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IMSA's Best Taking On Le Mans
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Nearly 50 drivers on the entry list for the 24 Hours of Le Mans have close ties to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship or the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, making IMSA a leading contributor to the field for the most prestigious sports car endurance race in the world.
Certainly that’s always been true, but this year, adding substantially to the number is the entry of four new Ford GTs in the LM GTE Pro class, which is very similar to IMSA’s GT Le Mans class. Piloting the No. 68 Ford is Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais, with Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Scott Dixon in the No. 69, with both cars from the Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA that competes full-time in the WeatherTech Championship.
The two other Ford GTs are from Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK, and one of the drivers of the No. 66 is Continental Tire Challenge regular Billy Johnson.
Ford is, of course, making this major push to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the company’s overall win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966. But they’ll have to beat the defending champions in the LM GTE Pro class, the Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs. Corvette No. 63 is driven by regulars Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, and in No. 64, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner.
Helping out are brothers Jordan Taylor (No. 64) and Ricky Taylor (No. 63), fresh from their Prototype victory in the most recent WeatherTech Championship race at Belle Isle in Detroit, driving the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Corvette Daytona Prototype.
The Ford-Chevrolet battle should be the most watched contest in the race, possibly overshadowing the LM P1 fight for overall supremacy.
“It’s always good to have new manufacturers in, and having one like Ford is good for us,” said Corvette driver Garcia. “We have seen them in America already, and there is a very strong lineup of cars from IMSA. Ford is a big competitor for us because people will look to see how we compare to each other.
“The main thing is that no matter the other manufacturers, you need to win. So I’m good with whoever comes second. I’m confident. We won the first two big races of the year – Daytona and Sebring. So I’m hoping to repeat what we did last year and win at Le Mans.”
Of course, Ford and Chevrolet will have to beat a very strong contingent from Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin.
That includes the No. 91 Porsche Motorsport 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Kevin Estre, and the No. 92 sister car of Frédéric Makowiecki, Earl Bamber and Jörg Bergmeister. Tandy and Bamber, of course, won Le Mans outright in 2015 in the Porsche 919 Hybrid, so having them remain in the GT car they race regularly in IMSA points up the importance of a victory this year in that class.
Another likely contender in LM GTE Pro is the No. 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, with a lineup familiar to IMSA fans: Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and Matteo Malucelli.
The LM P2 class is also well-represented with IMSA regulars, perhaps most notably the Extreme Speed team that won overall at both the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring: Scott Sharp, Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek will drive the No. 30 Nissan-powered Ligier, and in the No. 31 sister car, it’s Pipo Derani, Chris Cumming and Ryan Dalziel, who also competes full-time in the WeatherTech Championship in the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP.
Michael Shank Racing, winner at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, is fielding the same Honda-powered Ligier that the ESM team won Daytona and Sebring with for co-drivers John Pew, Ozz Negri and Laurens Vanthoor. Also in a Nissan-powered Ligier is Krohn Racing’s Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and, on loan from the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP, Joao Barbosa.
The GT Daytona winner at the most recent race at Belle Isle in Detroit, Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen, are trading their Dodge Viper for an LM P2 Nissan-powered ORECA, with Marc Goossens visiting from the No. 90 Corvette DP he shares with Dalziel.
In LM GTE Am, current WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona class point co-leader Christina Nielsen is part of the No. 60 Formula Racing Ferrari 458 Italia team. She is joined in the class by 2015 WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona champs Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell, who again are teaming with Jeff Segal to drive the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia.
Another all-American driver lineup can be found in the WeatherTech-sponsored No. 89 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR with Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen – regular co-drivers of the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT3 R – being joined by frequent Continental Tire Challenge competitor Marc Miller.
Scattered through the field are plenty of other names familiar to IMSA fans, including former GRAND-AM Daytona Prototype champion Memo Rojas, endurance specialist Filipe Albuquerque, Olivier Pla, Patrick Long, David Heinemeier Hanson, Petit Le Mans winner Wolf Henzler, Pedro Lamy, Johnny O’Connell, Mark Patterson and Paul Dalla Lana.
