IMSA: BAR1 looks ahead as PC decision time nears

Brian Alder's BAR 1 Motorsports PC team started off the season with a fine third at Daytona, but that January podium is beginning to feel like ancient history. The Ohio-based outfit has survived a rough season of WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition since Round 1 and to its relief, last weekend's race at Lime Rock finally put an end to a string of poor results.

Alder is now looking to build off that momentum with the return of a second BAR1 PC entry later in the year, and with the team fully committed to IMSA's Pro-Am prototype class, staying with two cars for in 2017 during PC's swansong is also in the works.

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"We're hopefully bringing back the second car for the final two races," Alder told RACER. "It isn't confirmed, but that's what we're working towards. We're going to stay with PC next year, looking to have two cars full time, and possibly something else, depending on what the series announces."

The "something else" is believed to be LMP3. IMSA is expected to announce its plans for the intro-level prototype during its stakeholders meeting at the Road America race weekend on Aug. 4-7 and, with BAR1's history in the IMSA Lites prototype training series, the addition of a LMP3 car to its stable would not be a surprise.

BAR1, like every PC team, will have a decision to make on where it will race after IMSA shutters the PC class at the end of 2017. Some are expected to move up to the WeatherTech Championship's top-tier Prototype category, while others are expected to continue in whatever IMSA series and car model the series picks to replace PC.

"I think everybody has known for a long time that the PC lifespan is going to be over at the end of '17, so we may not know what car is going to replace it; but I don't think the costs or the change it will catch anybody by surprise," Alder said.

"And the series has been good at sticking with something new for four or five years so it helps amortize the costs and keeps the running costs reasonable. You might have more expense the first year with the new equipment and spares, but you can plan for it, and hopefully it's in the similar price range. It's important for the series to have a Pro-Am class that's stable and takes care of the teams that always come back – the privateers are the ones they can always count on."

With Alder waiting to learn where IMSA will take its Pro-Am prototypes in the future, his immediate focus is on earning BAR1's first PC win of 2016 with the season finale closing in.

"We feel like we have something good going in the second half of the season with Matt McMurry and Johnny Mowlem," he said. "We've had a crash or an off weekend and have just been trying to recover and regroup. We're hoping the last races of the year will be good for us and our crew has been pushing really hard to get another win. We still have a couple more races to get it done."