2024 By the Numbers - GTD Pro

 

GTD Pro –

Podiums – 29 drivers. Most – 5 (Heinrich, Gunn/Riberas)

Wins –

               Porsche – 3 (Laguna Seca, Detroit, Indy)

               Ferrari – 2 (Daytona and Road America)

               Lexus – 1 (Sebring)

               Aston Martin – 1 (Watkins Glen)

               Corvette – 1 (CTMP)

               BMW – 1 (VIR)

               Lamborghini – 1 (Petit Le Mans)

Champion – Laurin Heinrich. AO Racing. Porsche.

MEC Champions – Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, Neil Verhagen. Paul Miller Racing. Chevrolet.

6993.22 miles raced, only 11 more than last year. 10 races (no Long Beach).

17 cars entered, 9 full season. Only full season no podium 65.

Qualifying:

 

 

Poles – Catsburg (Laguna Seca, Road America, Indy), Priaulx (Daytona), Hawksworth (Sebring), Garcia (Detroit), Serra (Watkins Glen), Sims (CTMP), Snow (VIR), Heinrich (Petit)

You might’ve noticed something here: Variety is the name of the game, yet there is a certain consistency at the top. Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports NAILED qualifying. Three of their drivers had poles, and they massively outdid their competition across the board.

Most Positions Gained Q to F: 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, +21

Most Positions Gained Q to F Overall: 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin and AO Racing Porsche, +31

Most Positions Lost Q to F: 4 Corvette Racing by PMM, -38

Most Positions Lost Q to F Overall: 4 Corvette Racing by PMM, -71, 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, -70.

Most Points Gained in Q: 3 Corvette Racing by PMM, 304.

Fewest Points Gained in Q: 65 Ford Multimatic, 225.

                

Team by Team:

1 – Paul Miller Racing -  BMW M4 GT3

Drivers: Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, Neil Verhagen (enduros), Sheldon van der Linde (Daytona)

PIC – 4^th, -5 to 3^rd, -193 to Champion

Q vs F – Class +15, Overall +7

Avg Q – Class 7 (t-2^nd worst), Overall 9 (3^rd worst)

Avg Finish – Class 5 (t-2^nd best), Overall 8(t-3^rd best)

FL – Daytona (van der Linde)

1 win (VIR), 3 podiums (Daytona, Road America, VIR), 1 pole (VIR Snow)

It’s always a lofty undertaking when a GTD team steps up to the pro ranks. Pfaff did it in 2022, after dominating GTD in 2021, and successfully took the pro level championship in their first attempt. PMR, after setting records in GTD that haven’t and likely won’t be touched (5 wins in a season, 2 consecutive Sprint championships, 2 overall championships in 6 years), wasn’t expected to be a championship contender. 4^th out of 9 full season cars with a win and three podiums certainly was a successful season. They kept the same driver line up as 2023, switching out only the endurance drivers. So where was the biggest change? They really struggled in qualifying this year, with just the one pole compared to at least 3 for each of the previous 3 years. They earned 249 points in qualifying, 55 less than the 3 Corvette, who beat them by only 5 points in the season long championship battle. They had the 3^rd fewest points from qualifying from a full season car. With a stronger qualifying effort, they could’ve finished in the top 3 of the GTD Pro championship.  All four of their drivers were quickest in the car at some race, with van der Linde setting the fastest lap at Daytona of all the GT3 cars, and Verhagen was the guy at Indy and Watkins Glen. Sellers was the stronger of the two for average position (5^th), average pace (7^th) and average pace off co-driver(7^th), whereas Snow was 9^th, 11^th and 10^th respectively. Bryan has been the anchor of the team since joining in 2016, and a PMR without him will look and feel different, but he’s not leaving due to a lack of performance.

 

3 – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – Corvette Z06 GT3.R

Drivers: Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims, Daniel Juncadella (Daytona, Sebring, and Petit)

PIC – 3^rd, -188 to Champion

Q vs. F – Class -24, Overall -28

Avg Q – Class 3 (Best), Overall 3 (Best)

Avg Finish – Class 6 (t-3^rd best) Overall 10 (5^th)

FL – CTMP (Sims), Indy (Garcia)

1 win (CTMP), 3 podiums (Watkins Glen, CTMP, Indy), 2 poles (Detroit Garcia, CTMP Sims), 1 DNF (Sebring).

