LMP2 in the IMSA WeatherTech series continues to feature competitive entries and compelling stories, and this year shouldn’t be any different with 12 cars from 11 teams battling for class honours in the 63rd annual Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Unlike last year’s edition, however, the full field is comprised of ORECA 07s, the near-universal LMP2 of choice. Sean Creech Motorsports’ Ligier JS P217 didn’t see out its 2024 campaign due to numerous setbacks, and while the team tries to find its way back onto the IMSA WeatherTech grid as soon as it possibly can, the Ligier’s absence will be felt by fans who appreciated the momentary reprieve from ORECA’s single-make stronghold.
That isn’t to say there won’t be intrigue in this year’s class. Eclectic four-driver crews of proud Bronze drivers, promising young upstarts, and proven professionals from the highest tiers of international motorsport are all here, racing for teams with world-class credentials. It’s almost too close to call with the distribution of star talent in every seat!
United Autosports USA
- #2: Nick Boulle, Ben Hanley, Garnet Patterson, Oliver Jarvis
- #22: Daniel Goldburg, Paul di Resta, Rasmus Lindh, James Allen
West Yorkshire’s sterling squad is back for its second full-season IMSA campaign, with two cars in the traditional United navy, red and white – and they look poised for a great run at Daytona.
In particular, the #2 entry jumps off the page as a potential favourite for the win. It’s anchored by reigning IMSA LMP2 co-champion and Jim Trueman Award winner Nick Boulle – with two outstanding all-Pro reinforcements in Ben Hanley and Oliver Jarvis, both of whom are previous Rolex winners (Hanley in LMP2, 2020 and Jarvis, 2022’s overall winner) and both are immensely handy at the wheel of an LMP2 machine!
Boulle recently committed to the five Endurance Cup races with United Autosports, so we will see him for over half the LMP2 rounds – in addition to his upcoming entry at Le Mans that’s close to being finalised. Garnet Patterson is back after a year’s absence from racing to round out the #2 crew.
Daniel Goldburg and Peugeot’s Paul di Resta return as the primary pair in the #22 car, looking to build upon last year’s modest results and get further up the field.
They’ve got two new helpers for Daytona, as James Allen – the hero of that famous 2023 photo finish for Proton Competition – is joined in the car by Rasmus Lindh, who was one of the leading lights in LMP3 when it was part of the WeatherTech series. Allen’s reputation is as sterling as any other LMP2 pro in the field.
United Autosports didn’t quite reach the soaring heights many expect of them in IMSA last year – though there were flashes – but as quickly as Daytona, that could soon change.
CrowdStrike Racing by APR
- #04: George Kurtz, Malthe Jakobsen, Toby Sowery, Colton Herta
CrowdStrike Racing’s collaboration with Algarve Pro Racing (APR) continues for a third season and a third trip to the Rolex 24 at Daytona, a race that has narrowly eluded them for the last two years running.
This is the first major race back for this programme and for George Kurtz following a break to attend to widely publicised business matters. Kurtz is as devoted to racing as any Bronze driver in this field, and a win at Daytona under the circumstances would be a cherished moment in his second career.
Stewart Cox’s team has also spared no expense to assemble another strong team for Daytona. IndyCar star Colton Herta already has two Rolex wins, and with Peugeot prodigy Malthe Jakobsen, and an excellent Silver find in Toby Sowery – who were both excellent here last year – they’re pushing over the top in the hunt for victory. Jakobsen, by the way, was the quickest driver in LMP2 during the Roar Before The 24.
It would be foolish to bet against CrowdStrike/APR to finally win LMP2 at Daytona: All four drivers are exceptional relative to their peers, the crew at Algarve Pro Racing have the experience and the know-how to win any big endurance race – so long as they keep making the right adjustments as the race goes on, they will be a factor until the chequered flag. And that might just be enough for them to finally win LMP2 at Daytona.
