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IMSA: It’s time to reevaluate GT class racing and make a change

By Jacob LeBlanc

LAKEVILLE, CT- JUL 20: The #912 Porsche 911 RSR of Earl Bamber, of New Zealand, and Laurens Vanthoor, of Belgium, leads the #911 Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy, of Great Britain, and Patrick Pilet, of France, during the Northeast Grand Prix, IMSA WeatherTech Series Race, July 20, 2019. (Photo by Brian Cleary/Getty Images)
LAKEVILLE, CT- JUL 20: The #912 Porsche 911 RSR of Earl Bamber, of New Zealand, and Laurens Vanthoor, of Belgium, leads the #911 Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy, of Great Britain, and Patrick Pilet, of France, during the Northeast Grand Prix, IMSA WeatherTech Series Race, July 20, 2019. (Photo by Brian Cleary/Getty Images) /
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With the recent news of the factory Porsche GTLM program not continuing after the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, that only leaves two teams in the class after this season. It may be time for IMSA to reevaluate the GTLM class going forward.

During the break in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the factory-backed Porsche GT Le Mans team announced that they will no longer field a car after the 2020 season. The team claimed that financial problems due to the pandemic led to this decision.

After Ford Chip Ganassi Racing closed the doors to their Ford GT GTLM program following the conclusion of the 2019 season, that only left three teams in the class. Now that Porsche won’t be back in 2021, that will leave only two teams to make up the entire class: BMW Team RLL and Corvette Racing.

While Risi Competeizione, a one-car team that have a Ferrari 488 GTE in the GTLM class, have also competed in recent years, they have not run a full season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship since 2016.

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They are currently not on the entry list to race in IMSA’s return to racing on Saturday, July 4, and in years past, they seem to only race in the longer endurance races like the 24 Hours of Daytona and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. So we could see them again later this year and even next year, but likely not as a full-time team.

Once this season comes to an end, I think it is time for IMSA to reevaluate the GT Le Mans class. Having two teams and a total of four cars does not really make for a very interesting class. Being arguably the top-level GT racing in the United States, having just four cars and two different teams won’t cut it.

It is time for new GT guidelines, and it is time to combine the GTLM class and the GT Daytona (GTD) class to form one large GT class to compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

IMSA could go either way to make the two classes combine with each other. They could tell all the GTD teams to pump their cars up to the GTLM spec, or they could have the remaining teams in the GTLM class drop down to the GTD spec. The GTLM class currently uses the same technical regulations that are used for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, so this would allow IMSA teams to run their cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans without having to make any major changes to the car. The GTD class runs the current FIA-GT3 specs.

I would love to see all of the GTD teams upgrade to GTLM spec to make one large GT class, but a lot of the non-factory teams in that class probably wouldn’t have the money or resources to be able to make a car of that spec and compete in that class. It would be more likely for the current GTLM teams to be told to drop down to the GTD spec if they want to stay in the series.

As cool as it would be to see all new technical regulations to form an entirely new GT class, that is very unlikely due to the fact that in doing this, teams wouldn’t be able to use these regulations in any other form of GT racing.

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With only two teams making up the GTLM class after the 2020 season, I would not be surprised to see some big changes regarding GT class racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. There has not been any speculation about the class structures after this season, but IMSA may have to do something if they want to keep their remaining factory-backed GTLM teams beyond 2020.

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