Well DSC readers, it’s 2024. Happy New Year to you all! There’s a huge amount to look forward to over the coming 12 months, but before we get stuck in, now feels like a good time to reflect on 2023 one last time.
2023 really was a special year for sportscar racing, with historic wins, epic battles, valiant team efforts and controversy aplenty. Looking back at some of the major moments from the year, it’s genuinely hard to whittle down the list to a manageable size.
The year began with the start of a new era for IMSA’s top class, with the LMDh machinery in the new GTP category generating a huge amount of interest in the Rolex 24 Hours. The race was fascinating, a real test for the four manufacturers involved, with limited testing and spares adding to the storylines.
Unfortunately, though, the real story would emerge after the race, when Meyer Shank Racing was caught cheating. The tyre pressure infraction and subsequent punishment from IMSA proved to be the main talking point, a true shame. To make matters worse, it ultimately cost MSR its 2024 programme, as Wayne Taylor Racing has scaled up to a two-car Acura effort for next season and will use Shank’s 2023 ARX-06.
Attention then shifted to Bathurst for the 12 Hour in February, a race still very much on the upward recovery curve from COVID. While the entry still didn’t feature as many international teams and drivers as in years past, the race was a stunner. SunEnergy 1’s triumph was a real reminder that the 12 Hour remains a special race.
Heading into March, after the rapid-fire Asian Le Mans Series season, all eyes were on ‘Super Sebring’, which would turn out to be the last IMSA-FIA WEC double-header at the famous Floridian airfield circuit for the foreseeable future. It was a superb event, with two memorable races. Ferrari set pole in the WEC race, a head-turning achievement with its new 499P, before Toyota went on to win the 1000-mile contest.
In the 12 Hours, it would be Cadillac that would emerge triumphant, after a multi-car pile-up at the end of the race which wiped out a large chunk of the GTP field, including the two cars battling for the lead. Action Express didn’t care though, and used the victory as the foundation for a title run.
Attention then shifted to Europe for the start of the ELMS and World Challenge Europe seasons, before the first headline 24-hour race on the continent, the Nürburgring 24 Hours, which produced the first of two major wins for Ferrari this year. Frikadelli Racing steered the 296 GT3 to its first major honour in the event, breaking the streak of German OEM victories that dates back to the turn of the century.
The Le Mans 24 Hours was up next, but not before DSC headed to Aragon for a Goodyear LMGT3 tyre test and got a first glimpse of GT3 cars running on 2024 development rubber.
Then came Le Mans proper and there were so many storylines, as expected, that emerged from race week. Clearly, the re-introduction of tyre warmers was one of them, after incidents at the 6 Hours of Spa prompted a response from the organisers.
The race itself, and the sheer quality of the contest, thankfully, was another thing altogether. It was a true dogfight in Hypercar, and even Peugeot found form. But it would be Ferrari that would break Toyota’s win streak in fine style. That is a story that truly went around the world. The centenary Le Mans really did get the race it deserved.
Elsewhere in the race, the Garage 56 effort from NASCAR and IMSA grabbed plenty of headlines too, despite the car competing outside of the regular categories. DSC really did enjoy tracking its progress and hearing it rumble past the media room every three and a half minutes!
Oh, and the small matter of Valentino Rossi winning in the Road To Le Mans support races generated plenty of traffic too. Will that victory prove to be the first of many for the MotoGP legend in ACO rules racing? We sure hope so!
In the fallout of the race, DSC then began to hear that Aston Martin’s cancelled Valkyrie programme was being revived. This was a truly surprising development and one that many simply didn’t believe could be true. But it was, and later in the year Aston Martin formally revealed its plan and confirmed that Heart of Racing was involved in the project.
Then came July, which featured the Spa 24 Hours, a race that continues to grow in stature year on year. The GT teams involved are taking this one more seriously than ever before, and it’s something DSC loves to see. The race win went to ROWE and its lead BMW M4 GT3, a fine performance from the German team.