First off, Alexander Sims is at home in a GT car. He belongs. That’s not to say he doesn’t belong in other cars, but he really fits in GT racing. He set the second most impressive qualifying efforts of the season. In his 4 attempts, he averaged a start position of 2.3 in class and overall, bettered only by three-time pole winner Nick Catsburg, and more on him later. Simsy, the 2023 GTP champion, took almost no time to show his strength in GTD Pro. He had the 2^nd best Average Position and 3^rd best Average Pace. While a lot of attention goes to (and should be on) the top 2 drivers in the championship, the pilots of the Corvettes shouldn’t be forgotten.

 Secondly, Antonio Garcia doesn’t slow down. 7^th best Average Position, 8^th best Average Pace. Garcia’s biggest “upset” of the year is that he had a larger average gap to his speedy co-driver, but honestly this is something that knocked down all the Corvette drivers. Milner (8^th), Sims (9^th), Catsburg (12^th) and Garcia (13^th) were all affected by their equally fast co-drivers. But let’s put this into context quickly: the worst qualifying effort from Garcia and Sims was 4^th, one from each driver, when they still qualified in the top third of the class each time. Ifs, shoulds, and coulds are dangerous, but if they hadn’t been taken out at the end of Sebring, or had the mechanical issues at Detroit and VIR, the 3 Corvette likely would’ve been champions.

 

4 – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports – Corvette Z06 GT3.R

Drivers: Tommy Milner and Nick Catsburg, Earl Bamber (Daytona, Sebring, and Petit)

PIC – 8^th, -15 to 7^th, -448 to Champion

Q vs F – Class -38, Overall -71

Avg Q – Class 3 (Best), Overall 4.7 (2^nd best)

Avg Finish – Class 8 (t-Worst), Overall 15 (Worst)

FL – Detroit (Milner)

2 podiums (Laguna Seca, CTMP), 3 poles (Laguna Seca, Road America, Indy Catsburg).

This car is the biggest mystery to me. Catsburg was THE guy for qualifying this year. He had the best average of 2 in class and overall, and 3 poles out of 4 attempts. So if Catsburg had so much speed, the weakness must be Milner, right? Wrong. Tommy had the 3^rd best Average Position, 4^th best average Time off Pace, and was the strongest of all Corvette drivers for time off their co-drivers. Catsburg was 10^th, 9^th and 12^th respectively. Thus, neither of the drivers was an explicit weak link. They had no DNFs but did have a lot of character-building weekends, as Joe Bradley would say. They finished 8^th or worse 60% of the season. The second most points accrued in qualifying is a feather in their cap, but they need a bit of good luck and reliability from the machinery to be the championship contenders we saw from their sister car.

 

9 – Pfaff Motorsports – McLaren 720S GT3 EVO

Drivers: Oliver Jarvis and Marvin Kirchhofer, James Hinchcliffe (Daytona, Sebring, and Petit), Alexander Rossi (Daytona)

PIC – 7^th, -94 to 6^th, -433 to Champion

Q vs F – Class +2, Overall -26

Avg Q – Class 7 (2^nd worst), Overall 10 (t-2^nd worst)

Avg Finish – Class 7 (2^nd worst), Overall 12 (3^rd worst)

Best Q – 3^rd Laguna Seca (Kirchhofer)

2 podiums (Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen), 2 DNFs (Daytona and Detroit).

Pfaff has cultivated a reputation as a serious powerhouse team since entering the series full time in 2019. As previously mentioned, they won both GTD and the GT Pro categories in back-to-back years, as well as Daytona, Sebring, and a plethora of other races with a wide variety of drivers. So when it was announced that their 2024 driver combo would be car expert Kirchhofer and IMSA GTP champion Olly Jarvis, there was a lot of reason to believe they’d be at the top of the class again. To the dismay of fans around the world, they weren’t. Both drivers struggled in qualifying. Jarvis had a better average in class (7.2 vs 7.5) but Kirchhofer had the better average overall (8.5 vs 10.2). When it came to in race, Kirchhofer was middle of the pack for Average Position, and Olly was down in 13^th. Average Pace is harder to read because their car, a lot like the Fords, lacked consistent speed over the course of the year. Kirchhofer was impressive to be 6^th, and just a smidge off the average set by Hawksworth, but Jarvis was better only than Joey Hand, at just under a second off Average Page. Kirchhofer won the teammate battle too, setting the fast lap of the car in 7 of the races. For a team with such an impressive cv of achievements, 2024 will not be one they highlight.

