54-car IMSA field set for Road America

IMSA has published the provisional entry list for next week’s Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America, featuring a near-capacity 54-car grid.

GTP returns to action for the first time since the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, where Cadillac Whelen and the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R took its second win of the season. The winning trio of Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti, and GTP championship leader Jack Aitken will be back in action aboard the No. 31 Cadillac.

Aitken leads the drivers’ standings by 203 points over Laurin Heinrich, who’s back aboard the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 along with Tijmen van der Helm and Kaylen Frederick. The No. 31 Cadillac Whelen team also leads the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 (Renger van der Zande/Nick Yelloly) by 245 points.

Last year, BMW won the two-hour, 40-minute sprint race at Road America, and heading into this year’s six-hour endurance race at the same venue, BMW M Team WRT and the revamped BMW M Hybrid V8s are still in search of their first IMSA GTP victories.

LMP2 is set to feature a 12-car field supplemented by the return of Era Motorsport’s No. 18 ORECA-07 Gibson (Naveen Rao/Ferdinand Habsburg/Jacob Abel). Intersport Racing is also expected to return after a late scratch from the last round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with Jon Field and Oliver Jarvis in tow, as is the No. 79 JDC-Miller MotorSports ORECA LMP2 (Gerry Kraut/Sennan Fielding/Josh Burdon) which makes its regular appearance at Road America.

Following CTMP, Inter Europol Competition, Jeremy Clarke, and Tom Dillmann now trail championship leaders CrowdStrike Racing by APR, George Kurtz, and Alex Quinn by 70 points.

In GTD Pro, a 12-car entry is bolstered by Endurance Cup regulars Manthey with its Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Klaus Bachler and Thomas Preining,along with the two Ferrari 296 GT3 Evos of Triarsi Competizione (James Calado/Riccardo Agostini) and Risi Competizione (Daniel Serra/Davide Rigon). They’re all aiming to stop the current summer hot streak from Vasser Sullivan Racing, after Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat won the last two races at Watkins Glen and CTMP.

Paul Miller Racing drivers Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen took a big swing towards the GTD Pro title last time out at CTMP, where they now lead by 108 points. Verhagen and Paul Miller Racing won last year’s race at Road America as well.

And in the 19-car GTD field, Manthey 1st Phorm’s No. 912 Porsche returns for the first time since Ryan Hardwick, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz won at Watkins Glen. Morris Schuring will be back behind the wheel of the No. 912 car in place of Lietz.

Meanwhile, Car Blanche’s No. 068 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo bounces back to the nominally Pro/Am GT category, where Valentin Hasse-Clot, Marius Fossard, and Trenton Estep join other regular Endurance Cup competitors Lone Star Racing, RS1, AF Corse USA, and last year’s class winner, the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari.

Other driver changes of note include Alec Udell joining DragonSpeed, sharing the No. 81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R with Giacomo Altoè and Casper Stevenson. Gradient Racing has not yet announced a third driver to join Jake Walker and Till Bechtolsheimer, following Joey Hand’s recent injury which kept him out of Watkins Glen.

A solid recovery drive at CTMP for Heart of Racing Team has kept it and lead driver Eduardo Barrichello in the championship lead by 92 points over Vasser Sullivan Racing’s Benjamin Pedersen and Aaron Telitz.