Issues Were Minimal in the first 24-Hour Test for the Class
By John Oreovicz
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – One of the unknown factors going into this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona was the addition of the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) category to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Not only would the addition of a new class inflate the size of the starting field for the legendary event (a total of 49 cars were entered among five classes), the LMP3 prototypes were expected to have similar overall performance to cars running in GT Le Mans (GTLM), potentially making it even trickier than usual for drivers to negotiate traffic.
On top of that, the reliability of the LMP3s had never been tested over the course of a 24-hour endurance race. And this was the North American debut for the newest generation of LMP3 cars, though they had competed last year at shorter distances elsewhere.
Turned out to be much ado about nothing. The drivers kept it clean and the cars were generally free of major problems. Six of the seven LMP3 contestants were running at the finish of the Rolex 24, led by the Ligier JS P320 fielded by Riley Motorsports and driven by Gar Robinson, Spencer Pigot, Oliver Askew and Scott Andrews.
The No. 74 Riley Motorsports entry led the similar No. 33 Ligier campaigned by Sean Creech Motorsport and shared by Lance Willsey, Joao Barbosa, Yann Clairay and Wayne Boyd to the checkered flag on Jan. 31, with a three-lap margin of victory after 24 grueling hours.
The overall reliability of the LMP3 cars was impressive. The sealed 5.6-liter V-8 engines were trouble-free, and the institution of a mandatory eight-minute pit stop for a brake pad change eased worries for all competitors about a possible problem area.
The entry from the experienced Riley stable was held out of the qualifying race and therefore started from the back of the LMP3 field. That proved to be no handicap.
“It was a bit risky with the weather, a new car and a lack of spare parts,” Andrews said. “But Gar put in a mega first three stints and put us in a really good position to move forward and capitalize on strategy calls by Bill Riley.
“The team worked tirelessly ever since they got the car and we tested in December,” he added. “They worked so hard, and they really deserve this win.”
The LMP3 category was established in 2015 and the cars have been featured in IMSA’s Prototype Challenge development series since 2017. But this marks the first year for LMP3 cars in WeatherTech Championship races.
In Europe and America, the LMP3 field is generally comprised of hungry young up-and-comers and more seasoned gentlemen drivers. But this year’s Rolex 24 featured some professional ringers as well.
Barbosa is an IMSA stalwart, with 24 career victories (including four at the Rolex 24) and two season championships across various classes since 1999. Colin Braun, who co-drove the fifth-place CORE autosport Ligier, is another longtime IMSA pilot with 18 career wins (two in the Rolex 24) and a pair of season titles.
Pigot and Askew are veterans of the NTT IndyCar Series, and Pigot drove in WeatherTech Championship endurance races in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) category from 2016-20. He also won the LMP2 class in a one-off appearance in last July’s sprint race at Sebring.
Pigot came away impressed with the LMP3 cars and competition.
“No one really knew how reliable these LMP3 cars would be; I don’t think they had ever run a race this long,” he said. “We even had the conversation that the winning team might be the one that had the fewest problems. We thought that everyone was going to have two or three.
“But we didn’t have any and the car stayed on track for all 24 hours. It just goes to show the level of preparation the guys at the shop did. We knew we’d have the best-prepared car in the paddock, and we showed that.”
The next appearance for the Prototype Challenge will be at Sebring International Raceway March 12-13 with the WeatherTech Championship competing the following weekend in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts, March 17-20.