But perhaps on this occasion, it was the Friday press conference that provided the most intrigue, with plenty of news including the addition of the Nürburgring 24 Hours to the Intercontinental GT Challenge calendar and a Saudi Arabian finale to the 2024 GT World Challenge Europe season.
During Spa 24 Hours week, the DSC news editor spent much of his time in the Sainteloc garage, getting a first-hand look at life during a 24-hour race with a factory-supported GT team. The result? A two-part feature special!
July also saw the FIA WEC head to Monza for its first race post-Le Mans. Toyota got its own back on Sunday, a race that effectively served as Ferrari’s homecoming party with the Tifosi after its Le Mans triumph.
That weekend also featured two pleasant surprises: Isotta Fraschini was on hand to demonstrate its Tipo 6 LMH Competizione and Tipo 6 Pista on track, and Peugeot gave DSC its first indication that the 9X8 was going to undergo significant development work for 2024.
With the summer well and truly underway the ELMS’ visit to Aragon became the focus for DSC’s travelling crew. And it was hot. Too hot. It quickly became a miserable experience for anyone trackside during the middle of the day, and anyone who didn’t have functioning air conditioning in their hotel rooms. The racing was spectacular though, the sun setting over the Spanish circuit late in the four-hour race was one of the most memorable sequences of the entire season. Into the night ELMS races? Great idea! August ELMS races in Spain? Eh.
Towards the end of the season, the game of musical chairs for spaces on the 2024 FIA WEC LMGT3 entry list began to really heat up, with tyre testing well underway and partnerships between brands and elite teams forming. With just 18 spaces and two cars per manufacturer, there were always going to be teams and OEMs left on the outside looking in come Qatar in March. That was not a surprise.
What was a surprise, was how far one unsuccessful manufacturer pushed for entries: Audi. 2023 was a difficult year for everyone at Audi Sport Customer Racing, which is being scaled back as an operation from 2024 and beyond. DSC’s view was that Audi was always going to struggle to make the cut, with an ageing car and uncertainty surrounding its future in endurance racing. Nevertheless, it supported Sainteloc’s bid for LMGT3 right to the final Goodyear endurance test before the entry reveal.
In the end, after Toyota won the Hypercar title in Bahrain and the Iron Dames claimed a spectacular victory in the final ever GTE race, the WEC entry was finally revealed. It featured 37 cars in two classes, with Audi, Vanwall and Mercedes all missing out. Vector Sport did too. The day of the entry list announcement kicked off with a statement from the British LMP2 team expressing disappointment that Isotta Fraschini had cut ties with them ahead of the 2024 season – the effort instead to be handled by Duqueine.
Following the entry list news, the vacant driver seats began to fill, and fast. There were plenty of high-profile announcements, including Raffaele Marciello joining BMW, Mick Schumacher landing at Alpine and Kelvin van der Linde getting a surprise call-up from Lexus. 2024 is shaping up to be a special year for the FIA WEC, that’s for sure.
IMSA’s looking strong too, with John Doonan and his team pushing extra hard to put together the 2024 full-season entry and Rolex 24 entry together earlier than previous years. The WeatherTech grid for 2024 oozes quality, and that’s a testament to the job of the organisers and the success of the current rulesets and class structure. It looks set to build on the spectacular 2023 season, that ended with a frantic Petit Le Mans that saw Action Express crowned the GTP champion.
Just a few key races remained as we reached December, with the Asian Le Mans Series returning to Malaysia for two entertaining contests and the Gulf 12 Hours rounding off the IGTC season. The IMSA December test at Daytona also took place, with the Lamborghini SC63 getting its first rollout in North America.
But perhaps the most significant track action occurred behind closed doors with a French manufacturer. It wasn’t Alpine, which completed some vital endurance testing with its A424 towards the end of the year, instead it was Peugeot, which began running its modified 9X8, featuring a rear wing. Spy footage was leaked over Christmas and Peugeot confirmed it was all real. We look forward to seeing the official pictures of the car’s new aero concept in the coming days.
So there you have it, 2023 had it all in the world of sportscar and GT racing.
Thanks to all of you who followed DSC throughout the year, we hope you’ll stick around and join us for the next ride.
