Petit Le Mans proved that we are in a renaissance of American sports car racing

If you had waited until the last minute to grab your tickets for Petit Le Mans, the 10-hour finale of the 2024 IMSA season, you would have been disappointed: tickets were sold out. Georgia police told the series and racetrack that they could no longer legally sell parking permits. The campsites were full.

Because American sports car racing is in a renaissance. The GTP hypercar regulations have both stimulated manufacturer interest and increased the level of competition, while a crowded GT field has ensured competition up and down the field. The result? There’s never been a better time to be a sports car fan in America.

Petit Le Mans: The end of an exceptional IMSA season

The 2024 IMSA season is the second with the revival of the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) regulations. Also known as “hypercars,” these machines represent the pinnacle of automotive technology, providing manufacturers such as Porsche, Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Lamborghini with a platform on which to push the boundaries of hybrid machines.

When it debuted in 2023, the GTP platform was touted as one of the most sustainable racing platforms in North America, with each car featuring a hybrid powertrain developed in collaboration with IMSA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), which approves the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The result was a technical package that is both affordable and valuable for the participating manufacturers. With ACO and IMSA in agreement on regulations, companies like Cadillac can get more bang for their buck by developing a car that can compete in both IMSA and Le Mans – and they don’t have to spend a lot of money for the homologation , which restricts vehicle development for several years.

While regulations ensure competitiveness, each manufacturer responded to the call with creativity and ingenuity. Cadillac, for example, hired sound engineers to maintain the throaty V8 growl of its production cars when its electric motor starts the combustion engine.

To stay true to its heritage, Acura designed its GTP to be equipped with a V6 internal combustion engine instead of the V8 engines that power the rest of the field. Porsche came out of the starting phase strong in 2023 and used and sold its data to customer teams to improve in 2024.

BMW got off to a slow start in 2023 but quickly pooled its resources in IMSA and WEC to improve in 2024, while newcomer Lamborghini impressed in its first year of competition.

Additionally, in the GT category, IMSA and WEC worked together to introduce international GT3 regulations for both series, with great results: 11 different car manufacturers and 32 teams competed in the GT classes in 2024.

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While 2023 was a stunning year for IMSA, 2024 refined an already exceptional product. In the nine races in which the GTP machines competed, six different teams won: the Nos. 6 and 7 of Porsche, the No. 01 of Cadillac, the No. 24 of BMW and the Nos. 10 and 40 of Acura. Although Penske ultimately won the championship, the year was full of contentious battles.

However, great racing is only one piece of the very complex puzzle that makes a racing series successful. To be truly considered great, fans have to show up.

Fortunately, the 2024 IMSA season brought record or near-record viewership at nearly every event. The season began in January with record attendance at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where attendance has doubled since 2018, according to IMSA.

Next on the calendar was the 12 Hours of Sebring, which saw an IMSA all-time attendance record. The IMSA/IndyCar doubleheader weekends in Long Beach and Detroit increased viewership. Additionally, Road America, Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen joined the record party. Only Indianapolis failed to make bigger waves year-over-year.

“I came to myself [Road Atlanta] “I’ve been driving for years,” a fan named Rich told me as I explored the track during Petit Le Mans. “I’ve never seen it like that before.”

By “so” Rich meant “packed.” I tried to join the fans for the pre-race grid walk, where anyone with a ticket has access to see the cars lined up close to the track up close, but before I could reach the prototypes, I got stuck I got into a traffic jam. It was the same at the Rolex 24 in Daytona. In both cases, I excused myself to watch from a distance.

While there, I chatted with another fan named Jackson, a second-generation racing fan who talked about his plans to take his own daughter to IMSA races once she was old enough to stand on her own two feet.

“Sports car racing was just the coolest thing for me as a kid,” he said. “But there was a lull for a few years. I could never convince my mates to go to the track with me; They always talked about how boring this racing thing was.

“But this year was the first time four of us had been to Sebring. They had heard about the legendary parties and thought, “Hey, at least we can have fun.”

He waved his phone at me, showing a notification about a text message that had popped up during our conversation. Smiling, he said, “You know what? We have a group chat going on and they’re losing their minds that I’m here and they’re not.”

“What got her hooked?” I asked.

Jackson thought for a moment before answering, “That’s the thing.” We’re all a bunch of car guys, but they’ve never really gotten into racing. They said, “What’s the point, you just watch the cars go in circles and you keep telling me that you already know who’s going to win.”

“But you look at a race like that [Petit Le Mans]and it’s like non-stop action. This year was just crazy how many GTPs were won, you know? It’s cool. And then you can turn on WEC and watch the 24 Hours of Le Mans and it’s like I know these cars. I know these drivers. I still don’t know who the hell is going to win.

“It’s just cool to be part of something like that. It feels really special.”

As for the race itself, Petit Le Mans kept things exciting until the last moment. With less than 10 minutes left in the 10-hour race, the leading No. 01 Cadillac with Renger van der Zande, who had lost one of his headlights early in the race, also lost his second. The racer drove his Caddy in complete darkness for half a lap before the lights came back on.

Then it went out again. Then a light flickered back. Whether they were rooting for Cadillac or not, fans were on tenterhooks as the seconds ticked by and van der Zande struggled with the broken lights, even though he knew IMSA would have no choice if his lights went out permanently but for him with the black flag – for the second time during the race.

With the competition only a few seconds behind, it was crucial that van der Zande kept his car on track and made it to the checkered flag with at least one set of traffic lights intact.

It wasn’t enough for Cadillac to take the championship away from Porsche, but it was a more than fitting end to one of the most compelling IMSA seasons ever. And in January the renaissance begins again with another edition of the Rolex 24.

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