Michelin’s Record-Breaking Year in Numbers

Michelin’s first full season in its long-term commitment as the Official Tire of IMSA saw teams, drivers and automotive brands smash the record books in each of the three series in IMSA in which it competes.

Here’s an overview of the records achieved over the course of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Michelin Pilot Challenge and IMSA Prototype Challenge seasons:

Qualifying and Race Lap Records

***In the WeatherTech Championship, Pilot Challenge and IPC, drivers and teams set 90 of a possible 114 new qualifying and race lap records.

***A total of 17 of the 19 automotive brands entered in IMSA set at least one new qualifying or race lap record this season.

***Qualifying and race lap records were set at each of the 12 race weekends on the 2019 IMSA schedule.

***Records were set across the board, with all the DPi, GT Le Mans, GT Daytona, GS, TCR and LMP3 categories breaking previous records at most if not all events. As a new category split from DPi and with a power reduction compared to 2018, LMP2 established new times at each of its race venues.

***In the WeatherTech Championship, the DPi class set new qualifying records at all 10 race venues, by an average of 1.95 seconds, with Michelin’s new IMSA-specific IMSA Medium and IMSA Hard compounds. The largest year-on-year gain came at Road America, where the pole was more than 3 seconds quicker than the previous record.

***Both the DPi and GTLM classes set new race lap records in all its races. At Daytona and Michelin Raceway, all cars in both classes surpassed the previous mark. Additionally, GTLM (VIR) and GTD (Daytona) also had all cars beat the race lap records in those events.

***The Pilot Challenge series saw its GS and TCR classes set new qualifying and race lap records at every venue with the commercial Michelin Pilot Sport GT S8M and S9M tires.

***In each of the 8 dry qualifying sessions, both classes set new qualifying marks and in all 10 races, both classes set new best race laps.

***On average, the GS pole was 1.797 seconds quicker than in 2018 and the TCR pole was 1.831 seconds quicker.

***In the races, the GS best lap was 1.762 quicker than in 2018, with the TCR best lap 1.697 seconds quicker.

Race Distance Records

***The overall race winners set five new race distance records in the WeatherTech Championship. Thanks to a combination of favorable track and weather conditions, teams worked with Michelin’s engineers and Motorsport Tire Specialists to extract the most from their Michelin tires.

***These occurred at IMSA’s shortest track (Lime Rock Park, 1.474 miles) and longest track (Road America, 4.048 miles) and at three other circuits (Watkins Glen International, 3.4 miles, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, 2.238 miles and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, 2.54 miles).

***The new distance record set at Michelin Raceway for the 10-hour Motul Petit Le Mans was 465 laps and a total of 1,181.1 miles. That beat the old mark set last year of 443 laps and 1,125.22 miles by some 55.88 miles.

***Teams and drivers went further with Michelin by more than 30 miles at Watkins Glen in a six-hour race and more than 28 miles at Road America in a two-hour, 40-minute race.