Certainly that’s always been true, but this year, adding substantially to the number is the entry of four new Ford GTs in the LM GTE Pro class, which is very similar to IMSA’s GT Le Mans class. Piloting the No. 68 Ford is Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais, with Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and Scott Dixon in the No. 69, with both cars from the Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA that competes full-time in the WeatherTech Championship.
The two other Ford GTs are from Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK, and one of the drivers of the No. 66 is Continental Tire Challenge regular Billy Johnson.
Ford is, of course, making this major push to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the company’s overall win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966. But they’ll have to beat the defending champions in the LM GTE Pro class, the Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs. Corvette No. 63 is driven by regulars Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, and in No. 64, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner.
Helping out are brothers Jordan Taylor (No. 64) and Ricky Taylor (No. 63), fresh from their Prototype victory in the most recent WeatherTech Championship race at Belle Isle in Detroit, driving the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Corvette Daytona Prototype.
The Ford-Chevrolet battle should be the most watched contest in the race, possibly overshadowing the LM P1 fight for overall supremacy.
“It’s always good to have new manufacturers in, and having one like Ford is good for us,” said Corvette driver Garcia. “We have seen them in America already, and there is a very strong lineup of cars from IMSA. Ford is a big competitor for us because people will look to see how we compare to each other.
“The main thing is that no matter the other manufacturers, you need to win. So I’m good with whoever comes second. I’m confident. We won the first two big races of the year – Daytona and Sebring. So I’m hoping to repeat what we did last year and win at Le Mans.”
Of course, Ford and Chevrolet will have to beat a very strong contingent from Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin.
That includes the No. 91 Porsche Motorsport 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy and Kevin Estre, and the No. 92 sister car of Frédéric Makowiecki, Earl Bamber and Jörg Bergmeister. Tandy and Bamber, of course, won Le Mans outright in 2015 in the Porsche 919 Hybrid, so having them remain in the GT car they race regularly in IMSA points up the importance of a victory this year in that class.
Another likely contender in LM GTE Pro is the No. 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, with a lineup familiar to IMSA fans: Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and Matteo Malucelli.
The LM P2 class is also well-represented with IMSA regulars, perhaps most notably the Extreme Speed team that won overall at both the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring: Scott Sharp, Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek will drive the No. 30 Nissan-powered Ligier, and in the No. 31 sister car, it’s Pipo Derani, Chris Cumming and Ryan Dalziel, who also competes full-time in the WeatherTech Championship in the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Corvette DP.
Michael Shank Racing, winner at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, is fielding the same Honda-powered Ligier that the ESM team won Daytona and Sebring with for co-drivers John Pew, Ozz Negri and Laurens Vanthoor. Also in a Nissan-powered Ligier is Krohn Racing’s Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and, on loan from the No. 5 Action Express Corvette DP, Joao Barbosa.
The GT Daytona winner at the most recent race at Belle Isle in Detroit, Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen, are trading their Dodge Viper for an LM P2 Nissan-powered ORECA, with Marc Goossens visiting from the No. 90 Corvette DP he shares with Dalziel.
In LM GTE Am, current WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona class point co-leader Christina Nielsen is part of the No. 60 Formula Racing Ferrari 458 Italia team. She is joined in the class by 2015 WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona champs Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell, who again are teaming with Jeff Segal to drive the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia.
Another all-American driver lineup can be found in the WeatherTech-sponsored No. 89 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR with Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen – regular co-drivers of the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche 911 GT3 R – being joined by frequent Continental Tire Challenge competitor Marc Miller.
Scattered through the field are plenty of other names familiar to IMSA fans, including former GRAND-AM Daytona Prototype champion Memo Rojas, endurance specialist Filipe Albuquerque, Olivier Pla, Patrick Long, David Heinemeier Hanson, Petit Le Mans winner Wolf Henzler, Pedro Lamy, Johnny O’Connell, Mark Patterson and Paul Dalla Lana.
