The British sportscar aces readying for a new golden era in IMSA

Sportscar racing is preparing to enter a new boom period, with manufacturers tripping over themselves to sign up for the new LMDh rules that will be adopted for next year.

In readiness for the regulations, which will allow cars based on LMP2 chassis with spec hybrid systems to race against bespoke Le Mans Hypercar machines for outright victories in the IMSA SportsCar Championship and World Endurance Championship, seats in IMSA have proven increasingly attractive.

Prior to the 2022 IMSA curtain-raiser at Daytona this weekend, Autosport heard from seven British drivers eyeing success in the biggest endurance races across both the US-based and global series in years to come.

Alex Lynn - Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac

Lynn will be joined aboard the #02 Ganassi Caddy at Daytona by season-long partner Earl Bamber, plus Marcus Ericsson and Kevin Magnussen

Photo by: Chris duMond / Motorsport Images

Alex Lynn has a burning ambition to write his name in history. Already an outright winner at the Sebring 12 Hours and a Le Mans 24 Hours class victor, he’s now targeting more ‘overalls’, as the Americans like to say, in the big enduros around the world.

“A while back, I sat down and thought, ‘What do I want to achieve in my career?’” says the Briton. “I realised what motivated me most was winning the big sportscar races overall. We’re heading into what we all think will be a great era for sportscar racing with LMDh and Le Mans Hypercar and so many manufacturers coming. I wanted to be part of that and grabbed an opportunity when it came along to be able to try to win races like Le Mans and Daytona. But I also want to win the 24-hour GT events at Spa and the Nurburgring.”

That ambition explains why he’s forged a relationship with a manufacturer in Cadillac committed to the bright new future of sportscar racing with an LMDh prototype that it intends to race in both IMSA and the World Endurance Championship from 2023. He kicks off a new stage of his career at the Daytona 24 Hours this weekend at the start of a full-season campaign with Chip Ganassi Racing. 

Lynn's participation in Formula E was a casualty of his move into prototypes in IMSA: he’d lost his Mahindra drive, but it wasn’t possible to pursue any of the offers he had to remain in the series because of date clashes with IMSA

The road to the position he’s now in started a year ago when he decided against remaining an Aston Martin factory driver after the marque axed its GTE Pro programme in the WEC. His participation in Formula E was a casualty of his move into prototypes in IMSA: he’d lost his Mahindra drive, but it wasn’t possible to pursue any of the offers he had to remain in the series because of date clashes with IMSA.

“I had the opportunity to join Ganassi and it was a very compelling one, because it offered the chance to make my dreams come true,” explains Lynn, whose decision had been made before he scored a maiden FE win at the ExCeL in London last July. “The potential of the programme was important to me when I made my decision.”

That’s a reference to Cadillac’s commitment to both arenas in which an LMDh will be eligible. Perhaps also to the widely held belief that it will be Ganassi, already a class winner at Le Mans in GTE Pro with Ford, that will fly the flag for the General Motors marque in the WEC from next year. 

Lynn, who is known to have signed a long-term deal with Ganassi, insists he doesn’t know where he’ll be racing come 2023. “My mind is very much in the present,” he says.

Lynn turned down opportunities to stay in Formula E to pursue IMSA chance

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

That means his assault on the 2022 IMSA series alongside two-time Le Mans winner Earl Bamber in one of Ganassi’s expanded squad of Caddy DPi-V.R Daytona Prototype internationals. Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson complete the four-man squad for Daytona this weekend.

“Having a team-mate like Earl is important because he’s an IMSA champion and knows what it takes to win in this style of racing,” says Lynn. “I think we can become a potent team.”

Ganassi missed out on victory at Daytona last year in a fierce battle with the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura squad, an operation that Lynn knows all about. He won the Sebring 12 Hours with the then-Cadillac-equipped team back in 2017 in the earliest days of his sportscar career. It remained his only IMSA start until last weekend’s grid-setting qualifying race at Daytona. Adding extra races to his WEC campaign with Aston in 2018-20 wasn’t an option because the programme was “so full on”. 

