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Auto show at hyper-speed: Champion Cadillac leads a brand-palooza at IMSA sportscar finale
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 17, 2023
Braselton, Georgia — In front of record crowds for the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship’s 10 Hour Petit Le Mans grand finale, Cadillac won the weekend battle of Detroit superstars by defeating Team Penske and its Porsche partner.
Motorsports events like the grueling Petit Le Mans are much more than just who wins on track.
At a time of declining auto show attendance, manufacturers are finding more venues to showcase their wares, from stand-alone media reveals in remote locations to local Cars ‘n’ Coffees, to sprawling motorsports venues. Cadillac’s win, powered by the Wisconsin-based race team of Action Express, was the headliner in a parade of Detroit Three story lines.
“Manufacturers want to be here because we provide a huge stage for the entire industry,” said John Doonan, president of IMSA and a former chief of Mazda North America operations. “Motorsports are natural events to integrate manufacturer technology and marketing. Events like Petit Le Mans and the Monterey (California) Car Week have become brand showcases.”
With huge global audiences, multiple broadcast opportunities, and historic technology advances, automakers have never been more invested in motorsports. While Cadillac and Ford have gained a lot of ink for their bids to race in Formula One, the world’s biggest motorsports series venue with 445 million viewers, sportscar racing has attracted the most auto brands.
In addition to the Petit Le Mans title fight between Cadillac, Porsche Penske and Acura, the race attracted a capacity 54-car entry (six teams were turned away) that included cars from Chevrolet Corvette, Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Lexus, Lamborghini, McLaren and Mercedes. A 2-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge GT-car race brought in additional brands including Alfa Romeo, Audi, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota.
Most of the brands had big activations in Road Atlanta’s sprawling infield — one of the world’s most famous sportscar racing venues. While the race cars circulated Road Atlanta’s formidable, three-dimensional, 2.5-mile track at speeds of up to 185 miles per hour over 10 hours, fans could take a break from the action and visit what were essentially mobile dealer spaces — stuffed with product — to learn about Cadillac, BMW, Mercedes and other brands.
“I’ve never seen so many people and brands at Road Atlanta. Race tracks are the new thing — they are full of energy and the brands get a lot of energy out of it,” said Steven Cole Smith, a veteran race writer with Hagerty. “It’s a performance showcase and brands want to be there because every other brand is there.”
Notably, few of the luxury automakers (outside of the hometown Detroit automakers) on display at Road Atlanta had stalls at this year’s Detroit auto show and have pulled out of other shows as well.
“IMSA provides a big vendor midway,” said Doonan of a scene that is repeated at other races on the IMSA calendar, including Daytona, Road America (Wisconsin), Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen (New York) race tracks. “The dealer bodies bring their latest, new products to showcase to fans here. In many cases, they are the production versions of the race cars they see competing on track. IMSA has even had vehicle debuts like the Hyundai Elantra N, BMW X7 and Ferrari 488.”
The racing is also an opportunity for manufacturers to test — and showcase — the latest, cutting-edge tech.
BMW bought huge billboards around the track emblazoned with its 700-horsepower, BMW GTP race car with the tagline: “M power: now electrified.” M is a reference to the brand’s performance models — and the official pace car for the Petit Le Mans field was a 2024 BMW XM plug-in hybrid SUV.
“Manufacturers find value in our audience at a time of an influx of new technology,” said Doonan. “Ours is an entertainment venue, but we also want to be the heartbeat of new technology.”
At the end of Petit Le Mans, the strongest heartbeat belonged to Cadillac V-Series.R (powered by a ground-pounding V-8 similar to the brand’s Blackwing performance sedans on display in the midway), which brought home the GTP title. It wasn’t easy.
Captained by the veteran driving team of Pipo Derani, Alex Sims and Jack Aitken, the #31 car came into the race with a narrow, three-point lead over the Acura ARX-60/Wayne Taylor Racing #10 car driven by Felipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor and Louis Delétraz, and a five-point lead over the #6 Porsche Penske 963 entry of Nick Tandy, Matthew Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoor.
The #31 Caddy survived contact in the final hour with the #10 Acura as they fought for position — contact that sent the Acura into the Turn 1 wall and retirement. The #6 Porsche Penske entry, meanwhile, was involved in a massive four-car incident just past the first-hour mark of the race.
The Porsche was towed back to the pits for repairs but returned 70 laps down and out of contention.
In addition to the driver’s and team titles, Cadillac won its fourth IMSA Manufacturers Championship.
“It’s been an incredible season,” said Global Cadillac vide president John Roth. “On behalf of everyone at Cadillac, I’d like to thank IMSA for the incredible work they’ve done to usher in the first year of hybrid sportscar racing.”
Chevrolet wasn’t so lucky as the single-entry Corvette GT.R, which had dominated the GTD Pro class retired at the halfway point with engine problems. The C8.R — one of Corvette’s most successful race cars with 20 wins in 80 race starts — is being mothballed this year as the sub-brand goes racing with the all-new Z06 GT3.R, which will have four cars running next season.
That will rekindle a Chevy vs. Ford rivalry in sportscar racing in 2024 as Ford joins the circus with its Mustang GT3 car.
Ford Performance chief Mark Rushbrook was on hand at Road Atlanta to announce the driver lineup of Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller and Harry Tincknell (the same team that conquered the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016 with the Ford GT) and new-to-the-band Mike Rockenfeller.
The Detroit brand rivalry will compete across multiple race tracks next year, including Daytona, Le Mans (France) and, of course, the Petit Le Mans finale in October.
“We’re thrilled to embark on this exciting endeavor and to put our 58 years of global Mustang racing heritage and performance to the test against some of the world’s greatest manufacturers,” said Rushbrook.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.