Racer - Spring 2016

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.