Yahoo Autos Trueman, Akin Award battles heating up heading into homestretch
With just four weekends of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season remaining, title battles in all classes are coming into further focus.
That includes the competition for the Jim Trueman and Bob Akin awards, as Bronze-rated drivers within the LMP2 and GTD classes vie for the top spots and the automatic invitation to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans that go with it.
The double-digit car count within LMP2 and the opportunity to headline the recent Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park has given Bronze-rated drivers in this class more of a spotlight this season as they chase the Trueman Award.
While the trio of CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz, United Autosports USA’s Ben Keating and TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas have been the pre-eminent drivers in the category in recent years, they aren’t alone — and all three are playing catch-up after four of seven races on the 2024 schedule.
Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports grabbed the overall win at CTMP, courtesy of Tom Dillmann bringing the No. 52 ORECA LMP2 07 home to the finish ahead of Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley ORECA.
That result moved Dillmann and his co-driver, Bronze-rated Nick Boulle, to within 12 points of Fraga and two-time WeatherTech Championship title winner Gar Robinson for the overall LMP2 title lead. In the battle for top Bronze driver and Trueman honors, Boulle trails Robinson by 20 points.
In isolation and with three races left, those two would be the only drivers vying for the award. But the remaining nine drivers that have also run all four LMP2 races in 2024 can each still win the Trueman Award if the cards fall right.
Just 120 points covers Thomas and United’s Daniel Goldburg — tied for third — to 11th-placed PJ Hyett of AO Racing. Thomas and Goldburg are 160 points in arrears of Boulle for second and 180 behind Robinson for first.
Behind them, only 60 points covers fifth through 11th, a list that includes Keating, Kurtz, John Farano (Tower Motorsports), Luis Perez Companc (Richard Mille AF Corse), Dennis Andersen (MDK by High Class Racing), Lance Willsey (Sean Creech Motorsport) and Hyett.
With a maximum score of 350 points for winning and 190 points awarded to 12th place, there is a potential for a swing of 160 points in one race. That’s provided the LMP2 car count doesn’t increase beyond 12 cars for any of the remaining races.
Orey Fidani, who shares the AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R with Matthew Bell, leads the Akin Award standings. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
The number “70” headlines the story in GTD — it’s both the number of points covering the top three full-season Bronze-rated drivers and the car number of the defending Bob Akin Award winner, Brendan Iribe.
The co-driver of the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO gained points on his nearest rivals at CTMP, where he and Frederik Schandorff finished third in the race. Both hometown driver Orey Fidani (No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R) and Sheena Monk (No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22) ran aground of trouble at some stage in the race, finishing 13th and seventh respectively.
Fidani still leads the Akin standings by 50 points over Monk. Iribe is within striking distance at 70 points back.
Things get more complicated for the Akin Award in GTD in the opposite way to the Trueman Award for LMP2. The surplus of Bronze-rated, full-season LMP2 entries means there can be much wider movement in the standings per race. GTD, however, has seen only three or four Bronze-rated drivers in the first three sprint races for the class this year, limiting the ability to make large points gains in those races.
The next two races — at Road America and VIRginia International Raceway — are sprint events, but the last two — at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta — are IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events. Those longer races with larger fields this season have seen 10 to 12 Bronze drivers entered, greatly increasing the potential for wider point swings.
First up is the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America. Live coverage is available on Peacock and IMSA Radio beginning at 3pm ET Sunday, Aug. 4.
