John Doonan IMSA President
The new GTP class is drawing widespread thumbs up. Now you focus on the tight streets of Long Beach followed by Monterey. How well do you see the GTP class doing in these environments? There were a lot of questions going into the Rolex 24 At Daytona surrounding reliability of the new hybrid- powered prototypes in GTP and whether or not they would be able to make it through 24 hours of racing in their first time out. It’s safe to say those concerns proved to be unfounded as our four participating manufacturers – Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche – as well as our hybrid powertrain partners – Bosch, Xtrac and WAE Technologies – more than rose to the occasion, successfully showcasing the most technologically advanced racing platform this continent has ever seen and putting on a fantastic show while doing it. At Sebring, any one of the four manufacturers could have won the race as the on-track competition got even more exciting. It’ll be a whole new dynamic this weekend in a 100-minute, all-out battle at Long Beach, and then we’ll head for WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for a two-hour and 40-minute battle. I think the level of competition – which is already high – will ratchet up another level or two on this West Coast swing and I can’t wait to see it unfold.
W ith Daytona and Sebring up to your expectations? I would say the season so far has exceeded our expectations. From an audience perspective, we’ve seen all- time record attendance at both the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and our YouTube docuseries “Win the Weekend” – which is being produced through our long-term partnership with Michelin – is exposing our product to a substantial new audience. On the racetrack, we’ve seen outstanding competition throughout all of our IMSA-sanctioned series. Overall, I’d say we’re off to a successful start to 2023 and look forward to continuing that that momentum throughout the season. successfully in the rearview mirror, is the season shaping FAST FIVE WITH JOHN DOONAN
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