Keating “Wants Time in the Car to Matter” in LMP2

Ben Keating is undecided on whether to continue his tenure in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s LMP2 class next year, stating he “wants his time in the car to matter” after a challenging campaign with United Autosports that saw him finish fifth in the standings.

The Texan Bronze-rated driver scored a victory at Road America alongside full-season co-driver Ben Hanley but otherwise recorded a best finish of fourth at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

It marked the first time since he competed in LMP2 machinery in the WeatherTech Championship full-time that Keating has missed out on the title. He previously won championships with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports in 2021 and 2023.

The 53-year-old expressed discontent at the way his LMP2 campaign played out, stating he “wants his time in the car to matter” after his performances at the wheel of the No. 2 Oreca 07 Gibson often didn’t translate to strong results.

“I love racing the LMP2, I love racing at the IMSA tracks, I love the people of IMSA,” Keating said.

“The main problem I have is that in every race so far this season, I have raced to the front in LMP2 and we’ve had one podium all season.

“Yes, it’s an advantage to bring it to the front, bring it home with a lead, keep the car clean, all that, but what I want is race finishes.

“Indy is a good example. I started P3. I raced to the front and [in] that particular case, we got a DNF. But I can look at that race and say, I did a great job.

“I was very happy with my performance. But I’m traveling home, and there’s no joy because we had a crap race.

“I do this for fun. I want the joy of the results and I want my time in the car to matter. And my main issue, I love the car and I love the tracks and I love the series, but I want my time in the car to matter.”

Keating’s grievances with his season in LMP2 come amid an increase of interest in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMGT3 class after a one-off outing at Circuit of The Americas last month.

The Texan is understood to be in the frame for a return to TF Sport to join its Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R program in 2025.

“I haven’t signed any contracts for any series yet,” Keating said. “I am confident that I will be at Daytona and I’m confident I will be at Le Mans.”

When asked if he could again race LMP2 machinery in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, Keating replied: “That’s all still up in the air and we’ll see.

“I’ve done two cars in eight of the last ten years. I hope that comes together for Daytona. But we’ll see. Nothing is done yet.”

Keating’s problems with LMP2 go beyond a lack of results for himself and Hanley, as he explained, with the current class split procedure during Full Course Yellows a particular  point of concern.

With the pass-arounds removing slower traffic between the LMP2 contenders, it nullifies the effect of penalties and also opens up the opportunity for other LMP2 runners to ‘bump you out of the way’ on restarts.

“The way it is right now, I’ve got no issue with the way that they call the race,” he said.

“But I will say that Beaux [Barfield] doesn’t mind close hard racing and everybody knows that. So on a restart, I want to start like fifth.

“I don’t want to start in the lead because you don’t have anybody around you other than other LMP2 cars and everybody knows they can just bump you out of the way and move up a spot.

“It’s been especially frustrating for me this year because I’ve brought the car in in the lead and we have repeatedly been bumped out of the way.

“And I mean, I’m not bashful. The main reason I chose Ben Hanley as my co-driver this year was because he bumped me out of the way twice last year.

“I knew that he was comfortable with it. I knew he knew how to do it and that’s one of the most important things in this series right now, unfortunately.

“If we didn’t have the class split, you would have less of that going on.

“It would be a big deal to have a little bit of a gap, enough of a gap that you could get away without having somebody just completely dive bomb in Turn 1 on a restart.”

Keating further stressed that he is yet to make a definitive decision on where he will race in 2025, but stated that it’s ‘not about the money, but about the fun’ when it comes to choosing a program.

“I mean, this is a little uncomfortable for me to say, but there are a lot of teams in all the series who don’t know what they’re going to do for a driver lineup next year and I feel like the pretty girl at the dance,” he said.

“Everybody is coming to me. It’s nice and I’ve gotten really good offers, really inexpensive deals compared to what I have been paying to race.

“But it’s not about the money for me. I want the results. I want to win.  It’s all way too expensive if it’s not fun. It’s not fun to not be up front. So that’s what I care about most.”