IMSA has released the provisional entry list for the IMSA Sportscar Weekend at Road America, a two-hour, 40-minute sprint race scheduled for Sunday 4 August.
47 cars are set to enter, and for the first time since Watkins Glen all four classes will be in action including GTP. The ten full-season GTP entries all return with no changes to their usual driver line-ups – this includes another start for Bent Viscaal in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche 963, alongside Gianmaria Bruni.
With just three races left for the premier prototype class (Road America, Indianapolis, and Road Atlanta) the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr has a healthy 93-point lead in the championship over the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R of Sébastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande.
Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy are also in the hunt in the #6 Penske Porsche, 132 points behind. Sitting on the fringes are the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 (Jordan Taylor/Louis Delétraz) and the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac (Pipo Derani/Jack Aitken).
Porsche has a 41-point lead in the GTP Manufacturers’ Championship over Cadillac, with Acura in third place trailing by 114 points.
LMP2 has 12 cars entered, with many regular drivers returning to action after the most recent round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (Mosport), which was won by the #52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen ORECA of Nick Boulle and Tom Dillmann. Currently, Gar Robinson leads both the LMP2 Drivers’ Championship (alongside Felipe Fraga) and the Jim Trueman Award standings.
There are other significant changes to note, and one of those is the absence of the #04 CrowdStrike by APR ORECA. George Kurtz has stepped away from racing activities in the wake of a global computer systems outage caused by a faulty software update which launched last Thursday.
Offsetting this departure is the addition of a new ORECA LMP2 from JDC-Miller MotorSports; the #79 driven by Gerry Kraut and Scott Andrews. Kraut, 72, has raced LMP3 cars for the last four seasons, taking victories in the Michelin Le Mans Cup and IMSA Prototype Challenge. He’ll race alongside Andrews, who has been running the five-race Michelin Endurance Cup with Lone Star Racing this year.
Kraut and Andrews raced together in the 2021 and 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup for United Autosports, and also drove together in the 2022 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta with JDC-Miller.
Sean Creech Motorsport has brought in Tonis Kasemets, the 2022 IMSA Prototype Challenge champion and Champ Car World Series alumnus, to drive the #33 Ligier JS P217 in place of regular Bronze driver Lance Willsey. Meanwhile, Stuart Wiltshire will make his second start in the #18 Era Motorsport ORECA as scheduled.
In GTD Pro, there are ten entries – bolstered by the addition of a second car from Conquest Racing. Daytona 24 Hours class winner Daniel Serra and Giacomo Altoe will drive the #35 Ferrari 296 GT3. For Altoe, who races full-time in GT World Challenge Europe for Emil Frey Racing, it’s his first IMSA start since Daytona in 2022.
As of publication, Seb Priaulx’s replacement in the #77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R has not been announced. Priaulx parted ways with AO Racing today to focus on increased commitments within Multimatic Motorsports. His former co-driver, Laurin Heinrich, holds a 98-point lead over Heart of Racing Team’s Ross Gunn in the championship standings.
Alex Riberas is back aboard the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3, and so too is Zacharie Robichon in the GTD class #27 Heart of Racing Team car.
GTD itself features 15 entries, boosted by the additions of spot entries from Triarsi Competizione and Wright Motorsports. Onofrio Triarsi Jnr and Alessio Rovera will drive the #023 Triarsi Ferrari while Wright retains its standard pair of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer in the #120 Porsche.
Lamborghini Squadra Corse works driver Sandy Mitchell will make a one-off appearance in the #45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, while Kenton Koch replaces Mike Skeen in the #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3. The #43 Andretti Motorsports Porsche, which pulled out before the CTMP round, does not appear on the entry list for the second weekend in a row.
Feature image © Jake Galstad / IMSA
