The GTLM class of the IMSA WeatherTech series will be without the Ford GT works team after the 2019 season.
It would be nice to be able to say the results of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway last weekend didn’t mirror the action on the track, but it pretty much did in the GT Le Mans class.
In one of two races this year that allowed the two GT classes to star in the show by giving the prototypes the week off, the big 3.270-mile track looked a little lonesome during the race, with 21 entries pretty much scattered around the circuit. But it was the GT Le Mans class, not the better-populated GT Daytona cars, that merits a second look.
As you likely know, even though the GT Le Mans and the GT Daytona cars look a great deal alike, the four two-car teams in GT Le Mans are closely tied to the manufacturers, and are well-funded to the point where they use top professional drivers – frankly, some of the best in the world – as opposed to GT Daytona, where the cars are supposed to be privately owned, and typically are driven by one professional who gets paid, and one semi-privateer who usually pays, either out of his or her deep pocket, or by bringing a paying sponsor to the party.
And the Ford GTs, which had just won the last two races, were given two extra liters of fuel for the VIR race. (Hint: If you try to make sense of the BOP changes without listening to the IMSA executive’s lengthy but effective technical explanations, good luck.)
Keep in mind that every car, from every manufacturer in the GTLM class is a pro, typically employed by the factory. There is, of course, race strategy, pit strategy, tire management and so many other factors at play, but when we look at the fastest lap set by each car, we get a pretty decent idea of how fast it goes.
In the VIR race, the two Porsches dominated and took first and second. Each car knocked out a fastest lap in the 1 minute, 40 second range.
Then came the two Corvettes, running low 1 minute, 41 seconds.
Then came the two Ford GTs, also running low 1:41s
And then came the two BMWs, lapping at a 1:41.951, and a 1:41.883. That’s a full half-second slower than the next-slowest car, one of the Corvettes.
Is there hocus-pocus afoot? Is BMW going slow in hopes that they’ll get a BOP break for the final two races? Are the Porsches capable of 1:39 laps, but are dialing it back a bit so they don’t get penalized, though they’ve won six of the nine races so far this year?
Prior to this race, IMSA banned what it perceived as “code” talking between the crew and the on-track driver, ostensibly telling him or her where they needed to slow down on the track to give the IMSA timers scattered around the circuit the idea that the cars weren’t as fast as they were capable of being, to help avoid BOP penalties.
All admirable efforts, but still the results were beyond predictable at VIR: Porsche first and second, Corvette third and fourth, Ford GT fifth and sixth, and BMW seventh and eighth. Even before the race the BMW engineers figured the speed differential would make it a challenge just staying on the lead lap. One BMW managed that, the other was the only GT Le Mans car a lap down.
First and second at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona was won by a one-off BMW team assembled just for Daytona and Sebring, and second at Daytona went to a Ferrari team that only ran the first two races. (Often these teams are based overseas, and run series like the World Endurance Championship the rest of the season.)
Regardless, beginning with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the second race, Porsche began its six-race juggernaut, and the other two of the eight races were won by a Ford GT. Corvette has been shut out, despite winning the team and driver championship in 2018.
Formula 1 seems to get away with serving up the same few drivers who can win each race, but IMSA needs more action. Faced with the realization that Ford will discontinue factory support for the Ford GT next year, we could end up with six cars in what is arguably IMSA’s most globally revered class, given the fact that the GT Le Mans cars, as the name suggests, are essentially eligible to compete in the GTE Pro class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans each season, and many of the IMSA GT Le Mans drivers do. The headline IMSA DPi Prototypes, as you likely know, are not eligible to race in Le Mans.
With two races remaining, this is the time of the year that we need to be hearing of more teams pledging to join the IMSA field next year. Ben Keating’s VIR-winning Mercedes team won’t be back full-time for 2020, as Keating is moving overseas to the WEC series. CORE Autosport won’t return with its DPi program next year. Magnus and Starworks may or may not be back in GTD next year. And while there is interest in the lightly-attended, part-time LMP2 class, its future is uncertain.
Hopefully, at Laguna Seca and the season-ending Petit Le Mans we’ll be hearing about new teams coming aboard for 2020, like the Robinson Racing Mercedes that becomes the default Mercedes-AMG team, complete with Bill Riley, who shepherded Keating’s team to so many wins.
And hopefully, we won’t see the two-by-two-by-two-by two finish in the GT Le Mans class. BOP is supposed to mix up the finish, not dictate it per manufacturer. We’re confident IMSA will make that happen.
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