United Autosports Unlikely to Enter IMSA Races Next Year

United Autosports is unlikely to enter any IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship rounds next year, according to team co-owner Richard Dean.

Dean told Sportscar365 that the Anglo-American squad doesn’t want to “over-extend” its workload in 2023 when it runs two-car LMP2 programs in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the European Le Mans Series and the Asian Le Mans Series.

United contested the first two rounds of this year’s IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup at Daytona and Sebring with a single Oreca 07 Gibson, but didn’t continue for the subsequent races at Watkins Glen and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Last year it took part in three out of the four MEC rounds with American Bronze-rated driver Jim McGuire, who stayed on for the first two events of the 2022 season.

However, Dean explained that a WeatherTech Championship program is not on the cards for United Autosports at present.

“We absolutely love the IMSA series and all our racing there,” he said.

“When I watched Petit [Le Mans] on the TV, I really missed it. It’s just amazing.

“But we’re going to Asia [in February] and made that commitment with two cars. We’re doing two cars in WEC and two in ELMS.

“When you look at the new schedule, you’re getting into April and we have four back-to-back weekends between WEC and ELMS.

“Trying to add Daytona in there and Asia, and Sebring in March… we are very conscious not to over-extend ourselves. So it’s unlikely.”

Unlike this year, the first two ELMS rounds next season interlock with the second and third races of the WEC, creating a busy period for teams involved in both series.

United Autosports is returning to a two-car setup in ELMS next year, alongside its continuing two-car effort in the world championship.

The team has rented a facility in the U.S. for its previous IMSA forays, and the nature of that arrangement means that it’s possible to dip in and out of the region with its LMP2 and LMP3 programs when required.

Furthermore, the facility remains useful to the historic arm of the United Autosports business which participates in American events such as Velocity International, where co-owner Zak Brown recently turned laps of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

“We’ve got enough kit and equipment that we can justify having a place there, just to store it,” Dean explained.

“It will sit there. We’ve got racing in America with historics. If we’re not in America with an LMP2 car, we’ve got other reasons to have a foothold there.”

Dean added that United Autosports has not been involved in discussions between Alpine and Andretti Autosport regarding its involvement in a potential IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP effort.

Alpine and Andretti are known to have been evaluating a future program with the Renault brand’s in-development 2024 LMDh car, which will be based on the ORECA spine.

United, meanwhile, is partnered with Andretti in other arenas such as Extreme E and the Australian Supercars championship.

Despite having ambitions to race at the top level of prototype racing, United currently has no program confirmed. Two of its major LMP2 rivals, Team WRT and JOTA, are preparing to run LMDh machinery from BMW and Porsche in upcoming WEC campaigns.

“We would be very open to any discussions that can help us achieve our ambitions,” Dean said when asked if United has been involved in the Andretti-Alpine talks.

“But honestly we haven’t been party [to it]. We talk with Andretti a lot. We do it regularly because we’ve got partnerships in Aussie Supercars and Extreme E.

“I know we can ask them for help; they’ve been like a true partner in IMSA. But we honestly haven’t had those discussions.”