The Jumbled Classes Are Unpredictable, with Four Manufacturers Winning Already in 2023
Staff Report
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The opening two races of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship resulted in GT class victories for Mercedes-AMG and Aston Martin at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Porsche and BMW at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and McLaren is installed atop the GT Daytona (GTD) standings.
Talk about close competition. That’s half the manufacturers entered in the GT classes already represented by race wins or points leads.
It’s a slim GTD advantage for the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 driven by Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff and Ollie Millroy – just one point over Sebring winners Bryan Sellers, Corey Lewis, Madison Snow and the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3. And just to show that every minute cars are on track matters, the Inception McLaren gained that advantage through a slightly better qualifying performance – fifth at Daytona and eighth at Sebring, versus the PMR BMW’s ninth and fifth in the opening two rounds. The No. 1 BMW finished eighth at the Rolex 24 to collect 628 points to date, while the No. 70 McLaren was more consistent with third- and fourth-place finishes (and 629 points) to open the 2023 campaign. The No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 are just 50 points back.
Meanwhile in GTD PRO, the Daytona-winning No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 co-driven by Daniel Juncadella, Jules Gounon and Maro Engel (plus Cooper MacNeil at the Rolex 24) added a podium finish at Sebring to build a 26-point cushion over the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F and season-long co-drivers Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, who had their own pair of podiums to open the year. From there it’s another 23 points back to Sebring victors Patrick Pilet, Klaus Bachler and Laurens Vanthoor and the 2022 class champion No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).
Taken as a whole, all 10 WeatherTech Championship GT manufacturers enjoyed at least a brief moment in the sun during the season-opening Florida swing of the two endurance races. Kyle Marcelli nabbed the GTD pole at Sebring for Acura in the No. 93 Racers Edge Motorsport with WTR NSX GT3. The Vasser Sullivan Lexus entries fared strongly in both classes, with the No. 14 earning GTD PRO podium finishes at both races and the No. 12 coming home fifth both times in GTD. The new Ferrari 296 GT3 was impressive at Sebring, the No. 62 Risi Competizione entry contending for a podium before settling for sixth place. Corvette looked set to win Sebring until an unscheduled pit stop to change a rear shock/damper relegated it to fifth at the flag. The new EVO2 version of the Lamborghini Huracán has demonstrated consistency and reliability out of the box.
Variety of Car Types Yields Variety of Results
Of course, two races make up less than 20 percent of the full GT season, with a wide variety of racetracks still to come – starting next month with the street course at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, which is about as different from Sebring as Sebring is from Daytona.
Given that the range of cars participating in GTD and GTD PRO come in all different shapes and sizes – front-, mid- and rear-engine, with six, eight or 10 cylinders – it’s logical that some cars are better suited to some tracks than others.
The challenge, then, is to find the combination of consistency, pace and reliability that has landed the No. 70 Inception McLaren atop the early GTD standings.
“The McLaren lacks torque and traction, but it’s great on fast circuits – look at the European tracks like Spa and Silverstone,” said Millroy, the team’s IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup driver who also serves as Iribe’s driver coach. “In the U.S., we’ve had two strong Daytona 24s because it’s all about top speed. We struggle a bit in the middle sector. We’re not that strong at Daytona in terms of lap time. We’re sort of strong enough to fight, but never outstandingly quick. But the car is great for racing. It’s great in slipstreams.
“VIRginia International Raceway is a good example of a U.S. track that works for it – fast and flowing, with high grip,” he added. “Where we struggle with the McLaren is with grunt and traction, areas the Mercedes is strong in.”
If There’s a Benchmark, It’s Mercedes-AMG
That’s a common theme you’ll hear from competitors – the well-developed Mercedes-AMG is often the benchmark car, using compact size and a torquey V-8 thrust to its advantage.
“The Porsche, Mercedes and Lexus tend to be strong in hard braking sections, but we have strong front grip and rotation,” observed Roman De Angelis, who shares the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with Marco Sorenson and Ian James. “The Aston will definitely be strong in the faster places like Watkins Glen, Lime Rock and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and we’ll be able to show our true colors for sure.”
“The GTD class is so close, it doesn’t take much for things to go anyone’s way,” added James, who also serves as the Heart of Racing’s team principal. “Obviously, there’s ebb and flow with the performance between different cars, but the performance parameters of the cars in GTD are pretty close.”
At Sebring, the No. 79 Mercedes looked like it had the pace to win GTD PRO had the race run clean to the end. It was an impressive performance, especially on the heels of the powerful run to victory six weeks earlier at Daytona. And the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports and No. 57 Winward Racing entries continued to show class-leading speed in GTD.
“We definitely have an amazing car,” Engel said. “The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is a car that’s well adapted to all forms of GT racing, whether long-distance or the sprint rounds. It’s always a car that gives the driver confidence.”
Fuel strategy turned out to be the difference maker at Sebring, resulting in wins for Porsche (GTD PRO) and BMW (GTD).
“We were not the quickest, clearly,” said Pilet, whose fuel-miserly final stint secured the victory for the Pfaff Porsche. “But we have such a good group of people and we got a great effort today. We gambled on yellows, and the strategy worked.”
Pilet stretched his last tank of fuel over the final 1 hour, 52 minutes of the 12 hours at Sebring. That’s longer than the upcoming race at Long Beach, a sprint event of 100 minutes.
Which GT manufacturer will hold the upper hand on the city streets in Southern California? Tune in to USA Network or IMSA Radio at 5 p.m. ET Saturday, April 15 to find out.