Lynn knows that WTR, with Acura since last year, will be tough to beat: “They are a phenomenal team in terms of the level at which they execute. I didn’t really appreciate it at the time because my sportscar career was in its infancy, but when I look back you see the little things that make them the special team that they are. It’s the same with Ganassi. You come into a team like this and feel you are surrounded by winners. We know we’ve got a good car, so for sure we’re dreaming of coming home with the trophy.”

Richard Westbrook - JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac

Richard Westbrook partners Tristan Vautier for the full season, with Loic Duval joining for the four enduros and Daytona-only extra Ben Keating

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Daytona may be Richard Westbrook’s race debut aboard a DPi, but he’s a seasoned hand in both the prototype and GT ranks in North America. He was part of the Ganassi Ford GTLM campaigns in 2016-19, claiming 10 victories along the way, but before that he was a fixture in the prototype ranks from 2012 with Chevrolet, first in the Grand-Am series and then in IMSA after the merger with the ALMS.

A return to IMSA after an absence of two years was high up on Westbrook’s wish list for 2022, and he’s achieved his aim with the JDC-Miller Motorsports squad, winner at Sebring last year with its Cadillac. 

"I’m really focused on the championship, because I’ve come so close without nailing it. I’ve got the watch from Daytona with Ganassi and Ford, so I finally want to get the championship" Richard Westbrook

“I’ve always loved racing in North America, and to be quite honest I missed it and all the great tracks like Road America, Watkins Glen and Mosport,” says Westbrook, who will contest the full season with team regular Tristan Vautier, with Loic Duval returning to the team for all four enduros and amateur Ben Keating coming in for Daytona. “Having tested with the team at Road Atlanta in October, I understand that there’s a lot of talent there. They are a small team, but a very good team.” 

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Westbrook will be renewing a relationship with Rick Cameron, father of three-time IMSA champion and new Porsche driver Dane, at JDC-Miller. He engineered Westbrook during his time at the Spirit of Daytona squad over the first half of the 2010s. Westbrook has unfinished business from that time, more in terms of the IMSA title than Daytona. 

The Spirit of Daytona Coyote-Corvette DP finished third at IMSA’s 24-hour opener in 2015, but Westbrook and team-mate Michael Valiante went into the season finale at Road Atlanta leading the standings, only to miss out on the title by three points. There were two more runner-up places in the GTLM classification with Ganassi.

“I’m really focused on the championship, because I’ve come so close without nailing it,” he says. “I’ve got the watch from Daytona [the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona presented to the winners] with Ganassi and Ford, so I finally want to get the championship.”

Oliver Jarvis - Meyer Shank Racing Acura

Oliver Jarvis remains in IMSA after Mazda exit and will be joined at Daytona by Tom Blomqvist, Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

When Oliver Jarvis learned early last year that Mazda wouldn’t be continuing its DPi programme in 2022, his first aim was to ensure he maintained a foothold in the IMSA series.

“That was my focus,” he says. “I’ve been here for four years with Mazda and it was particularly important to stay given the manufacturer commitments in North America. I wanted to position myself with a manufacturer and team that will be on the grid when LMDh arrives next year.”

Jarvis has achieved that goal with Acura and Meyer Shank Racing, with which he will contest the full IMSA series alongside fellow Brit Tom Blomqvist at the wheel of its solo ARX-05 DPi. Helio Castroneves will join them for the four enduros that make up the Michelin-sponsored Endurance Cup sub-series, with Simon Pagenaud coming in as the fourth driver at Daytona.

“I looked around the paddock and saw what MSR had done,” he says of a team that won Daytona back in 2012. “At the same time Mike [Shank, team boss] was very vocal about 2021 not going as he wanted. I’m very impressed with the progress made and I’m confident that the #60 MSR Acura is in much better shape this time around.”

Jarvis is looking to complete the set of outright victories in the North American enduros at Daytona this weekend. He has won Petit Le Mans and Watkins Glen with Mazda, and before that Sebring with Audi in the American Le Mans Series era in 2013. He was also a GT class winner with Audi at Daytona in 2013, but the overall has eluded him so far. He ended up second with the Mazda DPi in 2020 and then third in 2021, though he was arguably closer to victory last year.

