Autoweek - January 23_ 2017 magazine-pdf.org

2017 RACING PREVIEW
A NEW
ERA
BEGINS
PROTOTYPE FIX
IN STORE FOR
IMSA’S TOP SERIES
BY STEVEN COLE SMITH
AFTER THREE
seasons as the joint
sports-car racing
organization created when
Grand-Am and the American
Le Mans Series merged, the
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar
Championship will finally
step out as its own distinctive
sanctioning body in 2017.
How so? Series CEO
Ed Bennett, who came from
the NASCAR-affiliated Grand-
Am side, and Scott Atherton,
series president, who came
from ALMS, were tasked with
combining the two series into
one. The hardest part was the
top Prototype category, where
the tube-framed Grand-Am
Daytona Prototypes were
tossed into the same class
as the ALMS P2 cars.
The DPs and P2s are
dramatically different vehicles,
and making them able to race
against each other was a massive
undertaking. It didn’t
work the first year, worked
better the second year and
worked even better in 2016.
For season four, the 2016
Prototype class has been
put out to pasture. The new
Prototypes are created to
specifications much closer to
the ALMS P2 model than the
Daytona Prototype. Given
the relationship the Weather-
Tech series has with the
Automobile Club de l’Ouest
and the 24 Hours of Le Mans,
inherited from the ALMS,
that’s not surprising. Quite a
few potential Prototype teams
hoped for the possibility of
running Le Mans. That was
never going to happen with
the Daytona Prototype.
With the new P2-based
IMSA Prototypes, called DPi
for Daytona Prototype international,
they should be in the
ballpark. The central problem
is only one engine, the Gibson,
is approved for Le Mans’ LMP2
class. If you are, say, Cadillac
participating in IMSA, you
aren’t running a Gibson
engine. No Gibson engine,
no Le Mans LMP2 entry, at
least for 2017. You might also
want a body package that
shares a bit with Cadillac’s
styling language—allowed in
IMSA, but not at Le Mans.
To run the 2017 IMSA
WeatherTech series, DPi
cars, 2017 P2 cars and closedcockpit
2016 P2 cars with
IMSA-homologated engines
are technically eligible. After
the 2017 season, 2016 LMP2
cars are no longer allowed.
Presently, all the cars expected
to run full time this season
are new, but some 2016 cars
could run selected events.
Four chassis manufacturers
have been approved: Dallara,
Onroak, ORECA and
Riley/Multimatic.
Confused? Yes, you aren’t
the only one.
IMSA’s other major 2017
change is at the other end of
the four-class spectrum: The
GT Daytona class has caught
fire, with additional manufacturers
taking advantage of
the 2016 class change that
required GT Daytona entries
to meet global GT3 specs.
The GT3 cars are eligible
for literally dozens of series
around the world, giving
manufacturers incentive to
build and sell GT3 cars. They
go for somewhere above or
below $500,000 per copy,
depending on your spares
package and how much factory
support you get. This
also guarantees the GT3 cars
a certain level of resale value,
appealing to many teams on
the fence about what series
and class to pick.
The IMSA WeatherTech
SportsCar Championship
season starts at the Rolex 24
at Daytona Jan. 28-29 and
ends at Petit Le Mans at Road
Atlanta Oct. 4-7. There are
10 races in between, with the
only substantial change being
the Circuit of the Americas
race moved to May 4-6 from
its usual fall date, which
IMSA shared with the World
Endurance Championship
last year. c
The Cadillac
DPi-V.R (above)
and Mazda
MRT24-P (below)
prototypes show
off at the Roar
Before the 24.
LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC (3)
28 AUTOWEEK JANUARY 23, 2017