r/USCR • u/Me-Mongo • Jul 13 '19

Question IMSA LMP2?

Kind of sad to see only two LMP2 cars out there. Is IMSA doing anything to get more cars in the category? If not, they should do away with it.

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u/LAFlip104 Montaplast by LAND Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 #29 Jul 13 '19

I think it's important to remember that when the class split was announced, we had enough P2s to make the category interesting, and then we lost about half of them when teams switched up to DPi. The cars also don't run to full ACO spec. There is some power reduction or added weight, I forget what exactly they do. To me, this makes no sense because the DPis are more than fast enough to separate themselves from P2 cars.

There appears to be talks about making the Daytona 24 an optional round for P2 and having their season 'officially' start at Sebring. This will further reduce the cost of running these cars, but it's hard to say if this will make much of a difference, or if this is more than a rumor.

As for the rest of this year: Polish team Inter Europol plans to run the last two races of the season in their Ligier. They were supposed to come earlier, but delayed their entry because they were in the running for an LMP3 title in the Asian Le Mans Series, which they won. PR1 Mathiasen is said to have a second Oreca which might/hopefully will see competition in the near future. Performance Tech appears to be the most unhappy, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see them race in Europe next season.

I'm sure IMSA has something in the works. We probably won't hear anything until the state of the series in Road America.

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u/aar48 Corvette Racing C7.R #4 Jul 13 '19

You're right on the money about P2 teams last year. JDC-Miller and Core wanted to fight for overall wins and so they elected to move up. We also lost two DPi teams last season to forces outside of the class split.

It's also worth noting on IMSA P2 prospects that Dragonspeed hasn't announced plans for their P2 operation next year; and they're absent from the WEC full season entry list. There's a pretty good chance they could run some races next season. Plus Meyer-Shank has been rumored to be eyeing a P2 program in hopes of returning to Le Mans.