IMSA sun setting on Nissan DPis

The final race for CORE autosport’s Nissan Onroak DPi program is ready to commence at Road Atlanta, and, once the 10-hour Petit Le Mans contest is complete, the cars are not expected to return to IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship grid.

“It’s very unlikely we’ll see the cars continue in IMSA, unfortunately,” CORE COO Morgan Brady told RACER. “But it’s likely they will find a new home elsewhere.”

It’s believed the Ligier-built, twin-turbo V6 NISMO-powered DPis are headed to the growing vintage racing circuit. An increasing number of modern cars from the former American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am Rolex Series, along with a handful from recent WeatherTech Championship activity, have found homes in series like the SVRA, HSR, and the Historic Masters organization.

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With Nissan’s ongoing disinterest in supporting the DPi program with sponsorship or technical resources, and its refusal to pay IMSA’s required sanctioning fee for manufacturers, the DPi category will likely reduce from four auto brands to three, with Acura, Cadillac, and Mazda set to represent the class in 2020.

Although a few new manufacturers are considering DPi entries in 2022 when IMSA’s second-generation regulations come into play, the emergence of a fourth brand to backfill Nissan prior to 2022 would be improbable.