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IMSA SportsCar Weekend 2024

by Pete Gorski

“Back to Back in Year 2”

When IMSA’s WeatherTech Championship arrived at Road America last year, they were following in the tire tracks (literally) of a half-dozen other series, including heavy hitters IndyCar and NASCAR, as they experienced the new-for-2023 pavement for the first time. It was an interesting situation, because at the beginning of the season, the praise for the new surface was near universal. Yes people lost familiar reference points like bumps or sealer stripes, but it was smooth from edge to edge and fast fast fast.

The drivers of the SpeedTour, many of whom are Road America regulars with hundreds of laps turned on the old surface, loved it. MotoAmerica’s riders loved it. Lap records were reset multiple times. And then IndyCar showed up. And…well…

They liked it too. But afterward…something about the way those Firestones rubbered in the track turned a grippy “run anywhere” track into one super grippy line and a skating rink. Every series that ran after IndyCar commented on how the grip disappeared once you were off line. This was most noticeable in, oddly enough, the Carousel. Not a particularly high-speed complex and with no sudden jink to upset the car, it nonetheless claimed many drivers in many series, sending them sliding off into the grass and then the barrier before the (now) Mission Foods bridge. Having attended races at Road America for years, it was odd to see so much carnage in a turn complex that previously had essentially none.

For the most part, the track appears to be pretty balanced again. A few drivers referenced last year’s lack of grip off line and suggested that conditions had improved. But somehow the Carousel remained a challenge. Ben Keating found the wall on Saturday in his United Autosport LMP2. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan GTP BMW had a very destructive off exiting T10 Sunday, clipping the very end of the last barrier as it slid downhill. Felipe Fraga accomplished what the BMW couldn’t — the Riley Motorsports LMP2 left the racing surface in almost exactly the same place, slid past the Mission bridge and MISSED the end of the wall resulting in a few loose dive planes, but nothing fatal.

For years, the mantra at Road America has been “Respect the Kink”. But the IMSA Facebook feed may have coined a new one — “The Carousel takes no prisoners.” That said, the Kink got its fill, specifically one of the Mustangs in the new Mustang Challenge.

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Ah yes the support series. The Mustang Challenge debuted this year, replacing the Lamborghini Super Trofeo. The single-make series runs Mustang Dark Horse Rs in two races per weekend. They sound pretty good, and based on the accident alluded to above and a later incident involving two cars entering Canada Corner, they’re quite stout — all three drivers involved in Saturday’s crashes walked away under their own power which is saying something. Two of the cars made hard contact with the tire barrier/wall at the edge of T12’s runoff, and while the contact in the Kink was spectacular, the car shedding many pieces including the left front wheel assembly, it was back out for Sunday’s second feature.

The Porsche Carrera Cup races were what you’ve come to expect from the Carrera Cup — solid fields with well-prepared cars. Sure, some drama, but that’s what hard racing produces sometimes.

Watching the top three cars in the Michelin Pilot Challenge crest the front straight hill had to bring a smile to IMSA President John Doonan’s face. A McLaren Artura GT4 led a Porsche 718 GT4 led a Toyota GR Supra GT4. Race series live and die based on manufacturer involvement, and the Pilot Challenge showcases a multitude of factories in the GS and TCR classes.

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Back on the WeatherTech side, the race itself was a little bumpy right from the start. Contact in the T5 braking zone on lap one resulted in the #3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Alex Sims buried up to the rockers in the gravel trap. No real damage to the car, but an inauspicious start to the race. Other cautions followed, preventing the race from getting into a nice flow. But the late caution that bunched the field made the contentious final laps possible as the two Porsche Penske Motorsports 963s battled both amongst themselves and with the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 for the overall win. Porsche held on for the 1-2, picking up their second GTP win at Road America.

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And now a few final observations.

• The LMP2s sound fantastic, very drumline-full-of-snares whenever they’re off throttle.

• Chrome (more accurately “chrome film”) brought some appreciated brightness and reflectivity to several cars this weekend, from the Carrera Cup and one of the Mustang Challenge cars to the Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 and the Wayne Taylor Acura GTPs. The Mustang was wrapped entirely in chrome, reminding me of Joe Satriani’s Chrome Boy guitar. I never quite figured out the angle to have my reflection show up in the car while photographing it, but catching it near the red and yellow curbing looked pretty cool. Similarly, I didn’t realize until Saturday that the red Acura did not in fact have a yellow component to the stripes along its flanks. Catching it away from the painted curbs the stripes were a metallic grey. But arcing through a turn…yellow or red depending on which segment was closest.

• Front-row-lockouts didn’t go so well. In GTP, two Acuras up front, only one on the podium. The Corvettes in GTD Pro? Both off the podium in fourth and fifth.

• Whoever is in charge of marketing at AO Racing should be given a generous bonus. I’m a grown man and I really want a plush Rexy, Roxy, or Spike. People could not take enough pictures of the cars, the paddock space, and of course themselves with Spike and Roxy on the fan walk.

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