Second of a Four-Part Series Recalling the Year’s Highlights
By IMSA.com Contributors
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The best part of motorsports may be the anticipation of the unexpected. We become engrossed in racing because we want to see what will happen next.
In this second of a four-part series recounting the highlights of the 2021 IMSA season, our five contributing writers select their “Best Surprises” of the year. Their answers may surprise you.
David Phillips: IMSA produced surprises aplenty in 2021, but one would be hard-pressed indeed to imagine a more unexpected event than the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche’s GT Le Mans (GTLM) class victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. After all, with Porsche replacing its full-on, two-car factory program with a one-car “works assisted” effort and BMW scaling its program back to a partial season, it appeared GTLM would be a Corvette benefit in 2021. But Porsche and WeatherTech Racing proved at Sebring that a “works assisted” Porsche effort is a potent proposition indeed as Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Cooper MacNeil brought the No. 79 Porsche 911 RSR-19 home ahead of the works BMWs and Corvettes.
Godwin Kelly: The rise of Helio Castroneves was the biggest surprise of the year for me. After nabbing the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the DPi class, he kept the momentum going by winning the 2021 Rolex 24 At Daytona with a different team. And we all know what happened in Indianapolis after that. Now he has a full-time IndyCar Series ride and will be back to defend his Rolex 24 title with his third WeatherTech Championship team in as many years.
John Oreovicz: Amidst an IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Touring Car (TCR) class grid dominated by Hyundai, Audi and Honda raced a lone, red Alfa Romeo. You’ll never see an Alfa Giulietta Veloce TCR on American streets, but the compact Italian hatchback adapted nicely to IMSA competition, carrying KWM Motorsports with TMR Engineering and drivers Roy Block and Tim Lewis Jr. to victories at Road America and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on the way to third place in the TCR standings.
Holly Cain: Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series winning crew chief Chad Knaus made his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut atop the pit box for the four IMSA Michelin Endurance Challenge races leading the No. 48 Ally Cadillac DPi for Action Express Racing – a car co-driven by his former NASCAR teammate, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. The Knaus-led team – which also included drivers Kamui Kobayashi, Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud and Mike Rockenfeller – started off the year nearly winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona, finishing runner-up only 4.7 seconds away from the famed trophy. It had two other top-five showings (fifth at Watkins Glen and fourth at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta) and led 105 laps in the four-race effort.
Jeff Olson: Mazda’s Daytona Prototype international (DPi) farewell win at Motul Petit Le Mans. Mazda announced in February that it wouldn’t return to the WeatherTech Championship in 2022. Instead of going through the motions and waving goodbye, the team came to the season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta with something to prove. With 22 minutes left in the 10-hour race, Harry Tincknell passed Felipe Nasr for the lead in Turn 7 to lift Tincknell, Oliver Jarvis, Jonathan Bomarito and Mazda to victory. “I knew in the back of (Nasr’s) head, he had a championship to think about,” Tincknell said.
Next: Part 3, Best Performances of 2021