 

14 – VasserSullivan – Lexus RC F GT3

Drivers: Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, Kyle Kirkwood (Daytona, Sebring, and Petit), Mike Conway (Daytona)

PIC – 5^th, -70 to 4^th, -263 to Champion

Q vs F – Class -16, Overall -70

Avg Q – Class 5 (2^nd Best), Overall 5 (3^rd Best)

Avg Finish - Class 6 (3^rd worst), Overall 10 (4^th worst)

1 win (Sebring), 2 podiums (Sebring and Detroit), 1 pole (Sebring Hawksworth), 3 DNFs (Daytona, CTMP, Petit).

The defending GTD Pro champs had a rough year. They won Sebring (and their pattern of winning the major endurance races in reverse order, one a year [Petit 2022, Watkins 2023, Sebring 2024] means they’ll win Daytona in 2025) and had pole that week, but that was one of only 3 front row starts all year. In 2023 when they took the championship, Jack Hawksworth had pole 4 times. His qualifying this year averaged 5^th in class and overall, still good enough to accrue the 3^rd most points from qualifying. Yet here’s the shocker: last year Hawksworth’s Average Time off Pace was 0.69 and this year it was 0.702. The difference is almost negligible. Hawksworth this year was 5^th for that stat whereas Barnicoat was 12^th. Their Average Positions were 11^th for Jack and 14^th for Ben. No Fastest Laps for any Lexus driver, and Jack was fastest in the car 7 race weekends. Something, and I don’t know what, changed and it had ripple effects on the duo.

 

23 – Heart of Racing Team – Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo

Drivers: Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas (Daytona, Sebring, Long Beach, Detroit, Watkins Glen, Road America, VIR, Indy, Petit), Mario Farnbacher (Daytona, Sebring, Laguna Seca, CTMP), Roman De Angelis (Petit)

PIC – 2^nd, -5 to Champion

Q vs F – Class +21, Overall +31

Avg Q – Class 6 (3^rd best), Overall 8 (4^th Best)

Avg Finish – Class 4 (Best), Overall 5 (Best)

Best Q – 2^nd Sebring (Farnbacher)

FL – VIR and Petit (Gunn)

1 win (Watkins Glen), 5 podiums (Detroit, Watkins Glen, Road America, VIR, Petit), 2 Fastest Laps (VIR and Petit, Gunn).

Ross almost did enough to be champion in 2024. 1 place better finish in any race, qualify 3 spots better in any race. The car was toward the bottom of the group as far as qualifying points earned, at only 258 compared to 304 for the most and 225 for the least. Gunn averaged mid pack each time he got to qualify the car, with a better average than Riberas but worse than Farnbacher. He raced really, really well though. Ross Gunn had the 2^nd best Average Position, the best Time off Pace (0.006 less than his average last year too, so extreme consistency), and was only bettered in his own car once all year. That’s right 9 times this season Ross Gunn was the fastest guy in the 23 Aston. That is unrivaled. So what stopped him from the title? Penalties. The team had a lot of pit related penalties this year, meaning they made a lot of unnecessary trips back down for drive thrus. VIR, for example, could’ve been another win, but a penalty meant they were on the backfoot and had to fight back to get second instead of challenging for the lead. Clean up the little mistakes and they’ll be a powerhouse.

 

64 – Ford Multimatic Motorsports – Ford Mustang GT3

Drivers: Mike Rockenfeller and Harry Tincknell, Christopher Mies (Daytona, Sebring, and Petit).

PIC – 6^th, -76 to 5^th, -339 to Champion

Q vs F – Class -1, Overall +6

Avg Q – Class 6 (t-4^th), Overall 9 (5^th)

Avg Finish – Class 6 (t-3^rd), Overall 9 (4^th)

Best Q – 2^nd Indy (Rockenfeller)

FL – Watkins Glen (Tincknell)

2 podiums (VIR and Indy), 1 Fastest Lap (Watkins Glen, Tincknell)

It’s important to remember that, despite all the fanfare and hubbub around the Fords, it was their first year. Growing pains on full display, and Ford didn’t shy away from these at all. The pains did ebb, and the 64 in particular really started to hit a stride in June. The two podiums, backed up with top 5s at Watkins and CTMP, showed the program is going in the right direction. In qualifying, it was Rocky who was strongest, averaging 6^th in class and 8.4 overall. Harry averaged 6.6 in class and 10^th overall. As far as race pace is concerned, advantage Tincknell, as Harry was the faster of the two drivers in half the races, and had the 6^th best Average Position of the class. The two podiums this year didn’t feel like a lack of performance but rather an omen of what’s to come, now that the program is really starting to function as intended. Also, honorable mention to Christopher Mies, who was the fastest Ford driver at both Daytona and Sebring!

