Championship Clinching Scenarios For All Four IMSA Class Leaders - what's it gonna take?

There's just one race left on the 2024 IMSA calendar (BOOOOOOO) - Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. On Wednesday, IMSA released the entry list for PLM and it's exactly what we all expected and wanted - a maximum capacity grid of 54 cars (54 cars!!) split across the four different classes that will duke it out around the 2.54 mile-long course for a blistering 10 hours straight, day-into-night.

There are plenty of teams to put a spotlight on as we chart out who's bringing the goods to the track in an effort to secure a race victory, or more importantly, a championship title. That being said, there are a ton of permutations that come with trying to chart out who needs to finish where by the time the checkered flag ultimately falls, so much so that we'd barely have enough space in the blog to cover them all. Instead, we'll take the easy approach and break down what each of the four class leaders face in terms of controlling their own destiny - where do they need to finish in order to make it impossible for any other team to catch them?

Three out of the four class battles are so tight that you could barely fit an index card through the clenched butt cheeks that some of these teams will have as lap after lap passes next Saturday night. To win a championship you have to have amazing consistency throughout the season and avoid the pitfalls that come with racing around pavement at 160 or 185 MPH going door-to-door against 30, 40 or 50 other cars that are all trying to gain one extra inch and improve their lap time by .004 seconds. Whether it comes in the form of a retirement due to crashing out or from suffering broken mechanical bits anywhere on the car, a whole lot of luck and skill have to come together to put you in position to win a championship.

Without anymore word play, here's the breakdown -

GTP 

Leader: No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport - Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell  

Biggest Threat: No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport - Kévin Estre, Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy

If the No. 7 finishes fourth or better in class, they'll win the GTP Drivers' title ahead of the sister Penske car. Not only that, it would also deliver the first Manufacturers' title to the Porsche 963, as well as the Michelin Endurance Cup title for the German brand. Cadillac Racing pulled off that exact same treble last season in the inaugural year of the reborn GTP class when the No. 31 won both the Drivers' championship and the Endurance Cup and Cadillac clinched the Manufactures' title. Roger Penske's operation have built themselves to the point where they can be prototype champions in both America and the world circuit, an extraordinarily rare feat that has only been accomplished by a handful of teams.

The battle would've been way closer had the No. 6 not been penalized following the Battle on the Bricks for a technical violation that saw their P3 result taken away and replaced with a 10th place class finish. The gap to the 7 car went from 14 points to 124. 

LMP2 

Leader: No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathisen - Nick Boulle, Tom Dillmann, Jakub Smiechowski 

Biggest Threat: No. 74 Riley Motorsports - Josh Burdon, Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson

Everyone's favorite Polish bakery-turned-racing outfit, the Inter Eurpol gang are P1 in the standings yet go into PLM with just a narrow 98-point margin separating themselves and the No. 74 Riley Motorsports crew. A third-place or better result earns Inter Europol the title no matter what else happens on the track. Consistency has been the name of the game for No.52 in 2024 - their worst result of the season was a 7th place finish at Road America, and their P2 finish at the Battle on the Bricks vaulted them into first in the standings with just the one race to go. The team took a huge gamble by jumping into the IMSA circuit after LMP2s were phased out of the World Endurance Championship following last season and these guys have been on an absolute roll - they won Le Mans in 2023 and finished second in the WEC LMP2 standings for the year, and they just barely missed repeating as Le Mans winners back in June when they finished an agonizing 19 seconds behind United Autosports. Now running a full season in IMSA, they're on the verge of winning their first ever LMP2 championship of any kind, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm rooting for them to pull it off. 

Goddamn that's a great picture, who took that?

GTD Pro 

Leader: No. 77 AO Racing - Laurin Heinrich, Michael Christensen, Julien Andlauer

Biggest Threat: No. 23 Heart of Racing - Roman De Angelis, Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas

It's hard to ask for a better effort than what Rexy has put in for his first season in the GTD Pro ranks. Laurin Heinrich has been the consistent driver behind the wheel as he's cycled through a number of different teammates in 2024, yet at the end of the day AO have three class victories to their name and five total podiums, which places them a very slim 99 points above the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. In a stacked Pro field, a third-place or better finish will secure the title for Rex and Co., and just imagine the merch that those guys would cook up for a championship celebration #buybuybuy #sendmoremoney 

Rawwrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

GTD

Leader: No. 52 Winward Racing - Russell Ward, Philip Ellis, Indy Dontje

Biggest Threat: No. 96 Turner Motorsorts - Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher, Jake Walker

Winward have had such a balls-to-the-wall season in 2024 that they've built a massive cushion between themselves and any potential disaster scenario that they could see on the track. To keep Turner Motorsports from crashing the party, WWR have to secure a 14th-place-or-better finish out of a 20-car field to claim the GTD title. That's what winning four races and securing six total podiums will get you these days - a gigantic lead in the standings while going up against a deep and talented field of teams and racers. Similar to how Paul Miller Racing blew away the field last season with five wins and seven total podiums, WWR has the opportunity to match those exact results with another victory at PLM and cap off an amazing season for the Houston-based outfit. 

So there you have it - the most straight-forward scenarios that each of these four teams face as they prepare for the madness that is the 10 hours of Petit Le Mans. Who do you have winning things when all is said and done? Comment below. 

(photo credit - racer.com)