IMSA LMP2 Teams in Favor of 2029 New Car Debut

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams have voiced their support of not debuting the new-generation LMP2 car in the series until 2029, one year after its rollout in ACO-run championships.

The staggered schedule, which was confirmed by IMSA late last month, means the Oreca 07 Gibson will continue in the WeatherTech Championship for what will be an 11th season, after initially being part of the top prototype class in 2017 before being split off into a dedicated LMP2 category two years later.

It has been met by approval from team bosses from United Autosports, Tower Motorsports and Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.

The one-year delay, compared to the teams that will run the new Oreca 09 and yet-to-be-named Ligier LMP2 car in the European and Asian Le Mans Series, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2028, will also provide a longer runway for development and initial car delivery according to United Autosports team principal Richard Dean.

“We would have made it work if everything got introduced at the same time,” Dean told Sportscar365. “I totally understand why you would stagger it, especially if I was in ORECA or Ligier’s position.

“Introducing it at Daytona brings everything forward by six months.

“I’m not so sure that’s an easy thing for the manufacturers to do, depending on how many cars they’ve got to produce.

“If ORECA or Ligier had a problem in producing that many cars and the first race being a 24-hour race for the car, then I totally understand why they’ve made that decision.”

Tower boss Ricky Capone said he’s happy to stay status quo for one additional season.

“Obviously with a new car, the challenges are new setup pads, gearbox tooling and the Oreca 07 is obviously a great car,” he told Sportscar365.

“We’re set up to run it. It’s a huge team expense for us to purchase a new car.”

Capone, however, raised the point that UK or European-based teams such as United, Inter Europol Competition and Algarve Pro Racing, will effectively have a one-year jump start over the teams focused on the WeatherTech Championship only come 2029.

“It’s nice that it will have some time over in Europe running before we get our hands on it,” said Capone.

“The flip side of that is that European teams that do both championships will be ahead of some of the U.S.-based teams.

“That’s just racing in general. We’re excited for the new car. But at the present time it fit our team model to stay with what we have.”

Dean added: “I totally get that point of view from the U.S. teams. Everybody’s protecting their own interests and if I was a U.S. team only based over here and watching people gain a year’s experience in Europe, then I’d be probably thinking that I didn’t want to see.

“There’s [pros and cons] introducing them for both championships and there [pros and cons] against for staggering it.

“The big thing for me that it eases the pressure on is because we are active in Asia and Europe and the U.S., everything getting introduced at the same time is a big financial commitment.”

PR1/Mathiasen team co-owner Bobby Oergel, whose team has been a stalwart in IMSA Pro-Am-enforced prototype competition since the launch of the LMPC class in the American Le Mans Series in 2010, has also expressed his support.

“100 percent and maybe [longer] if they would go just because, in the end, the manufacturers are up against it, I’m sure, with the volume that’s coming right away with just even Europe,” Oergel told Sportscar365.

“Secondly, what would it mean for us teams to make the right choices. Not just choices [between ORECA and Ligier] but choices in ways you’re going to run your program and understanding what the real cost of that new program truly is.

“Everybody has a view and everybody is looking at numbers, until you’re doing it, you’re still a victim of hoping that it’s right.

“For me, it’s the longer the better. Everybody loves what we have so it’s hard to give up. New is great but new isn’t always better.”

Oergel Believes New LMP2 Will Go Down Same Path With Single-Car Class

The current generation of LMP2 machinery debuted in 2017 with four licensed constructors in Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic/Riley and ORECA, although the class quickly became an all-ORECA affair after it became clear that the French constructor had the most competitive option.

Oergel’s team helped give the Ligier JS P217 Gibson its competition debut in the Rolex 24 at Daytona that year and said the memories are still “very alive and well” in his mind.

“The hardest piece was knowing whether you made a good or bad choice,” he said. “It’s not that the people were good or bad, it’s just maybe or maybe not it was the right machine.

“It turned out that it was not the right machine at the time and never came into play. LMP2 has basically turned into a spec category.

“Now you’re waiting to see if it’s going to be that again.

“To some extent, you either make it a one-make series or you let one be a victim. Which one is it going to be?”

When asked if he thinks the new generation will go down the same path, even with ballast and other possible BoP measures set to be built into the platform. Oergel said: “It always does.”

He added: “You go back into all years of racing, there’s always one that’s better than the other. That’s just how it is. It’s just the nature of this beast and we do it to ourselves.

“If you’re not making them even, then there’s a victim.”

Oergel believes it would have been a better option to have made the new-gen LMP2 a spec class from the start, similar to what LMPC was.

“I go back to those days and relish the fact because those days were just so cost-effective, so good in terms of competition for value,” he said.

“This has turned itself into it, just a lot more zeros than what we did then and we’re going the same speed. Sadly, that’s the problem.

“We’ve actually regressed in speed to the point of what PC was and four [times the cost].

“But I love it. It’s a better car than the PC car ever was. It’s so capable and in 2017 when it arrived, it was way beyond what it needed to be for a Pro-Am car.”

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