IMSA 2021

StandOnIt

StandOnIt

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As RACER wrote last week, Action Express Racing is believed to be the destination for the NASCAR duo.
Elliott, who has taken command of the road races on the Cup schedule in recent years, will make his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut at the January 30-31 season opener. The 24-yer-old Georgia native has been mentioned as a candidate to join the 2018 title-winning No. 31 Whelen Engineering AXR Cadillac DPi-V.R led by Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani.

For Johnson, who retired from full-time NASCAR racing at the conclusion of the Phoenix race, the Rolex 24 was once a familiar part of his pre-season preparations. With eight starts at the Daytona enduro and a pair of second-place finishes to his credit, his return to IMSA’s longest race could come in a second AXR Cadillac. Johnson’s name has been listed among a few high-profile guest stars to pilot the 5.5-liter V8-powered prototype.

racer.com

Hendrick reveals Elliott, Johnson set to race at Rolex 24

Brand-new NASCAR Cup champion Chase Elliott and seven-time Cup title winner Jimmie Johnson will participate in January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona. Their team owner, Rick Hendrick, revealed the news in P…
racer.com racer.com
 
There’s some uncertainty regarding driver lineup as a couple of other outlets are reporting Chase and Jimmie will be in the second AXR car with Simon Pagenaud but RACER is saying Chase with Derani and Nasr in the main car. They’ve been trying for a few months to put together a second “all-star” car of sorts for probably the Florida 36 or the Endurance Cup races next year as they look to get back to two cars full-time so it sounds pretty close to done either way.
 
FLRacingFan said:
There’s some uncertainty regarding driver lineup as a couple of other outlets are reporting Chase and Jimmie will be in the second AXR car with Simon Pagenaud but RACER is saying Chase with Derani and Nasr in the main car. They’ve been trying for a few months to put together a second “all-star” car of sorts for probably the Florida 36 or the Endurance Cup races next year as they look to get back to two cars full-time so it sounds pretty close to done either way.
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I was thinking about the announcement that "slipped out". Perfect timing when all the eyes were on them. If they were looking for more funding they couldn't have picked a better time to go fishing for it.
 
FLRacingFan said:
This is a surprising development.

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Interesting.

Van Der Zande and Briscoe will probably be the go to guys for this venture, but this is great news for the LMP class. I was not expecting this though, but this is always great to hear with Chip coming back after only a year out.
 
StandOnIt said:
I thought it was odd he changed over to Ford in the first place. :idunno:
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Can't pass up an opportunity for a fully-funded program that includes trips to Le Mans to build upon the legacy and heritage of that car, even if it was always going to be short-lived.

Kiante said:
Interesting.

Van Der Zande and Briscoe will probably be the go to guys for this venture, but this is great news for the LMP class. I was not expecting this though, but this is always great to hear with Chip coming back after only a year out.
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Yep, I bet at least one of those two will be involved and probably Dixon for the endurance races. Maybe another former Ganassi guy like Joey Hand too. I think the announcement is supposed to come later this week, great news for sure.
 
Nick Tandy is replacing Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette.


Holy cripes what a signing for Team Corvette. Not to mention Alexander Sims, was a BMW driver, will be a third driver in the 4 replacing Fassler. Big moves for team Corvette, but the question is who will be the competition in the GTLM class next season?
 
Kiante said:
Nick Tandy is replacing Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette.


Holy cripes what a signing for Team Corvette. Not to mention Alexander Sims, was a BMW driver, will be a third driver in the 4 replacing Fassler. Big moves for team Corvette, but the question is who will be the competition in the GTLM class next season?
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Thought it was weird the broadcasters kept talking about Catsburg yesterday when Tandy has been the rumor for a couple of weeks. Sims would be a surprise but I’d be good with it. The #4 hasn’t been on par with the #3 for a few seasons and this would shore that up.

