DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — In the exciting multi-class racing world of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class can sometimes get lost in the shuffle.
At most races, the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) classes often gather the lion’s share of attention, whether for the exotic hybrid technology in GTP or the direct factory support enjoyed by the production-based GTD PRO cars.
Yet when LMP2 is selected as the top class for a race, as was the case at the recent Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the drivers and teams put on a headline-worthy show.
The two-hour, 40-minute race featured eight lead changes among five different teams and a margin of victory of just 0.658 seconds. The win for drivers Tom Dillmann and Nick Boulle in the No. 52 ORECA LMP2 07 was the first for Inter Europol in its association with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, and the first for the PR1 Mathiasen group in just under a year.
LMP2 may not always make the headlines, but it’s also arguably IMSA’s best-kept secret. Eight out of 18 LMP2 races staged in the WeatherTech Championship over the last three seasons of racing were decided by less than a second. In 2023, the four races that made up the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup (Rolex 24 At Daytona, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and Motul Petit Le Mans) featured a combined margin of victory of 2.171 seconds. That’s after 52 hours of competition.
IMSA uses its Balance of Performance (BoP) process to ensure parity between participants in the GTP, GTD PRO and GT Daytona (GTD) classes due to the wide variety of cars entered by participating manufacturers. LMP2, on the other hand, uses a standardized 4.2-liter Gibson V-8 for every competitor that produces about 500 horsepower. While several chassis are homologated for use, all LMP2 entries in the WeatherTech Championship this season are running the dominant ORECA except for a lone Ligier.
“It’s a heck of a class, and I think it’s neat that IMSA created a race where the LMP2s can go for the overall win and the spotlight,” said Colin Braun, who has competed in almost every class of racing that IMSA has to offer, including GTP. Three of Braun’s 25 IMSA race victories have come in LMP2, and he has also achieved an LMP2 class win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“With the fact that we’re with all the same cars, there’s no BoP to talk about, there’s no different performance levels, it’s just about how good each team executes and how good the drivers and engineers can come up with a setup that is fast,” he said. “It makes for pretty intense racing, for sure.”
Big-Name Drivers Continue Taking Their Turns in LMP2
Like Braun, who is competing in LMP2 full-time this year teamed with George Kurtz in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA, several other sports car stars raced in the category on their way up the sports car ladder. Some still do. The LMP2 field at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park included four regulars from the GTP class: Filipe Albuquerque, Louis Deletraz, Pipo Derani and Renger van der Zande. Of the 19 full-time drivers in GTP this season, only five have never participated in LMP2.
LMP2 in the WeatherTech Championship has also attracted a series of well-known guest drivers for Michelin Endurance Cup races over the years, including Formula 1 drivers Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Paul di Resta and Lando Norris. About half the IndyCar Series is generally represented in LMP2 at the Rolex 24, including in recent years the likes of two-time Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden, Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward and Scott McLaughlin.
LMP2 features the closest championship battle in the WeatherTech Championship this season, with Gar Robinson and Felipe Fraga (No. 74 Riley ORECA) leading No. 52 Interpol/PR1 Mathiasen drivers Dillman and Boulle by just 12 points.
Ryan Dalziel and the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA are 135 points back of the leaders in third.
“It’s always had the ingredients of a great class,” Dalziel said. “It’s huge in Europe and the FIA WEC, so it’s nice to see IMSA and the U.S. racing scene embracing it, because it’s such a good car.”
LMP2 is achieving unparalleled popularity this season, with the class swelling to 12 full-time entries and the competition fierce.
“It’s gotten tougher,” Dalziel admitted. “With a spec car, spec engine, spec gearbox, there’s obviously only so many things you can tune on it. The European teams coming over has made it increasingly tighter. There were multiple races last year where you looked at the results at the end and the fastest laps between the top five cars were within a couple of tenths.”
The ultimate capability of an LMP2 was shown in 2018 when Braun and Jon Bennett drove to WeatherTech Championship outright wins at CTMP and Road America competing in the Prototype class against Daytona Prototype international (DPi) entrants. Since then, class specifications have been slightly modified to create a greater performance gap between LMP2 and GTP. But the bottom line is that an LMP2 car is still an incredibly capable racing car.
“It’s a tricky car to get right, but it’s a very easy car to get wrong,” Dalziel said. “It’s very sensitive. When you get it wrong, it’s a bit of a handful. Other than probably the Acura ARX-03B (Prototype) from the Patron days, I think it’s the best car I’ve ever driven.”