JR III Planning Expansion to Two-Car LMP3 Operation

After making a pair of exploratory outings in IMSA Prototype Challenge competition, Jr III Racing has outlined plans to expand to a two-car operation in the all-LMP3 class next year.

The North Carolina-based team, which has largely competed in historics racing, made its IPC debut at Virginia International Raceway in August, followed up by a season-ending run at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with its Ligier JS P3 Nissan.

Working with accomplished engineer Rick Cameron, Kris Wilson took the LMP3 car to a pair of top-10 finishes and Bronze Cup victories.

“We launched everything at VIR with Kris, and it was really productive for us,” said team owner Billy Glavin.

“We were lucky to have a guy like Kris join us. He’s a steady hand and knows pretty much everyone, so that helped us get started because we knew we could focus on picking up as much as we could to prepare for next season.

“It was cool that he got the Bronze Cup both times so we came out of those first two weekends with a lot of notes, and a little hardware to go with them.”

The move to grow a successful program of preparing and supporting a range of vintage-racing oriented machines to integrate a professional racing option on the IMSA LMP3 platform for Jr III clients was one that followed extensive research.

“I did a lot of homework to decide where to grow our team to race on the professional level, and IMSA Prototype Challenge made the most sense from a competition point of view,” said Glavin.

“The cars are really high quality and straightforward to work on, it is a great rules package with the Pro-Am structure, and being in this paddock is something that can present opportunities down the road for the team if we are successful.”

The team is still working to finalize its 2020 plans, which opens at Daytona during the Roar Before the Rolex 24 weekend on Jan. 5.