43 cars are listed for next week’s Petit Le Mans, the 2021 season finale for the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.
DPi
IMSA’s premier class features seven cars.
The septet includes the final programmed appearance of the factory Mazda RT24P and the return of the #48 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R for Jimmie Johnson, Kamui Kobayashi and Simon Pagenaud.
Kobayashi is one of at least 15 drivers in the overall field that will travel to Atlanta from Bahrain either from competition at the FIA WEC season finale or partaking in the post-race ‘Rookie’ Test.
LMP2
The entry is boosted to five cars with the return of the United Autosports #22 Oreca for Jim McGuire, Wayne Boyd and Guy Smith, United will send several key members of their WEC crew directly to Atlanta post-race in Bahrain.
The #52 PR1 Mathiesen entry features a trio of drivers all of whom will make the trip from the Gulf, Ben Keating in the hunt for the GTE Am Championship with TF Sport, Mikkel Jensen racing for Kessel Racing / Car Guy and Scott Huffaker testing on the Sunday as Keating closes in on the selection of a Silver-ranked driver for the 2022 FIA WEC to replace Dylan Pereira who has been reclassified with a Gold ranking for 2022 by the FIA.
GTLM
The final race for the class in IMSA competition sees the class entry boosted to six cars by the confirmation of an entry of a second WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19, the car set to be crewed by an all-Pro line-up but with the drivers not currently listed (though their nationalities are, suggesting a likely Estre/ Christensen/ Makowiecki crew).
LMP3
The junior LMP class sees an IMSA-record 10 car entry with United Autosports (Nicklas Kruetten/ Tom Gamble/ Andy Meyrick) and JRIII Racing (Ari Balogh/ Garett Grist/ Spencer Pigot) adding Ligier JS P320 efforts, and Forty7 Motorsports (The TBD twins and Mark Kvamme), Fast MD Racing (Todd Archer/ James Vance/ Max Hanratty), and Win Autosport (Naveen Rao/ Matt Bell/ Josh Skelton) adding Duqueine squads.
GTD
15 cars line-up in the class before the class split next season with the debut of the GTD Pro class.
Heart of Racing field just one Aston Martin but there is the first ever McLaren 720S GT3 effort in an IMSA enduro from Inception Racing, the continuation of Gilbert/ Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo effort, the NTE Sport Audi R8 LMS and a Winward Racing AMG returning for the first IMSA outing since Daytona.