“We had a better race – a perfect race – in 2020, but the #10 WTR Caddy was in a league of its own,” he recalls. “Last year we came back onto the lead lap, but then had a problem with the rear wing that we’d actually had early on. For whatever reason it returned and made the car way too unstable on corner entry.”

Jarvis isn’t making predictions about Daytona this time around, except to say that Acura stablemate WTR “will be hard to beat as usual” and that “there isn’t a DPi out there that can’t win it”. He does, however, reckon the complexion of the race will be different this year with a bumper field of 61 cars, the biggest since 2014.

“It will be all about traffic management for 20 hours and staying on the lead lap,” he says, “and then having a good car for those last two or three hours.”

Tom Blomqvist - Meyer Shank Racing Acura

Blomqvist says he wants his future to be in prototypes after ending BMW affiliation

Photo by: Richard Dole / Motorsport Images

Tom Blomqvist has joined the IMSA DPi field after an impressive maiden full season of prototype racing in the WEC last year with the Jota team. The former BMW factory driver was hot property after narrowly missing out on the LMP2 title and – by just seven tenths of a second – a class win at Le Mans. The drive with the MSR Acura team was exactly what he was looking for. 

“I’ve kind of got myself back on track after it all ended with BMW,” says Blomqvist, whose five-year stint with the German manufacturer included three years in the DTM, a part-season of FE and victory in the Spa 24 Hours. “I enjoyed my time there, but I have a formula-racing background and it’s in a high-downforce car that I feel most comfortable as a racing driver. The goal after BMW was to get back to the best place for me, and that was prototypes.”

An invitation to test with MSR at Road Atlanta in October was quickly followed by a deal to race alongside Jarvis.

"I enjoyed my time in America with BMW. IMSA is a great place to be: there are more races than in WEC and the style of racing is more intense" Tom Blomqvist

“They were impressed with me and I was impressed with them,” explains Blomqvist, who had to turn his back on FE and the NIO team as a result. “It was the right thing to do because this is where I want to be.”

Blomqvist is no stranger to IMSA, but he remains a Daytona rookie. He was meant to contest the full series back in 2019 with the Rahal BMW GTLM team, but ended up making a belated debut in round two at Sebring after encountering problems with his visa ahead of the 24 Hours.

“I enjoyed my time in America with BMW,” says Blomqvist. “IMSA is a great place to be: there are more races than in WEC and the style of racing is more intense.”

Blomqvist believes he’s landed in the right place at the right time.

“Acura won the race last year with WTR, and our team has been working very hard to figure out its weaknesses and rectify them,” he says. “The team is super-motivated with a new driver line-up. We’re going there thinking we can win it.”

Mike Conway - Action Express Cadillac

Mike Conway returns to the title-winning AXR Caddilac, in which he'll partner Pipo Derani and new team signing Tristan Nunez

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Mike Conway finally got the monkey off his back at the Le Mans 24 Hours last year with an overdue first victory. A driver who will be contesting all four of the IMSA enduros with the Action Express Racing Cadillac squad reckons it’s about time for a win in the Daytona enduro as well.

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“I feel like every time I’ve been there we’ve been knocking on the door,” says the two-time World Endurance champion, who has raced at Daytona with Action Express every year since 2017, bar 2019 when a visa issue precluded his participation. “It just hasn’t gone our way.”

That includes a near-miss in 2018 when he and team-mates Felipe Nasr, Eric Curran and Stuart Middleton finished second to the sister entry from Action Express. Conway has won a lot of silverware in the big IMSA races – he’s also been second in Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on two occasions, and third twice at Sebring.

“I love doing the four big ones and it’s frustrating not to have won any of them,” he says. “Daytona 2018 was the big one we missed out on, and coming so close motivates me all the more to try to win it.”

Conway is, of course, steeped in US racing culture. He was an IndyCar regular, racing in the series between 2009 and 2014, taking four wins. He knows this might be his last crack at Daytona for a while. Once the LMDh era arrives next year, the likelihood is that as a Toyota driver he won’t be able to pitch up and drive for a marque that races against the Japanese brand in the WEC. Toyota has admitted interest in taking its LMH to Daytona, but there’s no commitment so far.

