory backed GT3 teams, we will see how long this will continue. The easy way for the fans to spot the difference is the colors on the cars. The Pro cars feature red side mirrors and spoiler end plates, the AM cars have green side mirrors and spoiler end plates. Corvette Racing is still racing a nerfed GTLM car in GTD Pro. Two years late to the party, the Z06 based GT3.R Corvette will finally debut in 2024. Not only will Pratt and Miller be running two Z06 GT3.R’s, AWA, currently running in LMP3 will also be running two Z06 GT3. R’s. So at least four Corvettes on the grid next year. The Heart of Racing Team in their Aston Martin Vantage GT3 came out on top in GTD Pro, and Paul Miller Racing in their BMW M4 GT3 won in GTD.
Road America is back in their rightful place on the schedule in 2024, let’s just hope in the future IMSA sees the light, and brings back a proper endurance race to a track that deserves it. See you in 2024.
