Yahoo Autos Despite Rules Convergence, IMSA’s Prototype Car Count Lags Behind the WEC
It has been pretty much a one-way street when it comes to the Hypercars of the WEC competing in the American sanctioning body's series.
“No thanks.” That’s what Ferrari has said to racing its incomparable, two-time Le Mans winning 499P in IMSA next year.
Ferrari is not alone in opting again for the WEC over a full-time commitment to IMSA.
It’s the Silly Season for car counts in 2025, which begs a question.
Is IMSA’s convergence on rules with Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship turning into a one-way street?
The close competition among four manufacturers in IMSA’s premier GTP class and fans’ admiration for the hybrid prototypes has helped build the WeatherTech Championship’s popularity and ticket sales. This LMDh class has also supplied additional cars to the Le Mans 24-hour, further bumping U.S. fan interest in sports car endurance racing.
But thus far it has been a one-way street when it comes to the Hypercars competing in the American sanctioning body's series. The Hypercars, which have fewer constraints, would likely draw even larger crowds.
“No thanks.” That’s what Ferrari has said to racing its incomparable, two-time Le Mans winning 499P in IMSA next year, opting again for two factory entries and privateer car in the WEC.
The new Aston Martin Valkyrie, the V12 supercar now being tested in Britain in conjunction with American-based Heart of Racing, is expected to break cover at some point in IMSA. But the team’s 2025 schedule is unclear beyond two cars in the WEC, which will again include a round at the Circuit of the Americas.
No other Hypercar manufacturers have expressed interest in participating in IMSA, which would require a homologation process to determine a Balance of Performance.
In 2025, the WEC could have as many as 22 prototype entries from 10 manufacturers. IMSA, whose policy is to decline comment on future grid counts, may expand to 12, possibly 14 cars in its premier GTP class with as many as six manufacturers after some reshuffling among teams.
Lamborghini’s plans are unclear for its SC63, an LMDh which is racing in IMSA’s Michelin Endurance Cup this season. Next year, the WEC will require two entries per manufacturer, which may influence Lamborghini’s decision to return to IMSA with Iron Lynx.
Porsche Could Increase IMSA GTP Presence
In next year’s WeatherTech Championship, Cadillac will switch from Ganassi to Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti and the company plans to continue with Action Express Racing. It’s possible that Taylor’s team will have two V-Series.R entries, which would bump up the car count for IMSA.
Porsche is the remaining prospect for additional entries beyond the 10 GTPs entered in Sunday’s sprint at Road America, where Porsche Penske Motorsport will defend last year’s victory and its points lead in the driver and manufacturer championships.
Urs Kuratle, the director of the factory LMDh program for Porsche. said that the success of the factory team and its privateers on both sides of the Atlantic in the past 12 months has cleared the deck to supply additional Porsche 963s, depending on demand. The company has dropped plans to introduce a new crankshaft to its V8 turbo, saying the pursuit of less vibration in IMSA’s standard hybrid platform is no longer needed.
In 2025, Porsche expects to lose JOTA, its two-car team in the WEC, freeing up more capacity. JOTA is switching to Cadillac, replacing the departing Ganassi team. Proton Competition, meanwhile, has expressed interest in adding a second Porsche 963 in IMSA, pending sponsorship.
Kuratle is currently focused on sustaining Porsche’s championship hopes at Road America. “We have great memories of last year,” said Kuratle, “In July 2023, we took a commanding lights-to-flag win at Road America. That was the second victory for the Porsche 963 and the first for the No. 7 crew.”
After its victory at Watkins Glen in June, Porsche Penske is vying to become the first team to win three GTP events this season and two in a row. The team’s Felipe Nasr is gunning for his third straight at the picturesque, high-speed Road America, now 4.048 miles since a repaving and dubbed “America’s National Park of Speed.”
“The circuit features wonderfully fast and flowing corners,” said Nasr, who will co-drive the No. 7 Porsche 963 with Dane Cameron after winning with Matt Campbell last year. “In 2023, we clinched our first victory there with our number 7 car. Dane Cameron and I are always focused on maximizing our chances. We’ll stick to this approach. Consistency is the most important factor in the fight for the championship."
Nasr and Cameron lead the Ganassi duo of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande by a relatively narrow 93 points with three events remaining, including the endurance events at Indianapolis and Road Atlanta, which pay more points. Porsche Penske’s Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy trail their teammates by 132 points in third place. Porsche leads Cadillac by 41 points in the manufacturer championship. Acura trails by 114 points in third.
LMP2 in Limbo
IMSA continues to rely on a full field of LMP2 entries, where a bronze-rated driver is required, to fill out its prototype fields. WEC, meanwhile, has dropped LMP2 except at Le Mans.
But the LMP2 class of IMSA may lose one of its premier teams, CrowdStrike Racing by APR. After the mid-July global computer meltdown due to CrowdStrike’s introduction of a faulty software security update, George Kurtz, the company’s CEO, did not make an entry at Road America with APR. A 2023 Le Mans class co-winner, last year’s Jim Trueman award winner and the co-winner of the Asian Le Mans Series title coming into the season, Kurtz’s racing future remains to be seen.
His CrowdStrike co-driver, American star Colin Braun, is already committed to returning to Acura next year as part of the Honda Racing Corporation’s re-working of its WeatherTech Championship effort. Mike Shank and his Meyer-Shank Racing team will return to campaign two Acura ARX-06 entries in conjunction with HRC engineers.
How About Ganassi?
Whither Ganassi? The return of Ford to GT racing with its Mustang GT3 has made only a Pilgrim’s progress with car builder Multimatic. Ford may be ripe for a switch. Ganassi’s team enjoyed great success in IMSA and the WEC campaigning the Ford GT from 2016 to 2019.
