We Break Down the Numerous Scenarios at Play for Crowning Champions in All Five Classes
By Mark Robinson
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla – The highly competitive nature of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is nothing new, but in 2022 it can be summed up by one statement: It all comes down to Motul Petit Le Mans.
Four of the five classes racing in the Oct. 1 season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta won’t determine champions until the checkered flag waves after 10 hours of grueling, unpredictable racing into the night. The only outlier is in the GTD PRO class, where the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and drivers Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet will sew up the driver, team and manufacturer titles by taking the green flag.
Other than that, it’s a free-for-all. Here’s a summary of possibilities for the remaining four classes:
Daytona Prototype international (DPi)
The only near certainty is that an Acura team will claim the DPi driver and team championships. If either the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 or No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-05 starts the race, it eliminates all the Cadillacs from contention.
Then it’s down to an all-Acura tussle for the title. The No. 10, along with drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor, hold a 19-point edge on the No. 60 and drivers Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis. A race win by either car will give it the championship, with one exception noted below.
Ironically, the No. 10 had the exact same 19-point margin heading into Motul Petit Le Mans a year ago and was overtaken by the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R with drivers Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr.
Qualifying will be uber important in several scenarios. If the No. 60 outqualifies the No. 10, the points deficit heading into the race will be something less than 20 points, meaning any top-five finish ahead of the No. 10 will hand the Bishop France Trophy to the MSR squad.
If the No. 60 qualifies last in the expected seven-car DPi field but wins the race, while the No. 10 takes the Motul Pole Award and finishes second, there would be a points deadlock. The No. 10 owns the tiebreaker with more wins this season.
If the No. 60 were to take pole and the No. 10 qualifies last – the exact same scenario that played out in 2021 when the No. 31 took the pole and the No. 10 lined up seventh – it’ll be a straight-up, whoever-finishes-higher-will-be-champion scenario. Last year, the No. 31 finished second in the race, one spot ahead of the No. 10, and took the championship by 11 points.
In short, you won’t want to miss this qualifying session, which takes the green flag at 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 30. Catch it on Peacock and IMSA.com, or better yet, get your tickets now at RoadAtlanta.com!
Two new scenarios enter the equation if the No. 10 qualifies ahead of the No. 60.
The WTR squad could afford to finish two spots behind and still take the crown as long as the No. 60 doesn’t win the race. The second is that if both cars finish outside the top five, the No. 10 team is your champion.
The DPi manufacturer battle is so tight that, should Cadillac take the Motul Pole Award and win the race, it would result in a dead heat with Acura.
Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2)
This class is unusual in 2022 because the driver and team champions could well come from different entrants. That’s because the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07 has employed two driver lineups this year – one for the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races and another for the sprint events.
The No. 52 takes a 19-point lead over the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA into the finale, with the No. 18 Era Motorsport entry 52 points behind the leader. Depending on the number of LMP2 entries at Michelin Raceway (there were 10 in the Rolex 24 At Daytona), up to six teams could be eligible for the championship but it’s likely down to the three mentioned.
In the driver chase, John Farano (No. 8 Tower Motorsport) leads Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel (No. 18 Era Motorsport) by 33 points. Steven Thomas (No. 11 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports) is 93 points behind and Henrik Hedman and Juan Pablo Montoya (No. 81 DragonSpeed USA) are 108 points back. Farano wins the driver crown if the No. 8 wins, or finishes second and outqualifies the No. 18. The options are multiple to determine the champion after that.
Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3)
Jon Bennett, Colin Braun and the No. 54 CORE autosport Ligier JS P320 hold the largest lead in any class other than GTD PRO, but don’t have anything secured. Essentially, they need to finish fourth or better to wrap things up.
To repeat as LMP3 champs, Gar Robinson and the No. 74 Riley Motorsports (second place, 83 points behind) need to win and have the No. 54 wind up fifth or worse. The task is more daunting for the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier with drivers Ari Balogh and Garett Grist (third place, 119 points behind). To take the title, they must win and have the No. 54 finish likely ninth or lower as well as the No. 74 finishing third or worse.
GT Daytona (GTD)
As usual, the GTD class presents the most championship possibilities due to the sheer size of expected entrants (there were 22, 17 and 16 in the three previous endurance races this year). Six teams have at least a remote shot at glory.
The No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and driver Roman De Angelis lead. With a 45-point advantage, a second-place race finish and top-10 qualifying effort brings home the hardware. After that, the options for the No. 27 and De Angelis to still win the championship are multiple depending on where the other competitors finish.
Stevan McAleer and the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 are second in the standings. They need to win and have the No. 27 finish fourth or lower to guarantee the title.
Jan Heylen, Ryan Hardwick and the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R are third in points, 57 from the lead. They could also take GTD honors by winning and seeing the No. 27 finish fourth or worse, though qualifying results could play a role as well.
The other three contenders – the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes, No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 and No. 39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 – each need to win and have those ahead of them finish far down the race order.
The GTD manufacturer standings find five OEMs clustered within 81 points at the top. BMW leads by 23 points over Mercedes-AMG, but with a likely 110-point differential from first to last in the race, this prized championship is as wide open as the driver and team titles in the class.
Which all means that, with so many championships on the line in so many classes, the racing will be fierce throughout the field come Oct. 1. It will be another thriller.