The WeatherTech Championship Campaign Was Loaded with Action from Start to Nail-Biting Finish
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As a nod to former “Late Show” host David Letterman, here is a top-10 list of IMSA’s standout moments from an incredible 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
We’ll rank them in chronological order as they happened:
- GTP Debut at Rolex 24
- LMP2 Photo Finish at Rolex 24
- Chaotic Finish at Sebring
- Penske Porsche’s No-Tire Gamble at Long Beach
- Paul Miller Racing’s Momentous P2 Comeback at The Glen
- Summer Sweeps in GTD PRO, GTD
- 31 Team’s Road America Morning Warmup Miracle
- Jordan Taylor, Corvette C8.R Take Final Victories Together at VIR
- Back to the Bricks at Indy after Nine Years Away
- The 31/10 Motul Petit Le Mans GTP Title Drama
GTP Debut at Rolex 24
Anticipation was high for the debut of the new Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) cars at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. So were nerves.
After months of testing, the four manufacturers (Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Porsche) that combined to produce nine GTP entries for IMSA’s longest race of the year were rewarded with excellent reliability and early signs a great battle among all four would take place.
Acura, with its ARX-06 chassis, swept the top two spots led by Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian over Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport. Cadillac completed the podium with the Chip Ganassi Racing-prepared No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. Perhaps more importantly, seven of the nine cars took the checkered flag.
LMP2 Photo Finish at Rolex 24
Le Mans Prototype 2 delivered the closest finish in any class of IMSA in 2023 at the first race of the year with a spellbinding battle between James Allen of Proton Competition and Ben Hanley of CrowdStrike Racing by APR, in identical ORECA 07 chassis. Hanley appeared to have the edge, only for Allen to surge off oval Turn 4 onto the front straight and take the top spot by 0.016 seconds. The Proton win was one of two for the team in the race; the WeatherTech Racing-flagged, Proton-operated No. 79 Mercedes-AMG GT3 captured GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) honors.
Sebring’s Wild Finish
The old adage that Sebring’s 12 hours run tougher than Daytona’s 24 proved prescient in GTP. Only three of the nine cars finished after a bruising race on the legendary former airfield surface, with a mix of mechanical issues and incidents taking aim at the field.
A dramatic coming together at the front of the GTP class with less than 10 laps remaining took out the No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura and both Penske Porsche 963s, opening the door for a lucky-but-good No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac to secure its first and ultimately only win of the year.
GTP’s stunner took the headlines but it wasn’t the only chaotic finish. Both the No. 9 Pfaff Porsche (GTD PRO) and No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW (GTD) parlayed long fuel runs to capture similar surprise victories.
Penske’s No-Tire Gamble in Long Beach
The odds looked bleak for Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy in their No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 at Long Beach. Starting sixth, Tandy charged up to second early and held the spot by the first and only pit stop. It was there the race changed. Penske opted to run its single set of Michelin tires for the remainder of the 100-minute race, a strategic gambit in a year where double-stinting tires with reduced season-long allocation emerged as a consistent storyline.
Track position being key, Jaminet vaulted to the lead, teammate Matt Campbell played excellent defense in the second Penske car and WTRAndretti’s Ricky Taylor hit the Turn 1 wall in a valiant, late, unsuccessful charge on newer tires in an attempt to claw back the deficit. In a true track-to-street moment on the streets of Long Beach, a single set of tires helped deliver Penske the first global win for the new Porsche 963.
Paul Miller Racing’s Recovery Runner-Up at The Glen
Paul Miller Racing won five races in 2023 en route to the GTD title, but the team suggested its best race and most important moment of the year was where it finished second. Coming from three laps down after discovering an electrical fault, PMR rallied from 16th place to second in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen after a massive comeback drive from Corey Lewis, Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers. PMR’s first four races were Jekyll and Hyde results-wise with two wins counterbalanced by eighth- and 10th-place showings. But the runner-up at The Glen helped to springboard PMR into its title run, winning three of the next four races thereafter and surging to an unassailable lead.
Summer Sweeps in GTD PRO, GTD
A pair of teams starred in both GTD PRO and GTD throughout the season, with their day of days both coming in the Northeastern swing of the season.
Vasser Sullivan Lexus swept both classes at Watkins Glen, a first for the team in its history. Meanwhile, Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin swept both at the GT-only Lime Rock race, with the GTD PRO pair avenging a tough season to that point and the GTD entry capturing its first win since the Rolex 24.
The Road America Rebuild Thrash
When is a loss a win? Consider what the No. 31 team did in just over an hour following a crash in race-morning warmup to ensure its damaged Cadillac V-Series.R GTP car was not only repaired but also didn’t lose its 35 qualifying points from Pipo Derani’s pole-winning drive when it made it to the grid just in time at Road America. The No. 31 won the championship by 21 points – points that would have made the difference if the collective crew’s effort weren’t done in time.
The only downside? As both team leaders Chris Mitchum and Gary Nelson related, the rebuilt car lost its speed and didn’t win the race. But finishing P6 and saving the qualifying points was the difference between coming out of Wisconsin ahead vs. behind.
Jordan Taylor, Corvette Win Their Last Together at VIR
An air of finality hung over Corvette Racing throughout 2023 in its longtime, singular, factory guise and with its C8.R GTD car in its last year of competition. As the year went on, it developed the season would be Jordan Taylor’s last with the team as well, having been part of the GM brand and/or team in part since 2012.
Perhaps fittingly, the GT-only Michelin GT Challenge at VIR served as both driver and team’s last win together, Taylor finishing the No. 3 started by Antonio Garcia. Garcia will be part of the revamped Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports team in 2024, while Taylor heads to GTP with his father’s team.
IMSA + IMS = Back at the Brickyard
Nine long years passed between IMSA’s last trip to Indianapolis and its welcome return this September for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks. In what was a symbolic return, new track owner Roger Penske’s Porsche Penske Motorsport team dominated the weekend with a 1-2 finish led by the Tandy/Jaminet pairing over Felipe Nasr and Campbell.
Other class winners enjoyed the spoils of winning at one of North America’s most iconic facilities and toasted their victories with a kiss of the bricks. The standard length two-hour, 40-minute race will evolve into a six-hour race in 2024, a fifth race of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup.
Motul Petit Le Mans GTP Title Drama
Ordinarily, five classes would have title battles to sort at the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans. But with LMP3, GTD PRO and GTD titles basically settled and LMP2 still in play but easier to diagram among three cars, it was the six-car, four-manufacturer GTP title tilt that took center stage.
The pendulum swung wildly over the course of the 10-hour race, with five of the six teams and all four brands leading the proverbial “points as they run” depending on when it flashed.
Ultimately though, as in other prototype eras of IMSA, it came down to two regular, consistent rivals: the No. 31 Cadillac and the No. 10 Acura. And once again, it ended in dramatic fashion.
Contact occurred when Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 went to Derani’s outside at Turn 1, didn’t make the corner and went into the tire wall. That all but assured the No. 31 car of the title, provided the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 didn’t make up enough spots.
The No. 60 Meyer Shank Acura bookended the year with another win (its third of the year), while the No. 31 took home the title.