Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
Hard to imagine Ford wouldn't race in the US.
We've seen that before, haven't we?
IMSA 2026
- Thread starter FLRacingFan
- Start date
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
I tend to agree, but I hate to make assumptions while it’s just plausible enough they don’t come for a number of reasons - economics, if 2030 reg set ends up substantially different, and so on.
Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
Not the same Ford Motor company the broke the bank running GT40s, is it?
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
We’ve seen Porsche and now Honda bail out of either championship after unsuccessfully gambling on EVs, and motorsports programs are usually first in line to be cut to try to make up for losses. Ford aren’t immune to that reality. Like I said, I do lean towards them coming, but if it were a sure thing it would’ve been announced parallel to the WEC effort.
What will also be critical beyond the state of the auto industry and the economy will be if and when everybody involved can come to a consensus on the 2030 regs. There’s some rumor that LMH and LMDh evolve into one united platform closer to what LMDh is now, potentially even utilizing the current ‘spines’ supplied by ORECA/Dallara/Multimatic to LMDh programs. Acura’s release characterized their exit as a “pause”, so this may further hint at the program being something that could be revived relatively easily come 2030. And it would also give Ford and McLaren more incentive to join if they know they can get more than two years out of their cars over here, rather than decide whether to join a lame duck class.
Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
Streamlining down to one type of car would certainly make BOPing a lot easier, not to mention probably making the cars more equal. Cutting cost would be another benifit.
Projected budget for an LMH is something like $35 million, which for only 9 races is just too damm much. Going to an LMDH formula would probably take a good chunk out of that. The only thing wrong with the current formula is we need more cars, and making them cheaper to run wouldn't hurt.
And I know I say this way too often, but there needs to be a provision for making cars available to privateers.