Almost all of the major championships are up for grabs in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and by the conclusion – or even the start – of Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans, we’ll know which teams, drivers, and manufacturers will be the champions in their respective classes.
Two championship titles were officially decided before the final race. Mercedes-AMG won the GTD Manufacturers’ Championship and Michelin Endurance Cup on the strength of five wins this season, including Daytona, Sebring, and Watkins Glen.
Who will win the rest? For some battles, it’s as easy as going out for the first formation lap. For others, it could go down to the final lap.
In the IMSA WeatherTech series, teams and drivers earn 350 championship points for a class win, then 320 for second, 300 for third, 280 for fourth, and 260 for fifth. The payout decreases by ten points for every subsequent position – and the only way to score zero points is to fail to start the race at all.
Adding another wrinkle for the main class championships is that teams also earn points for their qualifying positions – 35 for pole, 32 for second, 30 for third…essentially race points divided by ten.
It does make the calculations very, very complex – but as the race unfolds, both domestic and international TV broadcasts will provide up-to-the-minute updates on the standings as cars run. With that out of the way, let’s see how these championships will be won this weekend!
GTP
Porsche Penske Motorsport is in prime position to win all the major titles in IMSA’s premier category.
The #7 Porsche 963 of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr currently has a 124-point lead over the sister #6 car of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy, following the #6 car’s penalty after Indianapolis.
Assuming both cars start the race, Cameron and Nasr (with co-driver Matt Campbell) can clinch the Drivers’ and Teams’ titles with at least a sixth-place finish in class, and that clinching position will only get lower depending on the results from qualifying – down to eighth place if they qualify on the front row!
Jaminet and Tandy (with Kevin Estre) will almost certainly play a facilitating role in the title hunt. They would need a win or a second-place finish from no lower than seventh on the grid to overturn the gap to Cameron and Nasr.
This leads us to the #01 Cadillac of Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande (with Scott Dixon), which is 164 points down with 165 points available to gain.
Only two outcomes would make it possible for Van der Zande and Bourdais: A win from pole position, plus the #7 Porsche qualifying tenth or 11th and finishing last. Incredibly, despite all that’s happened, a tie on points would go to the #01 Cadillac crew on second-place tiebreakers.
If that somehow happens, the #6 Porsche also needs to finish third (or second, depending on qualifying results) to yield an upset.
All Porsche has to do to win the GTP Manufacturers’ Championship is have any of its four 963s start the race, as the German marque leads Cadillac by 124 points with 99 available to gain.
LMP2
The race for the LMP2 championship is between three crews.
Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen has had a strong season together, and so have drivers Nick Boulle and Tom Dillmann. The #52 ORECA 07 of Boulle and Dillmann leads the LMP2 Drivers’ and Teams’ standings by 98 points and can clinch the title with at least a fourth-place finish in their class.
Second is the #74 Riley team of Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga, which must finish at least second to have a chance at the title.
Ryan Dalziel is the outsider in the #18 Era Motorsport car: Having split time with Dwight Merriman and Stuart Wiltshire as his co-drivers throughout the season, Dalziel needs at least a win, or a pole position and second-place finish, to contend for the championship.
GTD Pro
They’ve shared their cars with different co-drivers this year but at the end of it all, AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich and Heart of Racing Team’s Ross Gunn are left standing as the two GTD Pro Drivers’ Championship contenders, leading the charge in their respective cars.
The gap from Heinrich to Gunn is 99 points, so all Heinrich needs is a fourth-place finish in the #77 ‘Rexy’ Porsche to clinch his first IMSA title (or fifth with a top-five start).
Gunn in the #23 Aston Martin needs to finish in the top four in GTD Pro to compete – unless he starts last, and then he’ll need a podium finish to be in the conversation.
Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer will join Heinrich this weekend at AO Racing, while Alex Riberas and Roman de Angelis will join Gunn in the Heart of Racing #23.
Porsche’s road to the GTD Pro Manufacturers’ title is almost a formality with a 122-point gap to Aston Martin and only 143 points available to gain.
Out of each of the nine manufacturers’ highest-finishing cars, if Rexy is sixth or better, Porsche wins the title. Either of Aston Martin/Heart of Racing’s two cars – including the #027 must be either first or second to have a chance.
GTD
Unlike last season, there is still a battle for the GTD Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships that will go to Petit Le Mans.
