The 2023 IMSA SportsCar Weekend was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on August 6, 2023. The event was the eighth round of the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship, and the fifth round of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.
The No. 31 Cadillac of Pipo Derani qualified in pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying, but started at the back of the GTP field after his car crashed in warm up. This allowed the No. 7 Porsche of Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr to start from first position. The car kept the lead through the following sequence of pit stops and Nasr drove the Porsche across the start/finish line at the end of the race to claim his ninth SportsCar Championship victory and Campbell's eleventh. Meyer Shank Racing 's No. 60 car of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun finished second ahead and the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing car of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor took third.
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports car of Ben Keating and Paul-Loup Chatin with Giedo van der Garde and John Falb in TDS Racing's No. 35 in second. Josh Burdon and Gar Robinson took victory in LMP3. Burdon took the lead in the closing stages and earned him his fourth SportsCar Championship victory and Robinson's eleventh. Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas took their second consecutive win in GTD Pro of the season ahead of Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth in the No. 14 Lexus. Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow were unchallenged throughout the race and took their fourth win of the season in GTD, ahead of The No. 70 Inception Racing car of Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff.
The result meant Albuquerque and Taylor became the leaders of the Drivers' Championship with 2171 points, 18 ahead of sixth-placed finishers Derani and Sims and a further 59 points in front of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly. Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet retained fourth place and Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun rounded out the top five. Cadillac remained in the lead of the Manufactures' Championship with 2414 points, 35 in front of their nearest rival Acura in second followed by Porsche in third, and a further 27 ahead of BMW with three races left in the season.
Background
International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2022. It was the tenth consecutive year the event will be held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2023 IMSA SportsCar Weekend was the eighth of eleven scheduled sports car races of 2023 by IMSA, and it was the fifth round held as part of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup. The race was held at the fourteen-turn Road America on August 6, 2023.
Breaking tradition, IMSA didn't hold their "State of the Series" annual press conference during the Road America race weekend. IMSA moved it to the Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta race weekend.
After the 2022 season, the venue was renovated. Drainage areas were upgraded, the pitlane was paved, and the track was resurfaced.
On July 27, 2023, released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event. In GTP, The Acura ARX-06 received a 2 kilogram weight reduction whereas the BMW M Hybrid V8 and Porsche 963 were given weight reductions of 1 kilogram each. The Cadillac V-Series.R remained at 1030 kilograms while all the GTP cars received increases in energy. In GTD Pro and GTD, The Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo received a 10 kilogram weight reduction while the Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 received a fuel capacity increase of 3 liters.
Before the race, Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims led the GTP Drivers' Championship with 1872 points, ahead of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly in second with 1862 points, and Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor in third. With 973 points, Ben Hanley and George Kurtz led the LMP2 Drivers' Championship, 3 points ahead of Mikkel Jensen and Steven Thomas in second. In LMP3, Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson led the Drivers' Championship with a 181-point advantage over Wayne Boyd and Anthony Mantella. Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth led the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship with 2462 points, ahead of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor with 2311 points. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow with 2226 points, ahead of Roman De Angelis and Marco Sørensen with 2140 points. Cadillac, Lexus, and BMW were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Whelen Engineering Racing, CrowdStrike Racing by APR, Riley Motorsports, Vasser Sullivan Racing, and Paul Miller Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.
Entries A total of 45 cars took part in the event split across five classes. 10 cars were entered in GTP, 7 in LMP2, 8 in LMP3, 5 in GTD Pro, and 15 in GTD. In GTP, Proton Competition would debut their Porsche 963. In LMP2, Rick Ware Racing were absent. Rodrigo Sales joined Louis Delétraz in the Tower Motorsports entry. In LMP3, JDC-Miller MotorSports returned after missing the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park round while Andretti Autosport were absent. Jr III Motorsports added a second entry. Josh Burdon substituted for Felipe Fraga in the Riley Motorsports entry due to a clash with the Stock Car Pro Series round at Autódromo Velo Città. Colin Noble substituted for Linus Lundqvist in the No. 29 Jr III Motorsports entry due to a clash with the IndyCar Series round at Nashville Street Circuit. Nico Pino substituted for Lance Willsey in the Sean Creech Motorsport entry. Gerry Kraut joined Scott Andrews in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports entry. In GTD, Racers Edge Motorsports with WTR Andretti made their first sprint appearance since Long Beach. Andretti Autosport withdrew from the event. David Brule returned to the No. 92 Kelly-Moss with Riley entry.
Practice There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, both on Friday. The first session will last 90 minutes on Friday morning while the second session will last 75 minutes on Friday afternoon.
