IMSA: #3 Corvette Racing wins 2018 GTLM team championship
In a year that saw IMSA reach new heights of performance and popularity in all classes, the battle in GTLM was up for grabs between Ford and Corvette.
The 2018 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship is in the books and the race for the championship has concluded with the #3 Corvette C.7R of Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia, Mike Rockenfeller and Marcel Fassler narrowly beating out the #67 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook and reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon.
This competition arose in a GT class that is famous for its diversity of car design, meaning how the cars attempt to produce their speed. The Corvettes have been known for and always will be known for the thundering American V8, while the rival Ford saw continued success with the EcoBoost program in a mid-engined revival of the classic “GT40”.
Porsche brought further development to their world-renowned 911, which re-arranged the classic high-pitched flat-six motor to make the previously rear-engined car a mid-engined car. BMW took a leap with their long wheel-based twin-turbo V8 M8 GTE, which produced massive power but was hampered by handling issues. Ferrari made their presence known with their now quieter 488 GTE, but they were unable to run the full IMSA schedule after hitting money limitations.
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The Corvette C.7R with its thundering V8 and Ford GT with its sleek profile and prototype-like design are certainly different, and those differences transferred over to how each team scored points in the 2018 season.
The series-winning #3 Corvette did not win a single event on the 2018 calendar while the #67 Ford GT won three races. So how was it that the Corvette team came out on top? With the way the IMSA series has its points structure (first place = 35 points, second = 32 points, third = 30 points, fourth = 28 points, etc.), consistency is rewarded just as much as achieving overall race wins.
As mentioned above, the #3 Corvette did not get a single race win. It did, however, earn eight podium finishes. To compare, the #67 Ford only had one podium finish aside of its three victories.
In the end, this meant that the #3 Corvette finished with 322 points compared to the #67 Ford with 316 points. The #67 Ford was hurt most by its seven non-podium finishes, which pretty much negated the point advantages earned from its race wins.
Both Ford and Chevrolet will have some choices to make now that the 2018 season has concluded. Ford only promised a GT effort until the end of 2019, which is coming up fast. They have hinted about the move back to the Prototype class with the EcoBoost package, but they have yet to say whether or not they will be involved in IMSA beyond the conclusion of the 2019 season.
Chevrolet are so looking to the future with the possibility of fielding a mid-engined GT product. Both manufacturers are waiting to see where future regulations settle with the World Endurance Championship and IMSA attempting to create some standardization.
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Fans of the IMSA series will not have too dull of an offseason with the series making a surprise “encore” race at Sebring International Raceway, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 11. The 2019 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship season is scheduled to begin with the world’s largest test session in Daytona Beach, Florida with the Roar before the 24 from Friday, January 5 through Sunday, January 7.