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[h=2]IMSA courting LMP2 entries with '36 Hours of Florida' promotion[/h] Monday, 03 July 2017


By Marshall Pruett / Image by Rainier Ehrhardt/LAT

IMSA is hoping to draw entries from the massive 25-car LMP2 field seen in June's 24 Hours of Le Mans when the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season kicks off at Daytona and Sebring in 2018.
Through a new "36 Hours of Florida" promotion it presented to World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series P2 teams last month in France, IMSA is courting WEC-spec P2 entrants (pictured) to partake in January's Rolex 24 at Daytona and March's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring before their WEC and ELMS seasons get under way.
In an expanded Trueman Pro-Am Endurance Team Award program designed for all interested WEC P2 competitors, a new and separate podium for the top three WEC P2 finishers at Daytona and Sebring will be held. At the season-opening round in Daytona, the WEC P2 podium finishers will receive Rolex Cosmograph Daytonas, and at Sebring, special trophies will be presented to the WEC P2 podium.

Within the 36 Hours plan, the International Team Incentive Program also offers discounted entry fees at 50 percent of the normal rate, a $1000 fuel credit per entry, and two free sets of Continental tires for Daytona and one free set for Sebring are on offer, along with travel and hospitality discounts for visiting P2 and GT Daytona (GT3) entries.
"We have taken a proactive attempt by instilling an opportunity for the top LMP2 Trueman team to earn a full podium at Daytona and to have the same opportunity six weeks at Sebring that acknowledges a [WEC] LMP2 podium there," IMSA president Scott Atherton told RACER.
"We're curious to see what kind of response we'll get. If it has a material response with an increase in entries, that will speak to what the paddock wants. As a sanctioning body, we'd be receptive to a greater field of [WEC] LMP2s."
With the incentives for international WEC P2 entrants and GT3 teams, plus the recent parity found between WEC P2s and IMSA's P2-based Daytona Prototype internationals, Atherton is confident Florida's warmth will help seal IMSA's recruitment efforts.
"Seeing the grid of 25 LMP2 cars at Le Mans, most coming from Europe, with an opportunity to race in Florida at a time in the year when [Europeans are] scraping snow off their windshields, is something we hope will be met with great interest," he said.