DAYTONA PROTOTYPES’ LAST RIDE
unning the numbers on the first two
seasons of Daytona Prototype and P2
co-mingling in IMSA’s Weather Tech
SportsCar Championship reveals a
glaring imbalance. In 21 races, from the
2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona to 2015’s
season-closing Petit Le Mans, DPs
claimed 19 wins – a 90 percent strike
rate – while P2s accounted for just
two victories, both earned in 2014.
The reason for the skewed figures is
due as much to the quantity and quality
of the DPs in the field as it is the lack of
concerted, championship-caliber P2s to
create an equal fight. But change is in the
air for 2016 – a year that marks the final
season for the DP formula – and
numerical balance has finally been
established, with a near-equal blend of
DPs and P2s vying for the Prototype title.
DP’s imminent farewell should help
make for a thrilling Weather Tech
Championship season, but will these
venerable tubeframe Grand-Am cars ride
into the sunset with a third consecutive
Prototype title in hand, or will they be
chased out of town by the ascendent P2s?
Surveying the recent P2 landscape,
Michael Shank Racing’s stature as the
lone P2 entry capable of holding its own
against an armada of Corvette DPs is a
distant memory. Mazda’s switch from
4-cylinder turbodiesels to gasoline-fueled,
turbocharged 4-bangers has transformed
IMSA’s premier class, and with the left-field
feistiness of the Delta Wing DWC13 turbo
in the mix, too, Corvette’s rumbling
small-block V8 contingent is no longer
the automatic championship favorite.
In terms of full-season overall numbers,
R
The future of IMSA’s top
class is P2 shaped. That
means the ultra-successful
Daytona Prototypes get one
final chance to shine in 2016.
WORDS Marshall Pruett
MAIN IMAGE Michael Levitt/LAT
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