The Reigning Class Champs Are Opening the 2023 Season with a Star-Studded Lineup
By Holly Cain
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – One of the most alluring things about the upcoming 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season is the level of competition in all categories. And the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class does not disappoint.
From new teams boasting stellar driver lineups to perennial championship contenders, this year features the kind of top-line competition now routinely expected of this prototype class.
In 2022, there were three different winners in the opening three LMP2 races and competition so close through the entire season, no team ever earned back-to-back victories.
Defending LMP2 series team and driver champion Tower Motorsport – a two-race winner in 2022 – is back to defend its title, although no fulltime driver lineup has been announced.
It certainly boasts an intimidating lineup to open the season in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, however, with 2022 series champion John Farano teaming with Kyffin Simpson and a pair of decorated first-timers. The team’s Daytona No. 8 entry will include Penske Racing IndyCar teammates: two-time IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden and last year’s IndyCar breakout star Scott McLaughlin.
Tower’s strong lineup is expected to again face competition from rival PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, whose stout driver lineup – including former series champion Ben Keating – wrapped up the 2022 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup title on the strength of wins at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen.
The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports team will contend for the 2023 team and driver championship – also participating in the three LMP2 sprint races – but has only unveiled its driver lineup for defense of the Michelin Endurance Cup as of now.
Both these veteran teams can expect immediate and fierce competition from Rick Ware Racing, which will be fielding its first fulltime ORECA LMP2 07 entry in 2023 – the No. 51 co-driven by Eric Lux and third-generation racer Pietro Fittipaldi.
Lux was part of the DragonSpeed USA team last year that won the Rolex 24. This will be the 26-year-old Fittipaldi’s debut in the WeatherTech Championship. He has experience competing in a wide variety of series from Formula One to the NASCAR Whelen All-American series and, of course, comes from one of the sport’s most acclaimed families.
Devlin DeFrancesco, who also was part of the LMP2 Rolex 24-winning team last year with DragonSpeed, returns to compete in the Rolex 24 along with 2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric. Rick Ware Racing – which also includes NASCAR and NHRA teams – is both eager and well-prepared to contend from the drop of the season’s first green flag.
And don’t overlook the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA that returns Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman, who finished second in the 2022 points and won at Road America. They’ll be joined at the Rolex 24 by Oliver Jarvis, the reigning Daytona Prototype international (DPi) series champion and overall Rolex 24 winner, along with talented youngster Christian Rasmussen.
Another relative newcomer to the series, High Class Racing, will run its second full season in class. Last year, the Danish team scored a pair of podium finishes and finished third in the Michelin Endurance Cup. Drivers Dennis Andersen and former IndyCar driver Ed Jones will contend fulltime.
Both the No. 11 and No. 35 TDS Racing team cars are set for a championship bid this season. Mikkel Jensen and Steven Thomas will campaign the No. 11 fulltime with IMSA veteran Scott Huffaker and IndyCar standout Rinus VeeKay joining the team to contend in the Rolex 24. Francois Heriau and Giedo van der Garde will drive the No. 35 ORECA fulltime with Josh Pierson and Job van Uitert set to share the cockpit at Daytona this month.
Crowdstrike Racing by APR moves into the class this year and will contend for the Michelin Endurance Cup, as will the AF Corse operation with Ferrari Hypercar driver Nicklas Nielsen, with Francois Perrodo, Mathieu Vaxiviere and Julien Canal set to race at Daytona. In all, there are 10 cars set to take the green at Daytona.
“It looks to me like 2023 will be the most competitive field the LMP2 class has ever had,’’ the veteran Keating said.