By alley - Aug 7, 2016, 3:07 PM ET

IMSA: JDC-Miller Motorsports buys first PC1 chassis

Minnesota's JDC-Miller Motorsports and customer Gerry Kraut became the first party to purchase a new LMP3 chassis to use in next year's IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda.

Kraut purchased an Onroak-built Ligier JS P3 Sunday morning at Road America and posed with Onroak's Ethan Bregman (pictured above, left) and Pierre Nicolet (middle) as fans looked over one of the brand's models in the IMSA paddock.

"I knew Gerry would jump on it," Church told RACER. "He's been waiting for the right announcement and he's happy with the sprint race format."

Kraut, who is racing in IMSA's Lamborghini Super Trofeo series this weekend, will have his new JS P3 to sample starting in October.

"They gave us a delivery date of Oct. 7," Church continued. "[IMSA] is still figuring out a few things; I know the tire contract for the series is out for tender, and we are waiting to hear who'll do the engine rebuilds, but Gerry said he wasn't worried about all that and wanted to get a car coming out way now."

"When you make the announcement it's a little bit of a nervous time because you don't know who's going to stand up and salute it, and the fact that roughly 36 hours after the first announcement a car has been sold officially – there's others in the process as well – it's early validation," Atherton told RACER. "If we're using a sample of one as a key indicator, it puts smiles on all of our faces and we're really proud to hear that news."

The 13-round IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda will launch in March during the 12 Hours of Sebring event. Nine rounds will be run at IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events, and the standard format for the series will give drivers a pair of 45-minutes races per weekend.

Along with the Ligier JS P3 (below), all other P3 models will be welcome in the PC1 class, and all will use the familiar, albeit un-badged Nissan V8 engine that is found in all of the P3 cars racing in Europe.