Tower Motorsports
- #8: John Farano, Sébastien Bourdais, Sebastián Álvarez, Job van Uitert
Tower Motorsports enters 2025 with a refreshed line-up that’s still anchored around owner/driver John Farano, just two years removed from winning the Jim Trueman Award as LMP2’s top Bronze.
Farano has recruited the legendary Sebastien Bourdais as his full-season running mate. Bourdais was the overall winner in the 2014 Rolex 24, he won GTLM in 2017 – both with Chip Ganassi Racing – and recently won Petit Le Mans in the final race of the Ganassi/Cadillac collaboration. While Bourdais’ journey with Cadillac continues via Hertz Team JOTA in WEC, this new IMSA venture with Tower Motorsports gives him the chance to win Daytona in a third different category.
Another Sebastian – Alvarez from Mexico – and quick Dutchman Job van Uitert round out a competitive line-up with lots of potential for a good result here. Alvarez was last year’s European Le Mans Series LMP2 title runner-up, and Van Uitert has been an ELMS title contender on multiple occasions.
Again, it’s another quality team with a chance to win as long as they avoid major mistakes or trouble.
TDS Racing
- #11: Steven Thomas, Mikkel Jensen, Hunter McElrea, Charles Milesi
TDS Racing retains the same line-up of drivers from last year’s Daytona 24 Hours: Speedy attorney Steven Thomas, Peugeot’s Mikkel Jensen, Alpine’s Charles Milesi, and IndyCar hopeful Hunter McElrea.
DSC readers who are more keen on our Le Mans/WEC/ELMS coverage will know the quality that Xavier Combet’s French team brings to the LMP2 grid, and they’ll know the quality that Jensen and Milesi demonstrated for their respective French houses of speed. Thomas is capable of being the quickest Bronze in the field on his day – and while McElrea only has five races’ worth of LMP2 experience, the American-born, New Zealand-raised driver has already shown the ability to meet or exceed the standard of his more heralded pro team-mates.
Last year’s Daytona was a crushing disappointment: Thomas’ heavy hit into the barriers exiting the bus stop chicane brought the #11 car’s race to an end before sunset on Saturday. TDS Racing would rebound later in the year, with back-to-back victories at Indianapolis and Road Atlanta to take the 2024 Michelin Endurance Cup.
It is a tough LMP2 field, and Daytona has been a difficult race for the #11 crew the last two years – but this year’s race is as good a chance as TDS has ever had to win it with the talent assembled in this team.
Era Motorsport
- #18: Tobias Lütke, Ryan Dalziel, David Heinemeier Hansson, Paul-Loup Chatin
Defending LMP2 class winners at Daytona, Era Motorsport came back from an early incident on Saturday afternoon to fight for and eventually take the win by Sunday’s finish. This year, Kyle Tilley’s squad will have to do it with only one returning driver from last year’s effort – no Dwight Merriman, no Christian Rasmussen, and no Connor Zilisch.
To be fair, if they could only retain one man, Ryan Dalziel is an outstanding choice, with two LMP2 wins to his name plus his overall win in 2016. 2021 class winner and Alpine Hypercar driver Paul-Loup Chatin is back at Era after successful stints with PR1 Mathiasen and AO Racing to add even more depth.
Business partners in their 9-to-5 lives, David Heinemeier Hansson and Tobias Lütke, are new to Era Motorsport. DHH has the reputation of being one of the finest ‘True Silvers’ in the sport, with years of contemporary LMP2 experience and success to his name. This includes previous stints at ESM alongside Dalziel.
But Lütke is all-new to LMP2, moving up from driving a late-model Ligier LMP3 in the HSR Prototype Challenge series to being Era Motorsport’s new full-time Bronze driver. It is a big leap and one that he’ll need to manage quickly if Era has any aspirations of contending this year.
Inter Europol Competition
- #43: Jon Field, Tom Dillmann, Bijoy Garg, António Félix da Costa
It was a great first season in America for Poland’s “Racing Bakers.” Inter Europol Competition struck up a partnership with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, and that partnership produced an IMSA LMP2 Championship in its first season – the first LMP2 Championship for Inter Europol in any series.
