IMSA 2022

Net upgrade for MSR, I think. Blomqvist had a great year with Jota over in WEC. I’m assuming Helio and Simon will be their third endurance and fourth Rolex drivers, but not sure in which exact order.

 
Kiante said:
Sounds more lively than the M8 or M6.

It's a start and holy cow the M4 is tiny compared to the big boat M8.
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For the sake of curiosity…

M4 GT3 width - 2,040 MM
M8 GTE width - 2,234.8 MM

That thing was truly dummy thicc.
 
Vale seems interested in IMSA as well as WEC. With the Rolex 24 and Super Sebring coming back next season, barring COVID's impact on international travel, this would be amazing to see:


He alone could kindle a lot of interest for a team like Scuderia Corsa or Risi.
 
Kiante said:
Vale seems interested in IMSA as well as WEC. With the Rolex 24 and Super Sebring coming back next season, barring COVID's impact on international travel, this would be amazing to see:


He alone could kindle a lot of interest for a team like Scuderia Corsa or Risi.
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Per DSC a few weeks ago Porsche are making a run at him. Around the same time he had something on his IG story showing him driving a Porsche with his personal sim setup. I’m interested to see how it shakes out, obviously neither Porsche nor Ferrari are pleased with each other right now so it’s another bit of intrigue on top.
 
RTN moving over from WEC for the Endurance Cup, Giedo van der Garde also moving over with the team for the four enduros.

 
Jose Maria Lopez will make his IMSA debut at the Rolex 24 for Action Express:


Toyota and AXR are really close, huh?

Oreca has confirmed their deal with Acura, along with WTR and Myers-Shank Racing. The field is slowly coming together for 2023.
 
StandOnIt said:
Hello Bus Stop

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At the very least the one on the left needs to go. Too many back injuries since these sausage curbs started popping up everywhere the last few years. With as low and fast to the ground these cars, especially the protos, fly, that bus stop may as well be an extension of Cape Canaveral.
 
Herta, Pato, and DeFrancesco might all share an LMP2 entry at the Rolex - wow. Dixon, Palou, Ericsson all under consideration with CGR for Rolex or Enduro Cup roles. Rossi and Jimmie likely on track to return with WTR and AXR, with Grosjean possibly to WTR as @Kiante mentioned, Pagenaud still in the frame for the fourth seat with MSR, and more. Could be IndyCar’s vest representation at Daytona in many years.

racer.com

PRUETT: The 24 Hours of IndyCar

If all of the confirmed and rumored names appear for January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, IMSA’s season opener could have the feel of a non-points NTT IndyCar Series race. At present, almost half of the …
racer.com racer.com

Lexus/Vasser Sullivan retained Hawksworth and Kirkwood for their GTD Pro car and also bring over Ben Barnicoat from the McLaren factory ranks.

racer.com

Lexus tabs Hawksworth, Barnicoat, Kirkwood for GTD Pro

Lexus Racing and its partner team Vasser Sullivan have nominated Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat, and Kyle Kirkwood to drive the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 for its debut in IMSA’s new GTD Pro category. I…
racer.com racer.com

Wright staying strong in GTD despite Pat Long retiring.

racer.com

Wright Motorsports calls on MPC champions for '22 GTD campaign

Wright Motorsports will call on their 2021 Michelin Pilot Challenge championship-winning duo of Jan Heylen and Ryan Hardwick to drive the team’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD entry fo…
racer.com racer.com

Magnus are running their fourth different car in five years in what’s probably an enduro-only program, so sadly that means less Lally.

sportscar365.com

Magnus Switches to Aston Martin for Endurance Cup Effort – Sportscar365

Magnus Racing moves back to in-house operation with new Aston Martin Vantage GT3...
sportscar365.com sportscar365.com
 
Magnus decline is very alarming, the NSX has peaked development wise for some time. Maybe with the new Type-S NSX variant they will see some change in the future. The NSX's decline in performance has been noticeable, even 2020 when MSR was representing GTD.

I hope they can find more sponsorship to race an entire season and seeing less of Lally in IMSA sucks. They just need to find a way to stick with one car, changing cars every season has to be an issue with drivers constantly having to adapt as well.
 
Kiante said:
Magnus decline is very alarming, the NSX has peaked development wise for some time. Maybe with the new Type-S NSX variant they will see some change in the future. The NSX's decline in performance has been noticeable, even 2020 when MSR was representing GTD.

I hope they can find more sponsorship to race an entire season and seeing less of Lally in IMSA sucks. They just need to find a way to stick with one car, changing cars every season has to be an issue with drivers constantly having to adapt as well.
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I think the biggest issue will always remain that John Potter is one of the few true Ams left in a series where those have mostly dwindled away and the rest of the competition has gotten stiffer. In that way, running just the endurance races spreads more drive time to the third and fourth drivers and maybe gives them a better chance to win than a normal race. It would help if he had pace like Ben Keating, but true Ams like that are very few and far between. Maybe over time the GTD Pro/GTD split will make that a bit more fair to the latter class.
 
Be on the lookout for Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes AMG and Porsche to open GTD Pro’s account at the big 24-hour WeatherTech Championship show. BMW has confirmed a pair of its new M4 GT3 will be in motion with BMW Team RLL. Corvette just confirmed two C8.Rs will be in attendance. And Lexus is in with one RC F GT3.

