United Autosports has announced their first two drivers for their upcoming IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship programme in 2024.
It’s none other than Ben Keating and Alex Quinn, who switches over from PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports.
Keating and Quinn started working together at PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports in 2023, after his teammates from the two previous seasons, Scott Huffaker and Mikkel Jensen, were snatched by TDS Racing.
United Autosports announced an LMP2 programme for the IMSA series, since the category will disappear from the FIA World Endurance Championship following the conclusion of the 2023 season. So the British-American team was on the search for new places to go playing, along with their other programmes in the Asian Le Mans Series and European Le Mans Series.
UA has been at the very front of all the categories that they have been a part of, since they made their LMP debut in 2016. They instantly won the LMP3 Championship in the ELMS, expanding to run LMP2 cars. They made their IMSA LMP2 debut at the Daytona 24 Hours, with none other than Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris as part of the team. But this was the very first race with Phil Hanson as part of the team. He has been a fixed part of the team in LMP2 every since – including their expansion into FIA WEC in 2019, where they clinched the title in the very first go.
Photo: United Autosports
The team is also looking at a Hypercar/GTP programme, but has not been selected by any of the big car manufactureres so far. But they still have an aim to compete in the big class – once they find a programme that they are happy with. So they have decided to play the waiting game, while running in IMSA.
Keating and Quinn will be sharing one of the team’s two cars for the full season, while the extra driver(s) for the endurance rounds haven’t been named yet. Nor has any names for the second car been revealed.
Both cars are subject to selection by IMSA, which is expected to be over subscribed for 2024. But with a name like Keating, who is probably the best Bronze driver in the world at the moment, it will be super difficuelt for IMSA to say no.
Oh, by the way – Keating has already secured the GTE Am title in the FIA WEC for the second year in a row, just like winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both 2022 and 2023. The 2022 victories came with TF Sport and their Aston Martin alongside Henrique Chaves and Marco Sørensen. This season is with Corvette Racing, two races before the season even has ended, with Nicky Catsburg and Nicolas Varrone being his teammates this year. And he is currently leading IMSA LMP2 as well.