That was the precursor to an ambitious second act in 2025: Inter Europol will run as an independent team, with its own US racing headquarters, its own dedicated IMSA running crew – and with only one driver, Frenchman Tom Dillmann, returning from last year’s successful programme.
Jon Field’s return to major American sports car racing is one of the big surprises on this grid. The former Intersport Racing owner/driver, now 69 years young, hasn’t raced in either of IMSA’s predecessor series since 2011 – and hasn’t started the Daytona 24 Hours since 2002! Field has gotten back into competitive shape over the last three years, via the Radical Cup and HSR Prototype Challenge series. But how quickly can he get back up to speed against his fellow Bronze peers?
Dillmann is joined at Daytona by 2022 Le Mans class winner and WEC LMP2 Champion Antonio Felix da Costa, who last raced here in 2018 with Jackie Chan DC Racing/JOTA, finishing fifth overall in a similar ORECA 07. Bijoy Garg joins as the Endurance Cup driver following IMSA podiums and a Le Mans 24 Hours class win with United Autosports.
We’ve seen in the past that Inter Europol cannot be counted out in big races like this. And they’ll have their work cut out for themselves here.
PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports
- #52: Rodrigo Sales, Mathias Beche, Benjamin Pedersen, Ben Keating
So now that Inter Europol has separated from PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, what’s next for Bobby Oergel and his team that has now won five of the last six LMP2 Championships and three straight Endurance Cups since 2019?
The outlook for this new-look #52 team is curious. At Daytona, this is the only car with two Bronze drivers – even if one of them, Ben Keating, is a very known quantity.
Yes indeed, for the eighth time in his career, Keating is pulling double-duty at the Rolex 24, entering both LMP2 and GTD PRO – returning to PR1 Mathiasen after a year with United Autosports. He’s won pole in LMP2 for the last five Daytona 24 Hours, yet a prototype class win here is still missing.
Then there’s the rest of the #52 team, featuring Rodrigo Sales and Mathias Beche for the full season, and Benjamin Pedersen for the enduros. Beche hasn’t raced here in some time but has plenty of LMP2 experience. Sales is also experienced enough in LMP2 – but this is the Mexican-American’s first Rolex 24 start, owing to his usual preference for racing under ACO rules. And Pedersen only just found his way into sports car racing near the end of last year, following a bruising one-and-done run in IndyCar.
How exactly will it all shake out for the Wynns’ purple and orange machine?
Pratt Miller Motorsports
- #73: Chris Cumming, Pietro Fittipaldi, James Roe, Callum Ilott
The newest entry in IMSA’s LMP2 class is from the world-renowned Pratt Miller Motorsports firm – their first foray into prototype racing since they were designing and constructing parts for the Corvette Daytona Prototype.
This new project, overseen by longtime Pratt Miller engineer and former Corvette Racing Programme Manager Marc Maurini, adds even more depth and credibility to the LMP2 ranks here in IMSA.
Aboard the black, grey, and orange #73 ORECA is three young drivers with single-seater and sports car pedigrees – Pietro Fittipaldi, Callum Ilott, and James Roe Jnr. The third-generation Fittipaldi is back in sports cars full-time just as Ilott, who co-authored JOTA’s big win in the WEC 6 Hours of Spa, is heading back to a full-time IndyCar ride. Roe is about to enter his third season of Indy NXT but has some GT experience in Italy to his name.
And then there’s Bronze driver Chris Cumming. The Canadian was a specialist in the ORECA FLM09 Prototype Challenge days of yesteryear, but he’s coming back to this race after eight years away from major motorsport. Will he be able to pick up where he left off in 2017?
We expect PMM to approach this LMP2 effort with the same level of poise and professionalism as what they’ve achieved with Corvette Racing, and that will likely lead to success.
