A Season for the Ages Contained an Extensive Array of Extraordinary Moments
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – IMSA’s momentum from 2023 carried into 2024, with too many memories to count across both the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge seasons. Where the two differed in terms of memories largely fell into season-long themes in 2024, rather than specific one-off moments.
That in mind, here are some of the top moments – and themes – from the year just completed:
Bold Win Passes in GTP
Late, decisive moves for the win going later on the brakes defined most Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class races in the WeatherTech Championship.
Louis Deletraz snuck past Sebastien Bourdais at Sebring. Nick Tandy seized on Jack Aitken’s traffic woes at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Ricky Taylor dove down Mathieu Jaminet at the hairpin in Detroit. Felipe Nasr darted past Deletraz after a restart at Watkins Glen. And to cap it all off, Renger van der Zande lunged late on Tandy to capture the win at the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta finale.
Even the GTP races that didn’t have late-race on-track lead passes had extra drama. There was Nasr defending against Tom Blomqvist in Daytona, Jaminet scything past traffic quicker than Nasr at Road America, and both BMWs keeping Jaminet at bay in Indianapolis. It was only in Long Beach, where the Bourdais/van der Zande Cadillac jumped the Aitken/Pipo Derani Cadillac in the pits that the drama subsided early.
Next Generation Stars Emerge
IMSA isn’t going through a “changing of the guard,” per se, but it is becoming apparent the next wave of sports car stars – beyond those in GTP like Aitken and Deletraz – are making their presence more prevalent.
It started when Christian Rasmussen and Connor Zilisch, a combined 40 years old (23 and 17), spearheaded Era Motorsport’s run to the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) win at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
It continued with the season-long effort by Laurin Heinrich, 23, at AO Racing, the one driver constant aboard the “Rexy” and “Roxy” No. 77 Porsche. He’s the third driver to win an IMSA title in his rookie year, the youngest to win a pro class title, surpassing Derani by three years, and the sixth youngest to win one overall. A last-to-first comeback drive at Indianapolis and a crucial pole at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta stood out.
Ross Gunn, 27, proved a worthy championship rival for the Heart of Racing Team in his third full year in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO).
The trio of Patrick Gallagher, 32, Kenton Koch, 30, and Elliott Skeer, 30, all won their first Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class races in consecutive race weekends at Road America, VIRginia International Raceway and Indianapolis, respectively. Not bad for a trio who, along with fellow GTD combatant Stevan McAleer, all banged wheels on their way up the sports car ladder starting in Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin action.
Parker Thompson, 26, led GTD in Motul Pole Awards in the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 with three and also banked the first WeatherTech Championship win of his career, albeit in a one-off No. 89 entry at Long Beach rather than his full-season No. 12 car.
Outside of the WeatherTech Championship, one great inter-generational battle in Michelin Pilot Challenge came courtesy of a dynamic inside-outside pass by Karl Wittmer in the No. 93 Montreal Motorsport Group Honda on Tyler Gonzalez’s No. 99 Victor Gonzalez Racing Team Hyundai at VIR for the Touring Car (TCR) class win. The 33-year-old got the better of the 20-year-old late in the going there.
Traffic Jams
Record attendance and high car counts at most IMSA events meant traffic was a topic of conversation throughout the year. It also impacted several race-winning battles.
Traffic swung the momentum in two classes at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. As Aitken was delayed going through GTD traffic, he ran wide and Tandy seized his opportunity. Similarly, Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley got nudged off course by another car, which opened the door for Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis to sneak through and continue that team’s incredible run of form to start its title-winning GTD season.
Then at Detroit, the sub-2-mile concrete canyon saw an accordion-effect incident at Turn 1 where contact between a couple prototype cars backed up the whole field. Once Jaminet and Taylor made it through the mess, Taylor completed his eventual move for the win at Turn 3 after the long straight.
Then at Road America, the Jaminet vs. Nasr battle in their pair of Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963s was tense as they darted every which way around the 4.048-mile road course to not mess up their own race, or those of the GTD cars they were lapping.
Breakthrough Titles
For several IMSA champions, the titles achieved in 2024 were a long time coming.
Winward’s pair of Ellis and Russell Ward had been close in GTD but bogged down by poor luck in recent years, which they put to bed in a big way by opening the year with back-to-back triumphs at the Rolex 24 and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring before adding two more wins at WeatherTech Raceway and Watkins Glen.
In Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR, the JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi team had always run the Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai juggernaut close with its one car. In 2024, JDC-Miller finally beat BHA, as Mikey Taylor and Chris Miller proved underdogs can topple the top dogs.
Their good fortune began with one of the wildest stories of the year. The team completed a last-to-first win in the season opener after the team sourced a backup part for its Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in Mexico, aided by Taylor making a hasty but successful airport run from Orlando to Daytona to deliver the ECU on race morning.
Safe Escapes from Heavy Incidents
The safety and durability of IMSA cars was put to the test on several occasions in 2024, and fortunately, all drivers emerged unscathed from throat-in-mouth moments.
Derani’s somersault at Sebring was a jarring impact as his Cadillac landed upside down atop a tire barrier before Turn 10. Fortunately, he got out after assistance from the AMR Safety Team on-site.
It was similarly relieving to see both Corey Lewis out of his Ford Mustang GT3 and Ricky Taylor out of his Acura ARX-06 after their coming-together at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in the dark, Taylor having connected with Lewis’ stranded car at the exit of the blind, uphill Turn 5.