IMSA GTP privateer JDC-Miller MotorSports is still pushing to get its second Porsche 963 chassis out racing in the future, with team owner John Church hoping that the team’s form this year will attract new customers that enable the expansion.
Ahead of its de facto home race this weekend, the team from Minnesota finds itself with a title battle to focus on. Its star driver, Laurin Heinrich, who has combined drives with Porsche Penske Motorsport and JDC throughout this year, is second in the Drivers’ standings and can gain significant ground on Jack Aitken on Sunday with a strong result.
The addition of Heinrich to the team’s driver pool may in the end prove key to JDC expanding its GTP effort. The German has showcased the outfit’s competitiveness against the factory teams in the class, with drives that helped the team achieve a famous victory at Laguna Seca and finish third at Watkins Glen.
“It’s always a possibility,” Church said when asked by DSC about prospects of scaling up to a two-car effort next season. “We’d love to do that. It would be such a bonus to run the second car, have some more test days, more data to compare. It would be huge.
“It’s down to finding customers. It’s definitely a challenge, but I’m hoping that what we’ve been able to accomplish this year proves to people that we can run competitively against the factory teams and drivers. I’m hoping that will bring customers along that will be able to help that second car get out and run.
“That (results like the team’s win at Laguna) gets the phone ringing. The positivity of everything has helped. Getting results is what I take satisfaction from, and the whole team can. We’re not embarrassing ourselves, we’re competitive, and it’s been a great programme.”
Another factor in the team’s strong campaign, Church says, was IMSA’s willingness to tweak the rulebook to allow it to run a 2025-spec 963 with a separate Balance of Performance to the factory Penske cars, which were updated for 2026.
“It’s worked out exactly how I’d hoped,” Church said when asked about the benefits of running last year’s car. “To be able to continue to develop a car that we don’t have the test miles or time with to get everything out of it. We’re still learning every day, so it’s been a huge win to be able to continue on the same platform and run a similar car week in, week out.
“There’s still a lot of people that are concerned about costs, budgets and things like that,” he continued. “But I feel like that’s turning around a bit; we’re seeing manufacturers backing away from spending money, worried about costs, budgets, testing, things like that. That definitely helps to prove that there needs to be some pullback.
“The GTP field needs another customer car, or more, because at some point the manufacturers are going to all go away and there’s not going to be many left again.”
The team hopes to continue utilising the 2025 package again in 2027, in part due to the costs associated with upgrading, but Church admits that no decision has been made yet on whether it will be possible.
“I’d prefer not to,” he added. “But if we had to, sure, we’d probably look at that.”
Image © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