Riley
- #74: Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga, Josh Burdon, Felipe Massa
Riley Motorsports is taking on a bit more this year with the last-minute addition of the Lamborghini SC63 programme. But it’s not expected to be to the detriment of the Gar Robinson-led LMP2 squad that finished second in the IMSA WeatherTech standings last year, just missing out on the Trueman Award as well.
This is another team retaining all four of its drivers from last year’s Daytona 24H entry: Robinson and Felipe Fraga, who won LMP3 together in this race three years ago; Burdon, another known quantity with years of endurance racing experience, and 2008 Formula One World Championship runner-up Felipe Massa is back for his second outing at Daytona.
Last year Fraga held off eventual series champion Tom Dillmann and the Inter Europol/PR1 Mathiasen car in the closing laps to finish third in class at Daytona. The orange and blue #74 would capture three more podiums by the end of 2024, but never reached the top step.
It’s something that Robinson, a second-generation IMSA driver, and his co-drivers and crew hope to change with continuity as their strength.
AF Corse
- #88: Luis Pérez Companc, Nicklas Nielsen, Dylan Murry, Matthieu Vaxivière
AF Corse already backs three Ferrari 296 GT3s in the GTD category and once again, the Italian-origin team is bringing an LMP2 entry to IMSA with Argentina’s experienced racing renaissance man Luis Pérez Companc as the Bronze anchor of the squad.
But it’d be hard not to look at the Pro options in the car – Ferrari’s Hypercar star Nicklas Nielsen, and ex-Alpine man Matthieu Vaxivière – and not think that AF Corse has a chance here, a real one, to get the LMP2 victory after an underwhelming retirement from last year’s race.
Nielsen’s late-race heroics at Le Mans that won the race for Ferrari established the Dane as an unconventional leading man of the #50 499P last summer, and now he’ll be looked at as a significant front-runner in the LMP2 field as he goes for his first Rolex. Vaxiviere has significant LMP2 experience of his own.
Dylan Murry, who stood in for this team at Indianapolis last year, is the Silver in the AF Corse line-up.
With the rhythm of the race, if AF Corse is even within touching distance of the lead lap, they can go very well when it’s time for Nielsen and Vaxiviere to do their thing behind the wheel. It would be another very welcome addition to a massive trophy case that still isn’t big enough.
AO Racing
- #99: PJ Hyett, Dane Cameron, Jonny Edgar, Christian Rasmussen
AO Racing’s expansion into prototype racing could not have gone much better in 2024. European Le Mans Series champions in a collab with TF Sport. Pole position in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Four straight poles in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
And while Spike the LMP2 Dragon didn’t manage a race win in his first season in IMSA, there’s a very good chance that he will – and it could happen as soon as Daytona based on the line-up that Owner/driver PJ Hyett and Team Principal Gunnar Jeannette have put together.
Start by taking advantage of some very difficult decisions made by Porsche to add reigning Daytona 24H overall winner and IMSA GTP Champion, Dane Cameron, to pair with Hyett for the full season.
Cameron took 15 tries to finally win his first Rolex, and he’ll be determined to begin this new chapter with AO Racing the right way – paired with Hyett, who was a near-instant revelation in his first season of LMP2 racing: Fast beyond his relative (in)experience, and projecting to go even better in 2025 – he was the fastest Bronze during the Roar.
Then, throw in Jonny Edgar – a once-coveted single-seater prospect that has found a real home in sports car racing, and has made himself very comfortable at home. Edgar was a key contributor to AO by TF’s ELMS title campaign and now he’ll get to drive Spike in all five IMSA endurance rounds as the ‘Designated Silver’.
IndyCar sophomore Christian Rasmussen, who shined bright with Era Motorsport last year, will be going for back-to-back Daytona LMP2 victories with his new team. And in terms of fan support, expect AO Racing and Spike to be the runaway favourites here. There wouldn’t be many more well-liked winners in this field!
Click these links to check out DSC’s other previews for GTD and GTD PRO
Images © Andrew Lofthouse