“I’ve been thinking about that for the last year,” he says, “so I really want to make the most of this opportunity.”

Will Stevens - Wayne Taylor Racing Acura

Will Stevens will contest the four endurance races for WTR alongside Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor, with Alexander Rossi joining for Daytona

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

Will Stevens reckons he’s arrived at WTR – winner of the past three Daytonas and four of the past five – at just the right time. His career in sportscars has been building up to an opportunity that brings him into the Acura set-up for the four long-distance races.

“With everything that’s happening in prototype racing with the rules coming together, it was important to get out there in IMSA to show what I can do,” says the four-time WEC LMP2 class winner, who teams up with full-season WTR drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque plus Alexander Rossi this weekend.

"WTR knows what it takes to win Daytona, and I feel in good shape to help them achieve some more success" Will Stevens

“I’ve just tried to keep my head down and get the results, but I always felt everything was heading in the right direction to get an opportunity like this. The time was right to position myself for the future. Driving for teams like WTR and Jota [with which he returns to the WEC in 2022] is exactly what I wanted for this year.”
Daytona represents an IMSA debut for Stevens, and he feels ready for the challenge.

“I got to test the car at Daytona in December and had some laps in the dry and the wet, which was important,” he says. “It was good to get the ball rolling before the Roar [the pre-event test last weekend that included the grid-setting qualifying race], but we’ve also been going through all the procedures that are different between America and Europe, things like how the safety cars work. WTR knows what it takes to win Daytona, and I feel in good shape to help them achieve some more success.”

The new GTD Pro war

Corvette return with the C8.R, but it's now in GT3-spec running in the new GTD Pro class

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

A new era dawns for GT racing in the IMSA series this weekend. The GT Le Mans class based on the GTE formula has been replaced by GT Daytona Pro for GT3 machinery, and the result is a massive increase in the grid. Six cars from four manufacturers squabbled over GTLM honours this time last year. Those numbers have risen to 13 from eight. 

BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Lexus and Lamborghini are all represented with their GT3 staples, while Chevrolet joins them with a down-specced version of its GTE-rules Corvette C8.R. So what’s not to like, reckons Corvette Racing driver Nick Tandy.

“We’ve got loads of cars at Daytona again, which is awesome,” says the Briton, who is sharing with Tommy Milner and Marco Sorensen in what is for the moment his only scheduled IMSA appearance. His main programme will be racing his Corvette in the WEC. “People have really come on board with the new rules. It’s good for everyone because we all want to have a good race.”

The Corvette will compete with anti-lock brakes, at a higher minimum weight, with less power and revised aero to bring it into line with the GT3 cars. Tandy hadn’t driven the definitive GTD Pro-spec Chevy prior to last weekend’s Roar and grid-setting qualifying race, but he wasn’t worried about acclimatising to the car. “It’s a Corvette after all,” he says.

But he does reckon that the nature of the battle in the top GT class will change with the new rules. The Pro cars will race with the same Balance of Performance as those in the regular GTD category for pro-am line-ups, which is also up in numbers for this year. The two sets of cars will also race on the same Michelin customer tyres rather than the so-called ‘confidentials’ employed in GTLM. 

“It’s going to be a bit like the Spa 24 Hours where you have multiple classes but each car has the same potential performance,” he explains. “Spa can cause a lot of headaches because you might be racing for the lead in a Pro class car, but you come out of the pits with a full fuel load and you find yourself having to battle with a Pro-Am car with a good driver on board. It’s going to cause a lot of tension.”

Tandy is expecting all eight manufacturers to be in with a shot of victory.

“IMSA know what they are doing on the BoP and I’m sure we will be competitive along with everybody else,” he says. “And of course we have a chance: it’s Corvette Racing going into a 24-hour race.”

Nick Tandy and regular IMSA co-driver Tommy Milner will be joined by Aston Martin factory driver Marco Sorensen for Daytona

Photo by: Chris duMond / Motorsport Images