Drop of numbers in IMSA LMP2

There will be a slight drop in the numbers during the coming rounds of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the LMP2 category.

Tower Motorsport by Starworks has chosen to pull out of the upcoming race at Road America. The team has sent out information, that they most likely will only compete in the three remaining endurance rounds. The reasoning is the COVID-19 situation, with them having mechanics and drivers risking being hit by the 14 days quarantine, when entering and exiting the US. John Farano is the bronze-rated driver in the car, and he’s a Canadian, and a businessman, who doesn’t have time or can afford to be in quarantine too often.

The three endurance rounds are Watkins Glen in September, Petit Le Mans in October, and the 12 hours of Sebring in November. The LMP2 category also runs at the three shorter rounds at Road America, Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca.

Tower Motorsport by Starworks Motorsports #8 Photo Courtesy of IMSA / Jake Galstad

Another team cutting down on the LMP2 running in the USA is DragonSpeed. The team got their second LMP2 car confirmed for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, after only having one car in, and another car on the reserve list. So the car running in the IMSA Championship will have to be prepared, and shipped forth and back to France, and then be re-prepped once it’s back again. So they have chosen only to run next week at Road America, with their only other race in the USA will be Sebring in November, for the 12 hours race.

DragonSpeed has also confirmed that their car #27, which is the newly accepted on the list, will be run by Henrik Hedman, Ben Hanley and Renger van der Zande. Felix Rosenqvist was originally put on the entry list for the Le Mans race in June, but after the date change to September, he now has a conflict regarding his Indycar programme. Hedman, Hanley and van der Zande know each other very well, since they raced the BR1 LMP1 car throughout the 2018/19 FIA WEC season. Their #21 from the European Le Mans Series will be driven by Memo Rojas, Ryan Cullen and Pipo Derani. Rojas and Cullen usually share the car with Hanley in the ELMS, but Derani is not a bad replacement for him.

On the weekends, where both Tower Motorsport by Starworks and DragonSpeed will be absent, there will only be three LMP2 cars competing in the IMSA series, but it is still better than most of 2019, where it was only PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports and Performance Tech Motorsports fighting for the honours.

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