In RACER Magazine: Lines Redrawn

The 2016 GT Le Mans class season was one for the ages, but all signs point to 2017 pushing the bar even higher as the factory fleets regroup, reset and come out fighting.

Last year's GT Le Mans class season began at Daytona with the closest finish in class history and closed with a thriller under a starry Georgia night.

An incomprehensibly small margin of only 0.034sec separated the pair of factory Corvette C7.Rs at the finish line after 24 hours of racing in the Floridian season-opener, and the drama only continued to build after that. Corvette Racing's twin-hammer attack added another four victories over the span of the 11-race GTLM season But with Ford's new GT taking three wins, Porsche's venerable, rearengine 911 RSR toughing it out for two, and the freshly turbocharged Ferrari 488 winning that thrilling Road Atlanta finale, picking a favorite from the factory fleets on a given weekend was often impossible.

A classic IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class season by any measure, surely 2016 is going to be one very tough act to follow?

And then...Porsche only went and built the first-ever mid-engine 911 RSR to kick off its rebound tour for 2017.

And Corvette continued honing its championship-winning cars into the sharpest blunt-force instruments possible.

And Ford, with its 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning GTs – still sporting their new-car smells – somehow unleashed more speed to threaten its rivals.

And Ferrari's 488, always a contender, found even more poise while unlocking new potential.

Oh, And BMW's M6, already on the verge of sentient intelligence, was pushed closer to electronic enlightenment in pursuit of victory.

Better, faster, smarter, closer: GTLM and its five factory programs should author its second consecutive masterpiece.

"I totally agree!" says an ebullient Oliver Gavin, who will fight to retain the GTLM crown he shares with Corvette Racing teammate Tommy Milner. "Every team, every driver and every team member are working to make themselves better and to refine their approach to every last detail. That just creates more intense racing. You live and learn from each experience. So, yes, I think the racing can get even more intense."

Of the five GTLM models raced last year, three were completely new. For 2017, only Porsche is starting from scratch. It means that, barring one marque, the learning curves will be less steep – and with so little separating a C7.R from an M6, the margins have become darn near infinitesimal after a busy off-season of testing and development.

"This is the second year for Ford, and some of the other teams are coming on to their second year with their cars, too, so they're getting faster and stronger," says Gavin. "Bottom line, it's going to be even tougher to win. Whatever car you have, you have to keep learning and focusing with eyes forward. This is not a championship where you can rest on your laurels."

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