I’m also expecting one Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3, a Ferrari 488 GT3, at least two Lamborghini Huracan GT3s, a pair of Mercedes AMG GT3s, and two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs. That makes for 12-13 GTD Pro entries for the Rolex 24, which compares favorably to the six GTLM cars that appeared for the 2021 race.

Looking to the full season, GTLM presented fans with three entries for most of its farewell season. Outside of Daytona and the other long races on the calendar that tend to attract larger fields, GTD Pro is on target to deliver a steady 8-9 cars for its 10-race championship run.

An Aston Martin, two BMWs, a Corvette, a Lamborghini, a Lexus, a Mercedes AMG and two Porsches are on my current list, and if we’re fortunate, the number will hold.
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racer.com

PRUETT: IMSA GTD Pro looks set for a strong start

Questions come in on a weekly basis from diehard sports car fans who want to know if IMSA’s gamble on replacing the factory-rich GT Le Mans formula with less exotic GT3 cars will pay off. The quest…
racer.com racer.com
 
Vautier and Richard Westbrook will be the full-time drivers for JDC Motorsports. Duval will return for endurance events and Ben Keating will be the fourth driver for the Rolex 24:

Westbrook & Vautier For Full 2022 IMSA Programme With JDC-Miller Cadillac

Westbrook & Vautier For Full 2022 IMSA Programme With JDC-Miller Cadillac
www.dailysportscar.com www.dailysportscar.com

Mustang Sampling returns as the primary sponsor for the team.
 
Kiante said:
Vautier and Richard Westbrook will be the full-time drivers for JDC Motorsports. Duval will return for endurance events and Ben Keating will be the fourth driver for the Rolex 24:

Westbrook & Vautier For Full 2022 IMSA Programme With JDC-Miller Cadillac

Westbrook & Vautier For Full 2022 IMSA Programme With JDC-Miller Cadillac
www.dailysportscar.com www.dailysportscar.com

Mustang Sampling returns as the primary sponsor for the team.
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Cool to see Westy back. Bless Ben Keating, guy is really going to give it a go in DPi and I bet he’ll hold up pretty respectably. I’m assuming he’s doing double-duty at the race with PR1 again too?
 


Pfaff has unofficially announced they will be entering GTD Pro.

WTR's line-up, Will Stevens will be in place for the Rolex 24 as well.


FLRacingFan said:
Cool to see Westy back. Bless Ben Keating, guy is really going to give it a go in DPi and I bet he’ll hold up pretty respectably. I’m assuming he’s doing double-duty at the race with PR1 again too?
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No telling, knowing Keating he will do double duty. Imagine winning to Rolex watches at the same time.
 
Kiante said:
Schedule conflicts.

DragonSpeed is coming back stateside:
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It’s the first casualty of the dumb Texas/Sebring weekend. Probably will affect Ganassi too in some way.

Wonder if DragonSpeed’s Daytona entry is the big one with Pato, Devlin, Herta, and someone else.
 
Pfaff’s Pro lineup is Matty Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet, plus Nasr making his GT debut for the NAEC races. Solid young team.

 
The Rolex 24 is expecting approximately 60 entries this year. 25 prototypes and 35 GT entries:
racer.com

Rolex 24 entry list fills to capacity

The entry list for January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona is full, giving IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship an early gift heading into the holidays. RACER has learned IMSA is ready for Round 1 in Ja…
racer.com racer.com
 
Kiante said:
The Rolex 24 is expecting approximately 60 entries this year. 25 prototypes and 35 GT entries:
racer.com

Rolex 24 entry list fills to capacity

The entry list for January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona is full, giving IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship an early gift heading into the holidays. RACER has learned IMSA is ready for Round 1 in Ja…
racer.com racer.com
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A full grid. Besides the first year of the merger when they ran a hodgepodge 67 that hasn’t happened. Should be pretty stout.

39 cars full-time is pretty huge too. That’ll be tight at some tracks.
 
Was hoping Chase would give it another crack this year but he's got a pretty full offseason to date and to come.
 
FLRacingFan said:


Unique approach from WeatherTech with Cooper doing double duty in Pro at Daytona with two different makes and a bunch of factory talent in each.

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That's pretty wild, Proton must be loving this. I thought the WeatherTech team was stepping down to GTD-Am to help Cooper.

I guess its to decide which fits his driving style the most to maximize his stints on the future.
 
Kiante said:
That's pretty wild, Proton must be loving this. I thought the WeatherTech team was stepping down to GTD-Am to help Cooper.

I guess its to decide which fits his driving style the most to maximize his stints on the future.
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Probably a BoP hedge, we know how the MacNeils are with BoP…

I thought he would step back down to GTD for at least the sprint races with a pro GT class rebounding to full strength, maybe they just don’t want to split the season into two points championships.
 
Kiante said:
Ganassi officially announces their line-ups for the Rolex 24:
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Only 11 IndyCar titles and 91 IndyCar wins in the 01.

Great to see K-Mag back for another outing with the team, I wonder if he’ll be back for all of the endurance cup.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Only 11 IndyCar titles and 91 IndyCar wins in the 01.

Great to see K-Mag back for another outing with the team, I wonder if he’ll be back for all of the endurance cup.
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Chip was like, everyone from our IndyCar team is getting in on this.

These teams are really, also I have a feeling K-Mag would be down for the enduros. Barring any possible scheduling issues with the WEC. I think the likes of Koboyashi and Magnussen will be around, also think of this as a make-up for Petit.
 
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