With this looking likely, Bamber entering into a joint venture between his team and Hardpoint in GTD, and Vanthoor rumored to Pfaff in GTD the factory Porsche drivers are mostly accounted for.

 
Great news, Proton will be fielding the Porsche GTLM cars for the Rolex 24:
racer.com

Porsche GT Team cars headed to Proton squad

Porsche’s factory GT Le Mans team has reached the end of the road in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but the Porsche 911 RSRs that captured a 1-2 finish at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Se…
racer.com racer.com
I'm hoping it goes well for Proton and they could continue the rest of the season with the cars. Fingers crossed.
 
Kiante said:
Great news, Proton will be fielding the Porsche GTLM cars for the Rolex 24:
racer.com

Porsche GT Team cars headed to Proton squad

Porsche’s factory GT Le Mans team has reached the end of the road in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but the Porsche 911 RSRs that captured a 1-2 finish at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Se…
racer.com racer.com
I'm hoping it goes well for Proton and they could continue the rest of the season with the cars. Fingers crossed.
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Pretty cool to have a privateer Porsche team come over. Fond memories of the Falken Tire car from several years back.

If Risi and/or Scuderia Corsa show up there’s still four different cars in the class for Daytona at least, which looked awfully unlikely not long ago.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Pretty cool to have a privateer Porsche team come over. Fond memories of the Falken Tire car from several years back.

If Risi and/or Scuderia Corsa show up there’s still four different cars in the class for Daytona at least, which looked awfully unlikely not long ago.
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Risi and Scuderia Corsa should work together getting a car a piece on the track IMO. I wish Ferrari was more open to giving a little more support to them both. Especially for Risi because he's noted of sponsorship being an issue for him atm.

Scuderia Corsa has the blessings of McNeil and Weathertech. Risi has been self-sponsoring his team for ages with his dealership. We'll see, but the start of 2021 is right around the corner, so they would have to work quickly on a project.
 
AdoubleU24 said:
Part of me would rather see Chase in this lineup than with Jimmie on a brand new DPi team.
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Transition will be no problem for them.

I just wonder who will be the two full-time participants? JPM and Briscoe seem like a safe bet at this point. With Joey Hand being the third driver for Enduros.
 
I tend to agree about Chase being the fourth driver in the #31. I think being part of an established team with experienced drivers to lean on and learn from works out better than just stuffing some NASCAR and IndyCar drivers in a new car. Chad was definitely doing some reconnaissance of sorts at Sebring on Saturday though. If Hendrick is teaming up with AXR why not try run Chase in the #31 and then Larson with Jimmie and an another couple of experienced drivers like Kobayashi. He hasn’t done it in a few years and not with the current cars, but Larson has at least done and won the race with CGR pretty recently.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I tend to agree about Chase being the fourth driver in the #31. I think being part of an established team with experienced drivers to lean on and learn from works out better than just stuffing some NASCAR and IndyCar drivers in a new car. Chad was definitely doing some reconnaissance of sorts at Sebring on Saturday though. If Hendrick is teaming up with AXR why not try run Chase in the #31 and then Larson with Jimmie and an another couple of experienced drivers like Kobayashi. He hasn’t done it in a few years and not with the current cars, but Larson has at least done and won the race with CGR pretty recently.
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I thought Koboyashi was not coming over this season? With the Konica Minolta situation and WTR switching to Acura, I thought he mentioned he will more than likely not return for 2021?
 
Kiante said:
I thought Koboyashi was not coming over this season? With the Konica Minolta situation and WTR switching to Acura, I thought he mentioned he will more than likely not return for 2021?
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If someone is paying for it I think he should be okay. He can definitely only run a Cadillac in DPi, but as much as his run this year was influenced by Konica Minolta wanting a major Japanese driver there I don’t think there’s a real personal sponsor conflict or anything. I think he said he would try to run with someone else in DPi or Lexus in GTD if he could, he does want to be here but just has limited options.

