But we’ll have to wait a further 72 Hours to find
out whose this year’s winner…
Without further Adu, here’s the other three
IMSA GTP Class entrants in alphabetical order, Enjoy!
ACURA
Acura
ARX-06
Engine:
2.4-litre V-6 Twin Turbo
Team:
Meyer Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian
#60
Tom Blomqvist, Colin Brown, Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist
#93
Renger van der Zande, Nick Yelloly, Alex Palou and Kakunoshin Ohta
After a one year hiatus, Meyer Shank Racing
returns as the sole Acura GTP Factory entry, taking over the two previous Wayne
Taylor Racing with Andretti entries.
As the “lead” MSR entry sees the “Band” getting
back together with Tom “The Bomb” Blomqvist and Colin Brown reuniting.
Hopefully bringing them another IMSA GTP Championship title and Rolex 24 win,
with a little Help from some Friends.
Blomqvist and Brown were the 2023 IMSA GTP
Prototypes champions, along with winning that year’s Rolex 24 for Acura.
The “second” No. 93 entry features Renger van
der Zande and Nick Yelloly for the full season. Ad van der Zande slides over
from Cadillac, and Yelloly from BMW. And will attack the Daytona High Banks
with assistance from one of Cheeps’ IndyCar champions! Along with the totally
unknown Kakunoshin Ohta. As Ohta, who competes in Super GT and Super formula,
will race for MSR at the Daytona, Watkins Glen and Indianapolis rounds.
Arse-sumedly Ohta’s Japanese championships
conflict with some of the IMSA endurance rounds? But its nice knowing that at
least one GTP entry will be running three drivers at Mother Speedway. Where
IMSA could truly elevate the Battle on The Bricks six hours race by mandating
three drivers. Which hopefully would lead to IndyCar drivers competing, since
their done for the year before Labour Day, Spew!
BMW
BMW M Hybrid V-8
Engine:
4.0-litre V-8 Twin Turbo
Team: BMW M Team RLL
#24 Philipp Eng, Dries Vanthoor, Kevin
Magnussen and Raffale Marciello
#25 Sheldon van der Linde, Marco Whittmann,
Robin Frijns and Rene Rast
While the BMW team lineups are almost all new.
As Phillip Eng is the only full season holdover from last year. Along with
DriesVanthoor getting a fulltime nod after just contesting last year’s Rolex 24
for BMW. For Mwah, the big news is the signing of Kevin Bacon’ Magnussen. As
the ex-Haas Formula 1 driver is now finished in F1, and this is a great signing
for BMW.
As BMW will rotate its drivers between IMSA GTP
and “Weckity Wec” (World Endurance Championship) competition this year.
CADILLAC
Cadillac V-Series.R
Engine:
5.5-litre normally aspirated V-8
Team: Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing
#10 Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, Will
Stevens and Brendon Hartley
#40 Jordan Taylor, Louis Deletraz and Kamui Kobayashi
Although part of the Andretti Global ownership
restructuring. Wayne Taylor has a long, successful relationship with
Cadd-Oh-lac’. Having won multiple Rolex 24 and IMSA SportsCar Championship
titles with them, this switch from Chip Ganassi Racing really shouldn’t have
been a surprise to anybody.
The driver lineups remain largely intact from
last year’s Acura WTR with Andretti concern. While it's nice seeing K-Squared’,
aka Kamui Kobayashi’s return. Who’ll be in search of His third Rolex wristwatch
with WTR, whilst Hartley’s no slouch either…
Note
WTR announced on the
Roar’s first day that Alex Lynn would not compete in this year’s Rolex 24 due
to illness. And that the #40 would instead just race with its three remaining
drivers.
Team: Cadillac Whelen Action Express Racing
#31 Earl Bamber, Jack Aitken, Frederik Vesti
and Felipe Drugovich
This is the team with the longest name on the
grid now, Chuh-Ching! As Earl Bamber will be pulling “Double Duty”, i.e.; IMSA
and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) also for Cadillac Hertz Team
Jota. Where Alex Lynn and Will Stevens also race.
With Bamber joining Jack “Achey Breaky” Aitken
fulltime in IMSA, where Aitken seems to have settled in as a Sports car racer.
Along with Frederik Vesti running the endurance rounds. Plus the addition of
Aston Martin F1 reserve driver Felipe Drugovich joining at Daytona.
After all, what’s Drugovich gonna due since He’s not been able to land a Formula 1 seat since winning the 2022 Formula 2 title. And waiting for Lance Stroll or Frederico Suave, aka Fernando Alonso to leave Aston Martin seems like a tall order…
