Doonan: Alpine LMDh Could Be Eligible to Race in IMSA

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Alpine’s new LMDh contender would be eligible to compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship following its homologation and if a commercial agreement with the sanctioning body is reached according to IMSA President John Doonan.

The ORECA-chassied Alpine A424 Beta, which was launched earlier this month at Le Mans, meets the ACO and IMSA’s joint LMDh eligibility criteria outlined in the technical regulations, which states that a car must come from a “recognized automobile manufacturer producing more than 2,500 vehicles annually” for public road use.

According to a recent sales report, the French sports car manufacturer produced 3,546 vehicles in 2022.

“The regulations are clear,” Doonan told Sportscar365. “They already make enough road car volume that they’d be eligible. From a marketing standpoint, that’s their decision to make but they would fit.

“They obviously would need to have a commercial agreement with IMSA, but everybody has [to meet] that.”

Doonan clarified there is no requirement for LMDh manufacturers to sell cars in the North American market, although multiple automotive reports have indicated that Alpine is planning to launch in the U.S., potentially as an EV-only brand, by 2027.

A presence in the WeatherTech Championship could help build the brand’s presence in the region, however.

“As always any announcements are theirs to make,” said Doonan. “But it would be nice to have an additional OEM if it fit their plan.

“It’s a nice-looking car, with the baseline spine of the ORECA.

“They’ve already stated publicly in the news, away from racing, that they have interest in establishing a U.S. retail presence.

“If all those planets align, it would be amazing to have them join us.”

While Alpine is set for a two-car factory effort in the FIA World Endurance Championship beginning in 2024, company CEO Laurent Rossi previously stated the goal of selling customer cars and specifically mentioned the WeatherTech Championship as a possibility.

“We have the ambition to have customers,” Rossi said during the initial program announcement. “If a team wants, it won’t be a problem to run an Alpine in IMSA.

“The sooner we have customers, the faster we will make the program profitable.”

Sportscar365 understands the eligibility is the same for LMDh cars and LMH cars in the WeatherTech Championship, which would enable Peugeot’s 9X8 to also race in the series if it completes the required IMSA wind tunnel testing and commercial agreement.

The Glickenhaus 007 Pipo, however, would not be eligible as the U.S. manufacturer does not meet the annual production requirement.

Doonan, meanwhile, has also clarified that all LMDh models, no matter the series the car competes in, must complete IMSA’s designated wind tunnel testing for homologation.

“As part of the LMDh technical regulations, anybody that’s running a LMDh car has to go to Windshear for their initial homologation,” he said. “If they choose to go to WEC, they have to go to Sauber as well.

“The same would go for a [LMH] car, if there was an interest in a [LMH] car coming to the U.S., they’ve already done their initial homologation at Sauber.

“If they were going to run in IMSA, as part of the convergence agreement, they’d come to Windshear as well, just so that we have apples-to-apples comparison on all of the cars.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John