As far as CGR goes it sounds like everyone and their mom is suddenly gunning for that seat so I wouldn’t dare to guess who might be in that car now. It does sound like JPM at least has a Daytona seat with someone and then he’ll go over to Europe to race since his son Sebastian is running junior open wheel there.
 
Kiante said:
We're going to see a lot more Acuras next season in GTD:
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GTD should have really good talent and depth next season. There’s supposed to be a similar influx of Porsches as well. Full season, Endurance Cup, Florida 36, doesn’t matter what type of program, they should all have good grids in that class. Hopefully Hamlin isn’t too busy with 23XI and he can get that Lexus ride at Daytona he wanted this year.

There’s already a number of international LMP2 teams committed to Daytona so I think we can get back to around 50 cars for the full field come January

Also, the most recent rumor for the second AXR Cadillac in the Rolex is Jimmie/Pagenaud/Kobayashi.
 
FLRacingFan said:
GTD should have really good talent and depth next season. There’s supposed to be a similar influx of Porsches as well. Full season, Endurance Cup, Florida 36, doesn’t matter what type of program, they should all have good grids in that class. Hopefully Hamlin isn’t too busy with 23XI and he can get that Lexus ride at Daytona he wanted this year.

There’s already a number of international LMP2 teams committed to Daytona so I think we can get back to around 50 cars for the full field come January

Also, the most recent rumor for the second AXR Cadillac in the Rolex is Jimmie/Pagenaud/Kobayashi.
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No doubt, the Rolex is looking pretty good with about eight LMP2 entries, introduction to LMP3, and customer Acuras going out the door like hotcakes due to MSR moving up to LMP1. I will miss the McLaren that Compass was running, it sounded awesome on track, but with the Acura already fully-developed for the most part, it's a no-brainer.

Idk, I'd like to see Kyle give it another shot IMO. Hamlin would be interesting to see give the Lexus GTD a try.

I'll tell you what seeing all of these possible entries make me very, very happy to see. It will be a solid Rolex 24, I'm just hoping GTLM can get close to six cars again.
 
Kiante said:
No doubt, the Rolex is looking pretty good with about eight LMP2 entries, introduction to LMP3, and customer Acuras going out the door like hotcakes due to MSR moving up to LMP1. I will miss the McLaren that Compass was running, it sounded awesome on track, but with the Acura already fully-developed for the most part, it's a no-brainer.

Idk, I'd like to see Kyle give it another shot IMO. Hamlin would be interesting to see give the Lexus GTD a try.

I'll tell you what seeing all of these possible entries make me very, very happy to see. It will be a solid Rolex 24, I'm just hoping GTLM can get close to six cars again.
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McLaren might still be out there next year, MIA might move up from Pilot Challenge. Hopefully they make it happen, I’d miss that car.

Idk how keen Kyle is on coming back unless it’s for overall but David Wilson said Denny was supposed to be a part of the team this year but the shoulder surgery last offseason kept him out unfortunately. He also said Denny actually wanted to do it even more than Kyle so hopefully he gets the chance.

Scuderia Corsa sounds almost like a done deal for GTLM next season and BMW going full-time or cutting back is actually supposedly contingent on what the series decides to do with the class for 2022. If they scrap the class for GT3 then they’ll run only the endurance races and spend the rest of the year prepping, if they decide to keep the class they’ll stay full-time next year. Either way there should be six at Daytona.
 
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THIS is stout.
 
Welp, Rick Ware is making another attempt for the Rolex 24. However, they will be working with Eurasia Motorsports and what a surprise, Cody Ware will be one of the drivers:

It will be an LMP2 entry. Also, there will be three different versions of the LMP2 chassis during the Rolex 24(!!)

RWR Eurasia Motorsport Set For IMSA Programe With LMP2 Ligier

RWR Eurasia Motorsport Set For IMSA Programe With LMP2 Ligier
www.dailysportscar.com www.dailysportscar.com
 
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