By David Phillips
FROM IMSA – YOUR BEST SOURCE SPORTS CAR RACING
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Every event on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is special. Latest case in point: the IMSA SportsCar Weekend set for this weekend at Road America.
It may not be the first (or the last) time the series’ four classes – Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and GT Daytona (GTD) – will duke it out in the same race together. But it is the first and only time this season the four classes will go at it in IMSA’s two-hour, 40-minute “standard” race format. Coming on the heels of a Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park that placed the LMP2 class squarely in the limelight, this weekend’s four-dimensional race is unique. That it takes place on the four fast, twisting and roller-coaster miles of “America’s National Park of Speed” makes the weekend all the more, well, special.
True Grip
Now that Road America’s full-on repaving has had a full year to “cure,” expect the racing to be more compelling and, dare I say, less chaotic than last year. Almost to a driver, those who have tested at Road America lately report the track has oodles more “off-line” grip than last year.
“The resurfacing last year made it a little tricky off-line,” says Sebastien Bourdais, driver of the No.01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. “One year later it seems to have evened out some and all of the racing that we’ve seen so far has become less scary to go off-line, so it should definitely open some opportunities.”
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s Filipe Albuquerque concurs. “Road America is such a nice track,” says the driver of the No. 10 Acura ARX-06. “The asphalt continues to have nice grip and hopefully it’s more constant, inside and out. Last year it was pretty tricky whenever you made a mistake off-line. Let’s hope it’s more linear this year.”
Thus, we can expect (or as Albuquerque says, “hope” for) plenty of side-by-side action in Road America’s 14 turns with overtaking maneuvers not limited to draft-assisted passes on the straightaways or as the consequence of driver error. And we’re not just talking about battles for position in class. The relatively uniform grip should afford GTP and LMP2 competitors abundant opportunities to cleanly carve their respective ways past their GTD and GTD PRO colleagues without resorting to low-percentage (a/k/a desperate) moves lest they get stuck in traffic … at least in theory.
Overdue
With just three events remaining in the 2024 WeatherTech Championship for the two prototype classes, a couple teams used to winning races have yet to taste champagne from the top of the podium this year. Defending GTP team champion Whelen Cadillac Racing has come close but so far yet to seal the proverbial deal on a race win. The team has three second-place finishes to its credit and looked a potential winner in the Mobil1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac before Pipo Derani and the No. 31 Cadillac ended up on its roof after a misunderstanding in lapped traffic. Although the No. 31 could only manage a sixth-place finish at Road America last year, the Action Express Racing outfit is no stranger to the top step of the podium in Wisconsin, having won the 2021 edition.
Riley is another team “due” for a win, despite the fact that Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga and the No. 74 ORECA LMP2 07 Gibson currently sit atop the LMP2 driver and team standings. Like their Action Express counterparts in GTP, the Riley team has come close to winning, witness runner-up finishes at the last two races. Given that Riley and Robinson had a two-race win streak at Road America in the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class before switching to LMP2 this season, this weekend would seem to afford them their best chance yet of breaking into the LMP2 win column.
New Faces in New Places
The Road America entry lists include some interesting fresh faces in new places. This weekend will see Conquest Racing entering the No. 35 Ferrari 296 GT3 in GTD PRO in addition to the No. 34 Ferrari 296 GT3 that Manny Franco and Albert Costa Balboa have steered to fourth place in the GTD season standings. Conquest’s GTD PRO Ferrari will be piloted by Giacomo Altoe and IMSA veteran Daniel Serra and should afford the team double the data and track time it’s accustomed to having at its disposal this season.
Also in GTD PRO, Le Mans winner and Porsche Carrera Cup champion Julien Andlauer replaces Sebastian Priaulx in the AO Porsche 911 GT3 R, as the latter has stepped away from the entry to focus full attention on his expanding role with Multimatic Motorsports. Of course, that’s not the only news surrounding the AO entry as the familiar green No. 77 “Rexy” Porsche will be enjoying a well-deserved vacation this weekend and will be ably replaced by its sister car livery, the pink “Roxy” Porsche.
Perhaps most intriguing, NASCAR Cup Series driver Ross Chastain will make his IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge debut in Saturday’s Road America 120. Chastain, who currently holds down 13th spot in the Cup standings, will join Ken Fukuda in the No. 16 Skip Barber Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4. The one-time watermelon farmer is perhaps best known for his spectacular last-lap “Hail Melon” maneuver at Martinsville Speedway, riding around the outside wall – and past several competitors – to vault his way into the 2022 playoffs. We wouldn’t recommend trying that in Turn 14 at Road America, however.