 

65 – Ford Multimatic Motorsports – Ford Mustang GT3

Drivers: Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller, Frederic Vervisch (Daytona, Sebring, and Petit)

PIC – Last of full season entries, -119 to 8^th, -576 to Champion.

Q vs F – Class +8, Overall -7

Avg Q – Class 9 (worst), Overall 14 (worst)

Avg Finish – 8 (worst), Overall 14 (2^nd worst)

Best Q – 4^th VIR (Hand)

Best Finish – 4^th (VIR)

When Ford announced their driver line up and we found out that the Brothers from Other Mothers Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller were reunited, it looked like the Ford GT dream duo would be heading back towards the podium. I never would’ve predicted they’d be the only team in the class without a trophy and last place finish of full season teams in the championship. Plagued by qualifying struggles (9^th or worse in every race except VIR and Petit), their strong weekends were always thrown asunder by some form of bad luck. The only race where the 65 was faster than the 64 was Detroit, when the latter ground to a half before the start line. Impressively though, the only DNF all year for a Ford was this car at Daytona. Driver-wise, both Joey and Dirk struggled. Dirk was 15^th and Joey 17^th in terms of Average Position and Time off Pace both, out of 17 total. I still believe in these guys, but the numbers weren’t on their side this year.

 

77 – AO Racing – Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)

Drivers: Laurin Heinrich, Sebastian Priaulx (Daytona, Sebring, Laguna Seca, Detroit, Watkins Glen, CTMP), Michael Christensen (Daytona, Sebring, Indy, Petit), Julian Andlauer (Road America, Petit), Klaus Bachler (VIR)

PIC – 1^st

Q vs F – Class +16, Overall +31

Avg Q – Class 6 (midpack), Overall 10 (t-2^nd worst)

Avg Finish – Class 5 (t-2^nd best), Overall 6 (2^nd best)

FL – Laguna Seca (Heinrich)

3 wins (Laguna Seca, Detroit, and Indy), 5 podiums (Daytona, Laguna Seca, Detroit, CTMP, Indy), 2 poles (Daytona Priaulx and Petit Heinrich).

Hello Laurin Heinrich, 2024 IMSA GTD Pro Champion. What a debut! Most of the tracks were new to the German, and at all but Sebring, Road America and VIR, he was the fastest driver in Rexy, the fan favorite dinosaur Porsche. There’s been a lot of accolades thrown the way of Heinrich, and rightfully so, but I do want to also pay tribute to Seb Priaulx, who drove 60% of the year with the team. Seb helped the team to 4 of the 5 podiums, launched the season strongly with the pole at Daytona, and helped build the team in the fashion they all started the year prior. Laurin’s numbers deserve the biggest spotlight. Heinrich was the strongest for average Position at 7.8, and 2^nd strongest for average Time off Pace at .515. He was the strongest driver in the car 6 times, and averaged on 0.135 off his codrivers. He was a bit of a revelation, to say the least. If he’s allowed to continue in IMSA in GT cars, who knows how many championships Laurin Heinrich will accrue. 

Others:

3 of the races this year were won by non-full season teams. Risi took the popular victory at Daytona, and Ferrari got another surprise victory with Conquest at Road America. Iron Lynx took a decisive win at Petit Le Mans, so Lamborghini earned victory in the highly competitive class, making it 7 manufacturers who found victory in the 10 races this year. Only McLaren, Mercedes, and Ford did not win a race! That has to be the most diversity in a pro class in IMSA for a very long time. (Messers Raffauf, I defer to your greater knowledge).

 

Driver of the Year – Ross Gunn

Team of the Year – AO Racing

Manufacturer of the Year – Ferrari (7 starts, 2 wins, 4 podiums)