Performance Tech Confirms 2021 IMSA Weathertech LMP3 Ligier Entry

Performance Tech Motorsport plans to enter the new LMP3 category in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship for 2021 with a single upgraded Ligier JS P320, a further expansion of the team’s LMP3 efforts that will run alongside their current and continuing IMSA Prototype Challenge program.

The announcement that LMP3 would be included in the 2021 Weathertech Series was a well-received by some teams, including a number of teams that are currently competing in Prototype Challenge.

“I think it’s smart. We can get new guys into IPC [IMSA Prototype Challenge], they can run in IPC for a year and then they can move up to Weathertech, it gives them a place to go without spending $1.8 million to run an LMP2 car,” Performance Tech team owner Brent O’Neill told dailysportscar.com.

Senior IMSA sources have told DSC that they expect LMP3 budgets for the full season to be c.$900,000 with the Rolex 24 Hours, an optional standalone ‘bolt-on’ costing an LMP3 team a further c.$300,000

Part of the reason for the switch to LMP3 from LMP2 was IMSA’s decision to allow Platinum-rated drivers in LMP2 for the entire season in 2021. Previously, Platinum-rated drivers were only permitted at the Rolex 24.

“I look at it for LMP2, for them to allow [platinum drivers] in all the races, none of the bronze drivers are going to fund platinum drivers,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill also expressed frustration at the way the LMP2 cars have been pegged back to keep them separated from the DPi class. The Balance of Performance on the LMP2 cars has taken 500 RPM away from the team’s ORECA, leaving them to run a sixth gear at all tracks that is equal to the sixth gear used by teams at Le Mans.

With changes to which driver-rankings are permitted in the class and the BoP on LMP2 cars to keep them separate from the DPi cars, there is little to no incentive for teams to run in LMP2, O’Neill described.

“You look at Le Mans with 24 LMP2 cars, the racing was awesome, it was a great battle, and – I don’t know – IMSA just can’t make it work over here for some reason,” O’Neill said.

For 2021, Performance Tech will run a full-season LMP3 car in the Weathertech Series and the team has plans to run either one or two LMP3 cars in Prototype Challenge, provisionally a car apiece in the 2021-only two-class Series – Ligier JS P320 and JS P3.

The option to run an LMP3 car in a support series and then take that same chassis and run it on the big stage in the Weathertech series is an attractive prospect for teams. It gives upward mobility to prototype teams who previously did not have that option.

One of those teams is Jr III Racing, a young team currently in their first full season of Prototype Challenge.

“You can run a season in IPC next year, get pretty comfortable in the car, pretty comfortable with the team. Then the whole team and everyone can go up to into Weathertech the following year and be up to speed kind of right away,” Jr III team-owner Billy Glavin said.

“I think that it creates a very unique environment for people who are into Weathertech but just never found a proper path to do it,” Glavin added. Jr III Racing is focused on Prototype Challenge for 2021 but the team is considering a jump to the Weathertech series in 2022, Glavin said.

DSC has been speaking with a number of current LMP2 and LMP3 teams in recent days to further understand the effects that LMP3 being moved to the Weathertech series has had on the state of prototype racing in North America. Expect more stories on the subject in the coming days.

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