CGR plans on quick IMSA return

[DUN24]

Good.

https://racer.com/2020/01/23/ganassi-working-on-weathertech-championship-return/

 

[AdoubleU24]

If they return to GTLM, would they bring the Ford GT or a different car? It was weird not seeing them out there this past weekend.

 

[Charlie Spencer]

I doubt it will be the Ford GT, for a couple of reasons. One, the article in the first post repeatedly says the team is talking about prototypes, not GT. Second, if Ford wanted to stay in the sport, Chip would have been running them this weekend.

 

[FLRacingFan]

If they came back to GTLM it’d most likely be with Aston Martin. AMR and Ferrari are the only two GTE makes who don’t have a factory program in IMSA and CGR already tried to put something together with Ferrari late last season before they eventually couldn’t agree to terms. The only other OEM who’s been rumored to join GTLM/GTE recently is Lamborghini but they’d have to build a program from scratch so the suggestion in the article that an announcement could be coming soon makes me think someone will be running factory Astons here soon (they’ve stated a desire to come back in they capacity several times recently too).

But if they don’t get that I wouldn’t be surprised to see them come back in 2022 with one of the new prototype manufacturers.

 

[Charlie Spencer]

But if they don’t get that I wouldn’t be surprised to see them come back in 2022 with one of the new prototype manufacturers.

I'd be somewhat surprised if they did anything other than a new LMDh in 2022. Still, two seasons may be a long time to keep the former Ford staff on the payroll.

 

[FLRacingFan]

I'd be somewhat surprised if they did anything other than a new LMDh in 2022. Still, two seasons may be a long time to keep the former Ford staff on the payroll.

I agree that's the most likely option. I could see where maybe they land something with Acura/Honda for LMDh and get to run their DPi cars for one year in between with Penske's deal running out after this season. In the meantime they've moved a fair number of IMSA employees over to the third IndyCar program at least, there's a lot of good CGR-specific personnel who were working on the GT program who were worth keeping around.

 

[Charlie Spencer]

In the meantime they've moved a fair number of IMSA employees over to the third IndyCar program at least,

Yeah, I forgot about the third Indy team. It's still a shame about the DCSolar fiasco; a viable Xfinity program would have been another place to park a few people.