IMSA DPi teams will anxiously have to wait another year and a half before they can race for “the big prize” in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, many other American teams in the slower classes are boning up on their French-speaking skills now before the fabled race.
The 89th running of the Sarthe Circuit classic was pushed back to Aug. 21-22 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Cameron Glickenhaus team is Hypercar’s sole American entry. The obscure California team will be running a year-old Toyota prototype. James Glickenhaus is a wealthy film producer, West Coast car guy and constructor.
LMP2 is a very different situation at Le Mans. Three teams — PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, DragonSpeed and United Autosports — are heading across the pond this month.
PR1 earned an invitation by virtue of its 2020 IMSA championship and United Autosports and DragonSpeed did likewise with their World Endurance Cup wins. They are up against 22 other LMP2 teams for all 24 rounds of the fight.
LMP2 is IMSA’s red-headed stepchild with few entries, but that’s not the case in Europe.
“LMP1 and 2 are in the same basic class in Europe,” said United Autosports head man Zak Brown. “LMP2 is its own class and it costs about the same to run as DPi, so in America you can go for the overall win and it costs the same as the second (prototype class). When we came to Daytona three to four years ago, the LMP2 class was not at the same pace as the DPi so it became a second class.”
Brown is an American success story. He launched his career with his Indianapolis company, Just Marketing, when he picked up the public relations program for Rachel’s Potato Chips, which sponsored Eddie Cheever when he won the Indianapolis 500 in 1998.
He moved from potato chips to pâté foie gras when got the nod to run the McLaren Formula 1 program and United Autosports, which fields cars in many classes, mostly in Europe.
While the Toyota prototypes fight a five-car contest to defend their Le Mans victory, 25 cars will slug it out in LMP2. Brown says it’s the class to watch.
“The grids have a great lineup, great teams. I think LMP2 is the most competitive class at Le Mans so I think it will be very difficult to win, but I think we have as good a chance as anyone,” Brown said. “Certainly, LMP2 is the most competitive class and the biggest field. LMP2 will be the star of the show as far as I am concerned.”
United Autosports will field one American team and two European teams.
PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports is small by comparison. What it lacks in size, it more than makes up for it in downright moxie. Team owner Bobby Oergel is pumped.
“It’s my first trip to Le Mans,” Oergel said. “It will be a great way to introduce ourselves to what we don’t know. We aren’t shipping one of our cars, we are renting an ELMS car. Everything is pretty big (expensive) getting over there. In the end, it’s an experience available to us after winning the P2 (LMP2) last year and winning the Truman/Aiken award we’re happy to be able to take part.”
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