The IMSA SportsCar Championship 2024
The IMSA SportsCar Championship is a sports car racing series based in the US
and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The series
concluded on October 13th, with Porsche Penske Racing closing out the top two positions
on the leader board with their Porsche 963 hypercars. A massive result for Porsche and
Penske.
The final round “Petit Le Mans” was held at the Road Atlanta circuit in Georgia, and gave us
a thrilling end to the season. The No. 6 Porsche 963 piloted by Nick Tandy, Kevin Estre and
Mathieu Jaminet was only 14 points behind from the No. 7 car at the start of the race,
leaving everything to play for. Tandy’s No. 6 car was leading with only fifteen minutes of the
10-hour race to go and was frustratingly pipped by the No. 1 Cadillac into Turn One to
snatch the lead.
You may have seen the photos online of the yellow Cadillac, its headlights started to
malfunction and after the car took the lead, it was debatable whether the car should have to
pit or carry on. The Cadillac stayed out, narrowly avoiding an enforced pit stop to take the
win. The No. 7 car came in third with enough points to clinch the drivers the championship.
Drama right to the end!
In only the cars second season of racing, to have won the ALMS series is a serious
accolade.
In fact, here are some impressive race stats for the 963:
- 10 race wins from 30 race starts.
- 27 podiums from 30 race starts.
- Winner and runner up of ALMS race series 2024
- 3 rd in 2023 World Endurance Championship Series (WEC) in its first race season!
- WEC 2024 Hypercar Champions.
Car facts:
- 1030kg weight
- 4.6 V8 twin turbo with 671 BHP + 67bhp supplied from electric motor on demand
- 8” longer and wider than a 718 GT4 but 9 inches lower and 420kg lighter.
- 380mm front and 365mm rear brake discs (smaller than a GT4 with PCCBs!)
- Designed by Porsche and built by Multimatic in Ontario
- $2,900,000 purchase price
- 2024 Lap time around Spa: 2 min 04s
- 2024 F1 car lap time around Spa: 1 min 53s
The coverage can be seen on the IMSA app again for the 2025 season. We will be cheering
Nick on again and hoping for the championship win!
Congratulations to everyone in the team for a really hard-fought seasons racing. It was lovely to see Nick sporting the ‘RPM Technik’ logo on both his helmet and race suit. A really proud moment for all of us in Tring supporting a guy from Bedford racing on the world stage.
