IMSA season preview: GTD

Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Paul Miller Racing may have given the GTD field fits last year as their competitors tried to figure out a way to beat them in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition, but PMR is GTD PRO’s problem now, and that means GTD will be wide open.

Will it be a perennial contender claiming the crown, or will someone have a breakout season? Who knows, but with 17 full-season contenders in 11 different marques, we’re betting against a runaway like we saw last season.

Let’s start with Roman De Angelis. In the last three years with Heart of Racing, he has never finished outside the top three, and Heart of Racing was the only team outside of PMR to win more than one race last season. The 2022 champion, though, finds himself in a new position. Promoted to Gold status by the FIA means he’s going to be the leader in the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Leading whom, though, is still a question. If the team has a full-season driving partner for De Angelis, they’re keeping it quiet. What we do know is that for Daytona, De Angelis will have Zacharie Robichon – and the 2021 GTD champ happens to be rated Silver and eligible to race with De Angelis – along with HoR team principal Ian James and last year’s full-season partner Marco Sorensen. As he demonstrated in 2022, De Angelis doesn’t need a full-season partner to fight for a championship, and if there’s a team that could run away with the title, this is it.

“You hope you’re in a position to have the car and the team and the driver lineup to [dominate like PMR did last season],” says De Angelis. “But also, it’s always fun when there’s good competition. And I think other than the Paul Miller car last year, there was always good scraps from second down in the races that they won.

“Everybody raced very hard and very well and I think that this year will be no exception. I think it’s gonna be very difficult to have a runaway car, as it always is.”

Korthoff/Preston Racing took the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup title last season, and returns with the same lineup of Mike Skeen and Mikael Grenier for the full season, Kenton Koch popping into the No, 32 Mercedes AMG GT3 for the endurance races. The team nearly won the championship in its first full season, and were in position to win the Rolex 24 at Daytona last year but for a bad wheel bearing. If they can keep on form, they certainly have to be considered contenders.

“I think we’re highly confident,” says Skeen. “There were a lot of opportunities we had for race wins or podiums last year that maybe didn’t fall into place. But we’ve obviously shown pace and put the car in the right position and just had bad luck or something – last year, a fluke wheel bearing issue, which these cars never have, and even with that, we still led the most laps. So we’ve got the same driver crew, most of the same crew this year, so, really happy with that. We’ve got a nice new car, it should be fresh, ready to go. But obviously the field’s as strong as it’s ever been, so there are plenty of contenders and lots of things outside of our control. It’s just trying to mitigate any of those issues throughout the race and hope to be there at the end.”

Vasser Sullivan’s No. 12 Lexus was triumphant at Watkins Glen last year. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 took a victory in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen last year (pictured above), but comes into this season with an altered driver lineup. Parker Thompson and Aaron Telitz have swapped roles, with Thompson now the full-season partner to Frankie Montecalvo. Thompson started the year off on a good note, taking the pole for the Rolex 24, so perhaps last year’s third-place team has a good shot at the title.

Forte Racing’s Loris Spinelli and Misha Goikhberg showed promise last season, finally fulfilled with victory at Motul Petit Le Mans. With that momentum and a solid team behind them, they have the tools to challenge for the championship in the No. 78 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2.