In the first session, Sébastien Bourdais' No. 01 Cadillac lapped quickest with a lap time of 1:49.538, 0.054 seconds faster than Pipo Derani. Augusto Farfus was third in BMW's No. 24 car. Tom Blomqvist placed the No. 60 MSR Acura fourth. Mikkel Jensen's No. 11 TDS Racing car led LMP2 with a time of 1:52.812, followed by Ryan Dalziel's No. 18 Era Motorsport car. LMP3 was led by Jr III Racing's No. 30 Ligier, driven by Garett Grist, with a 1:59.030 lap. Alex Riberas was fastest in GTD Pro while Sebastian Priaulx set the fastest time amongst all GTD cars. The session was red flagged five times for on-track incidents. Giedo van der Garde crashed the No. 35 TDS Racing Oreca at the Carousel. 15 minutes later, the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet went straight on at turn 3 and crashed. Debris scattered across turn 13 and Jaminet's Porsche suffered nose damage and brought out the second red flag. Misha Goikhberg in the No. 78 Forte Racing powered by US RaceTronics crashed heavily at turn 13. 10 minutes later, the rear window from the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus blew off the car and landed at turn 12. The final stoppage came when David Brule, driving the No. 92 car for Kelly-Moss with Riley, spun at turn 3 and skidded through the gravel trap and hit the barriers.
Derani led the final session in the No. 31 WER Cadillac with a lap of 1 minute, 47.986 seconds. Bourdais' No. 01 Cadillac was second-fastest. Ricky Taylor was third in WTR's No. 10 Acura. De Phillippi and his teammate Farfus were fourth and fifth for BMW. Dalziel led LMP2 with a 1:52.244 lap in Era Motorsport's car. Grist led LMP3 in Jr III Racing's No. 30 Ligier with a 1:58.069 lap. The GTD Pro class was topped by the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Jordan Taylor with a time of 2:03.712. Mikaël Grenier set the fastest time in GTD. The session was red flagged three times for on-track accidents. 10 minutes into the session, Steven Thomas crashed the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca at the Carousel. The No. 77 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Alan Brynjolfsson spun at turn 11 and tagged the wall. The final stoppage came when Mike Skeen, driving the No. 32 car for Team Korthoff Motorsports, crashed heavily at turn 11 and Skeen's Mercedes lost a left rear wheel. Due to damage sustained in opening practice, the No. 35 TDS Racing and No. 78 Forte Racing powered by US RaceTronics entries did not participate in the session.
Qualifying
Sunday's afternoon qualifying was broken into four sessions, with one session for the GTP, LMP2 and LMP3, GTD Pro and GTD classes, which lasted for 20 minutes for the GTP session, and 15 minutes for the LMP2/LMP3, and GTD Pro/GTD sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am LMP2 class requiring a Bronze rated driver to qualify the car while the LMP3 class required a Bronze/Silver Rated driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put GTPs ahead of the LMP2, LMP3, GTD Pro, and GTD cars.
The first was for cars in the GTD Pro and GTD classes. Alex Riberas qualified on pole in GTD Pro driving the No. 23 car for Heart of Racing Team, beating Daniel Juncadella in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing entry by 0.057 seconds. Following in third was Jordan Taylor's No. 3 Corvette while the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus and No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche rounded out the GTD Pro qualifiers. Madison Snow qualified on pole in GTD driving the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing car. Snow was 0.091 seconds clear of Brendan Iribe in the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren followed by Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Lexus in third.
The second session was for cars in the LMP2 and LMP3 classes. George Kurtz qualified on pole in LMP2 driving the No. 04 car for CrowdStrike Racing by APR. Kurtz was 0.508 seconds clear of Rodrigo Sales in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports car followed by Steven Thomas in the No. 11 TDS Racing entry. Keating locked up at turn eight on his second and third laps and could only manage fourth position. Dwight Merriman rounded out the top five in the No. 18 Era Motorsport entry. Nico Pino qualified on pole in LMP3 driving the No. 33 car for Sean Creech Motorsport, besting Bijoy Garg in the No. 29 Jr III Motorsports entry. Just after setting his fastest lap, Pino's Ligier caught air at the exit of turn one after his car launched off the curb. Gar Robinson was third in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports entry followed by Orey Fidani in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine, and Seth Lucas rounded out the top five.
The final session of qualifying was for the GTP class. Pipo Derani qualified on pole driving the No. 31 car for Whelen Engineering Racing, beating Matt Campbell in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry by less than one-tenth of a second. Following in third was the No. 01 Cadillac of Sébastien Bourdais, with the No. 10 Acura of Filipe Albuquerque in fourth. Connor De Phillippi completed the top five in the No. 25 BMW followed by Colin Braun's No. 60 Acura in sixth, and Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry in seventh. The No. 24 BMW M Team RLL entry, JDC-Miller MotorSports and Proton Competition Porsche 963's rounded out the GTP qualifiers.
Qualifying results Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by .