After five long months, the IMSA (International Motorsports Association) WeatherTech Sports Car Series returns this Saturday night, competing at Daytona International Speedway road course for the WeatherTech 240.
It’s the first time in quite some time, IMSA will race in the summer at Daytona, and in a two hour and 40 minute sprint race which will be the norm as the season goes a long.
Overall, there are 26 entries on the entry list. Eight teams make up the WeatherTech DPI class, six in the GTLM class, with the GTD having the most entries at 12. Among the entry list, three new teams are set to get on track Saturday night at Daytona. Of those teams, the No. 76 Compass Racing McLaren team returns in its second season in the WeatherTech Sports Car Series, but the entry sees a new face on the grid. 32-year old, Corey Fergus is set to pilot the No. 76 entry. Fergus has experience in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. Accompanying, Fergus will be his teammate, 26-year old Paul Holton.
The other newer entries are Gradient Racing and Team Hardpoint. In the Graident entry, drivers Marc Miller, Till Bechtolsheimer make up the driver grid for the team in the Acura NSX GT3 machine. As for Hardpoint, Rob Ferriol and Spencer Pumpelly are the co-drivers. Both Ferriol and Pumpelly will pilot the No. 30 Audi R8 LMS GT3 vehicle.
There are at least three different teams who have a very good track record. Those are the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R., BMW Team RLL, and Audi.
In the Cadillac stable, they were the most recent overall winner in the 2020 Rolex 24 hours of Daytona. The No. 10 entry also was the runner up at last seasons championship finale in the Motul Petit Le Mans, which has the team seeing early success by having two consecutive podiums. In the January event, the Cadillac team led the most laps by leading 493 of 833 laps.
Meanwhile, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team has also found success at Daytona. In the GTLM class, RLL has earned three consecutive podiums with a two car team, while the No. 24 M8 GTE machine got the victory in the Rolex 24. This weekend, John Edwards and Jesse Krohn will share the No. 24 entry, as De Phillippi and Bruno Spengler manages the No. 25 BMW entry. Spengler was successful in the IMSA iRacing Series, while the series awaited return.
As for Audi, they are coming off two consecutive finishes on the podium in the GTD category at Daytona International Speedway. Drivers Mirko Bortolotti, Rolf Ineichen, Daniel Morad, Dries Vanthoor piloted the No. 88 WRT Speedstar Audi home to a third place outing in January. The only entry Audi sees for Saturday is the No. 30 of Ferriol and Pumpelly with Team Hardpoint.
It’s been at least 10 years or so, since Daytona has featured an IMSA summer race. Though, Porsche looks to continue their success, as they have the most victories of any manufacturer with five in four different classes. These victories have came in 2000 with GTU, GTS in 2002, SGS in 2004 and 2009, as well as their most recent summer victory in 2010 with the GT class. On Saturday, Porsche fields three cars with the usual No. 912 GT, No. 911 for GTLM, and the No. 16 Wright Motorsports team driven by Ryan Hardwick and Patrick Long for GTD.
Back in January, Nick Tandy qualified on the pole in the Porsche No. 911 RSR in GTLM, while Zacharie Robichon earned the pole in GTD.
As the news broke during the break, Porsche will withdraw from IMSA at the end of the 2020 season. Team drivers, Nick Tandy, Fred Makowiecki, Earl Bamber, and Laurens Vanthoor will do everything in their power to give the manufacturer something to remember for in their final season.
Following Porsche in the wins list category are BMW with four, Chevrolet seeing three wins, Ferrari and Mazda sharing two wins, and Lexus only having one win.
However, Mazda was the leading manufacturer at the two hour and 40 minute mark during the 2020 Rolex 24.
Surprisingly, the Corvette Racing team is still seeking its 100th victory in IMSA. The last time Corvette won a race was in the Grand Prix of Long Beach, which came last year as then drivers Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin picked up the victory. Corvette will have a solid chance Saturday, as Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor will get to compete in the No. 3 Corvette machine.
As these manufacturers have seen their fair share of success, we also cannot forget about the drivers.
A lot can change in a span of 10 years since the last Daytona summer race, but as that old saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay same,” which rings true this weekend.
Drivers who last competed in the summer Daytona race are still around today and you actually might just be surprised. Those drivers are Andy Lally, Bill Auberlen, Antonio Garcia, Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor, Joao Barbosa, John Edwards, Jonathan Bomarito, Spencer Pumpelly, and John Potter.
Auberlen and Lally are the only drivers out of the group, who have won the summer race dating back to 2000. In fact, they are tied two a piece. Auberlen got to victory lane in 2002 and 2004, as Lally earned his victories in 2006 and 2010.
There will be many other strong competitors looking for victory in different classes, as the race begins Saturday night. One’s thing for sure, in a two hour and 40 minute event, you have very little time to make a mistake and rebound from it. Drivers will have to be on top of their game and with this race being shorter than usual, the short sprint could feature some very exciting action, which will make for a good race to watch.
IMSA drivers in all classes will get their first chance to get on track Friday night for first practice, slated for 6:15 p.m./ET. The second practice comes on Saturday morning at 10:15 a.m./ET lasting until 11:30 a.m./ET. GTLM and DPi times are 10:30 a.m./ET until 11:30 a.m./ET. The GTD class will get to practice from 10:45 a.m./ET to 11:15 a.m./ET, while the Silver and Bronze GTD class practices from 10:15 a.m./ET to 10:45 a.m./ET.
Qualifying rounds begin at 1:55 p.m./ET lasting until 2:10 p.m./ET. First up is the GTD class scheduled to go out at 1:55 p.m./ET, followed by GTLM from 2:20 p.m./ET to 2:35 p.m./ET, with the DPi class rolling out last at 2:45 p.m./ET. Qualifying can be seen live on imsa.com/tv.
The WeatherTech 240 green flag is schedued for 6:10 p.m./ET live on NBCSN and flag to flag on Trackpass subscription service. The event can also be heard on IMSA Radio. Fans can visit IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com to listen. Additionally, Sirius XM will aloso have coverage of the race, slated to begin 6 p.m./ET on Sirius channel 216.
