Why two names for the same thing could cloud sportscar racing's new golden era

Sportscar utopia appeared to be within touching distance. The i's were dotted and the t's crossed last summer in the arduous process that had become known as convergence. There would, finally, be common prototype rules across the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship from 2023.

It was a dream come true for many of us, only now we learn that Le Mans Hypercars and LMDh machinery are going to come together in the two series next year under different banners. The top category in the WEC has been called Hypercar since the arrival of LMH last year, and now it has been announced that in North America the class will be known as GTP, a revival of the name used by the original IMSA series in its 1980s heyday.

That make no sense to me. The hard work had been done, the rules properly aligned and measures put in place to ensure that rear-drive LMDhs can compete on equal terms with the four-wheel-drive machinery in the LMH pack. Don't forget it took from the LMDh announcement in January 2020 until the summer of 2021 for the final details of convergence to be thrashed out.

PLUS: How the next step in the IMSA and WEC convergence can reunite multiple fronts 

Until July last year, there was no guarantee that LMH machinery could race in IMSA. A long and winding road led to that point from the euphoric day at Daytona 2020 when the LMDh concept was unveiled. So why throw it all away by calling the classes different things in different arenas? The whole point of convergence is commonality.

Sportscar racing has always been a bit confusing, difficult to explain to the man in the street. GT supremo Stephane Ratel once used the word "messy" to describe the malaise. Surely we should be doing everything possible to end that confusion at a time that our branch of the sport is heading into what we all agree is going to be a golden era?

IMSA is recalling one of those with the revival of the GTP name, which if you didn't know and hadn't guessed stands for Grand Touring Prototype. Series boss John Doonan reckoned that the announcement made the hairs stand up on his arms. He's someone who witnessed the glory days as a fan, sitting, he recalled, "on the hill at Road America, Mid-Ohio and Brainerd watching what we felt was the absolute heyday of our sport".

Revival of the GTP name invokes an era of the thunderous Jaguar XJR-16, but has downsides too

Photo by: William Murenbeeld / Motorsport Images

There was a lot of excitement about bringing back the GTP name when it was announced on the eve of the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA season-opener late last month. It undoubtedly resonated with North American fans of an older generation, as well as history buffs like me. But the task of the promoters on either side of the Atlantic right now shouldn't be to create a warm and fuzzy feeling among the aficionados. Rather, they should be looking to attract new fans to sit on the banks at Road America or Mid-Ohio, on their sofas watching TV or propped up in bed glued to their smartphones.

Sportscar racing has something to sell going forward, arguably the best product it's ever had: a single top class straddling the Pond with more manufacturers than ever and all the right ones, too. IMSA and the WEC shouldn't be going to market peddling the same thing with different packaging. Now is the time to make it plain and simple to lure in the casual fan.

Doonan has suggested that different markets have different requirements. He exampled GTE taking the GT Le Mans name in IMSA. Did that hold back the division in either the world championship or North America? Probably not, but it couldn't have helped to bring it to a wider audience. And as one of the secondary classes, it arguably wasn't a product that needed the hard sell. It was niche all along.

Pierre Fillon, president of WEC promoter and Le Mans 24 Hours organiser the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, hasn't ruled out a push to align the names of the two classes somewhere down the line, though not for next year. Yet to my mind the WEC and IMSA need to hit the ground running at the start of the new era with a coherent product.

The ACO brought back the name, as LM-GTP, at the end of the 1990s during another classic era, albeit a short-lived one. Then as now, two types of car — the GTP coupes such as the Toyota GT-One and the open-top LMPs, the BMW V12 LMR included — went for overall victory

I'm not going take sides in the Hypercar v GTP debate. They both have their merits. Hypercar sounds cool and snazzy, perhaps apt for our age. GTP does exactly what it says on the tin. The LMH and LMDh rules allow manufacturers to build prototype machinery with the look of a GT car or something imbued with styling cues from the street vehicles they sell.

I do, however, have my reservations about the Hypercar handle. I keep reading about Toyota and Glickenhaus Hypercars. That's not totally correct to my mind: they are Le Mans Hypercars competing in the Hypercar class if you want to be totally accurate. So that means we will have an in-built confusion when we have two kinds of car in the WEC from next year.

It's no good saying the average fan doesn't need to know that there are cars out there built to different rulebooks. That's a bit like saying someone in the stands at a game of football shouldn't have some kind of knowledge of the offside rule. It's a patronising suggestion.

Toyota will have much stiffer opposition from 2023 when LMDh cars join the fray, which provides an opportunity that sportscar racing can't afford to squander

Photo by: Toyota Racing

What I'm going to say next doesn't mean I'm coming out in favour of GTP: there's no reason why the WEC couldn't adopt the American name. It can't ignore it on 'not invented here' grounds.

The GTP class for prototype coupes was actually the invention of the ACO, even if IMSA made it famous from 1981. It was the brainchild of long-time Le Mans rules boss Alain Bertaut and introduced at the 24 Hours in 1976. Then as now, GTP cars tipped their hat to production cars: there was initially a plan for a limitation on the amount of fuel that could be used — it was a precursor to Group C — and even a demand for luggage space!

Nor should we forget that the ACO brought back the name, as LM-GTP, at the end of the 1990s during another classic era, albeit a short-lived one. Then as now, two types of car — the GTP coupes such as the Toyota GT-One and the open-top LMPs, the BMW V12 LMR included — went for overall victory.

I also can't see why Hypercar wouldn't work for IMSA. Both do the job, I reckon. What's important is to have just one name.

So here's my solution. Come 3:30pm or so on the second Saturday of June, ahead of the start of the 90th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the ACO and IMSA toss for it on the grid. I'm happy to supply the coin.

The start of next year's Daytona 24 Hours promises to have significantly more cars scrapping for outright honours than the seven of 2022

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images