But the odds are incredibly stacked towards Winward Racing, Russell Ward, and Philip Ellis who carry a 222-point lead, and those odds got a little better with Andretti Motorsport withdrawing to leave 19 cars in the class.
No matter where they qualify, 15th place in the race will be good enough for Winward to clinch the GTD titles – but that championship-winning position for the #57 Mercedes-AMG could be as low as 18th after qualifying
Turner Motorsport, Patrick Gallagher, and Robby Foley would need a miracle in the form of a class win, or a second place from pole position, to even think about winning the championship in the #96 BMW.
But as we saw in the Indy 8 Hour, New England’s racing taco fiends have come back from an impossible deficit to win a championship even when they didn’t control their destiny.
Jim Trueman and Bob Akin Awards
These awards named in honour of IMSA luminaries are given to the best Bronze drivers in LMP2 and GTD, and more importantly, they represent a “golden ticket” to the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year for the winning driver.
No qualifying points are given for these honours so thankfully, these are much more straightforward.
In the race for the Jim Trueman Award (LMP2), Nick Boulle clinches his Le Mans invite with a top-three finish, while Gar Robinson needs a top-three finish to remain in the hunt. But if Robinson wins and Boulle finishes fourth, Robinson would win the Trueman Award on the second-place tiebreaker.
There’s a bit less drama involved for the Bob Akin Award (GTD), barring catastrophe for AWA’s Orey Fidani, who just has to avoid finishing last among GTD’s Bronze drivers to win his Le Mans invitation – an invitation the Canadian driver will accept if he receives it.
Brendan Iribe of Inception Racing would have to be first of the nine GTD Bronzes entered with Fidani in last, to win the award once again.
Michelin Endurance Cup
The Michelin Endurance Cup uses a completely different scoring system to the standard championships: Points are given out at intervals throughout the race – here, they’re given out after four hours, eight hours, and the finish.
The first-place team gets five points, second gets four points, third gets three and everyone else gets two. A team can gain up to nine points at a time on one of its rivals here at Petit Le Mans.
In GTP, six teams have a shot at the cup, led by Porsche’s Cameron and Nasr with 37 points. They can clinch the title unconditionally with a 12-point total.
Bourdais/Van der Zande trail by four points, Action Express’ Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken, & Tom Blomqvist trail by five, and at seven points back are both Jaminet/Tandy and BMW M Team RLL’s Connor de Phillippi & Nick Yelloly. WTRAndretti’s Jordan Taylor & Louis Deletraz need to score all 15 points to have a chance but they’d be able to win it on a tiebreaker over the #7 Porsche.
Porsche, meanwhile, leads the Manufacturers’ Endurance Cup in GTD by four points over Cadillac.
In LMP2, two teams are tied at the top of the table, TDS Racing (Steven Thomas/Mikkel Jensen/Hunter McElrea) and Inter Europol/PR1 Mathiasen (Nick Boulle/Tom Dillmann/Jakub Śmiechowski). Era Motorsport (Dwight Merriman/Ryan Dalziel/Connor Zilisch) trail by just two points.
Following those three main contenders are two outsiders, Riley (Gar Robinson/Felipe Fraga/Josh Burdon) and Richard Mille AF Corse (Luis Perez Companc/Nicklas Nielsen).
Paul Miller Racing controls its destiny in the GTD Pro endurance cup: 11 points will give Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers, and Neil Verhagen the title no matter what their rivals do.
AO Racing’s Heinrich and Risi Competizione’s Davide Rigon & Daniel Serra both trail by five points, followed by Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Harry Tincknell & Mike Rockenfeller plus Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio Garcia & Alexander Sims, each trailing by seven.
In the Manufacturers’ Cup, Chevrolet leads Porsche by two points, Ford by four points, and both Lexus and Aston Martin can take the cup on a tiebreaker if either scores the maximum number of points.
While Winward Racing has the main GTD Championship almost locked down, it’s closer in the race for the Endurance Cup despite them winning three of the four previous enduros.
Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, and Indy Dontje only lead Inception Racing (Brendan Iribe/Frederik Schandorff/Ollie Millroy) by one point, and Korthoff/Preston Motorsports (Mike Skeen/Mikaël Grenier/Kenton Koch) are only four points back.
Wright Motorsports (Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer/Jan Heylen) and Triarsi Competizione (Onofrio Triarsi Jnr/Charles Scardina) are also in contention from six and seven points back, respectively.
Images © Jack Webster / Dailysportscar.com
