| No. 52 ORECA Had Just One Win but Never Finished Lower than Seventh October 24, 2024By David PhillipsIMSA Wire Service |
| DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 2024 Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class was marked by evenly matched competition in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship’s most level playing field. How else to describe a seven-race campaign that produced no fewer than five different winners, four pole sitters and 10 unique podium finishers? The outcome of most events and the championship itself came down to consistent execution by the drivers and teams, and nobody did it better than Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports. While other teams had more wins and podium finishes than the No. 52 ORECA LMP2 07, full-season co-drivers Tom Dillman and Nick Boulle (ably supported by Jakub Smiechowski in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events and Pietro Fittipaldi in the Rolex 24 At Daytona) were the only ones in LMP2 to never finish below seventh place in a race. |
| Doubtless the highlight of the No. 52’s season (apart from a championship-clinching fourth place in the Motul Petit Le Mans) came in the lone victory of the year at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park when the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class had the weekend off and LMP2 competitors took center stage. Dillman, Boulle and Smiechowski also brought home second place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and third at Watkins Glen International. It not only earned the team and driver titles, it assured Boulle of IMSA’s Jim Trueman Award given to the highest placed Bronze-rated LMP2 driver – and with it an automatic invitation to race in next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. “It’s certainly surreal,” said Boulle. “Everybody’s worked so hard at Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen to make this happen. We were really consistent. Tom has been so helpful and so has Kuba (Smiechowski). It’s really special.” |
| Inter Europol’s near metronomic record proved just enough to beat Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson and the No. 74 Riley ORECA to the title by 61 points. Not that Fraga, Robinson and the Riley squad need apologize for their season, given that this was their rookie LMP2 campaign after dominating the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class before it was discontinued following last season. The newcomers gave a strong account of themselves, posting four podium finishes of their own, none closer to a win than when they finished just 0.658 seconds adrift of the Inter Europol entry at CTMP. However, outright victory proved elusive and a 10th-place finish at Road America put them behind the proverbial eight ball. If any teams flirted with dominance, it was Era Motorsport and TDS Racing. Ryan Dalziel, Dwight Merriman and young phenom Connor Zilisch got the season off to a storming start, with back-to-back wins at Daytona (joined by another phenom, Christian Rasmussen) and Sebring in the No.18 Era ORECA before a mid-season slump of sorts presaged a pair of podium finishes to finish the year on an upswing. TDS Racing’s season resembled a mirror image of Era, as the No.11 TDS ORECA rebounded from a rare DNF at Road America to close the season with consecutive wins at Indianapolis and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, the latter seeing Mikkel Jensen show a clean pair of heels to the field on a late restart to secure the Michelin Endurance Cup LMP2 championship for himself and co-drivers Steven Thomas and Hunter McElrea. Other LMP2 winners this season included the No. 88 Richard Mille Af Corse ORECA that Nicklas Nielsen, Lilou Wadoux and Luis Perez Companc steered to victory in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, and the No. 2 United Autosports USA ORECA that took top honors at Road America in the hands of Ben Keating and Ben Hanley, a race also noteworthy for an impressive performance by Gerry Kraut and Scott Andrews who finished runner-up in a cameo appearance by the No. 79 JDC-Miller MotorSports ORECA. The LMP2 outlook for 2025 is more of the same, with a dozen entries committed for the season including a two-car program from United Autosports and singleton efforts by Af Corse, Algarve Pro Racing, AO Racing, Era Motorsport, Inter Europol Competition, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, Pratt Miller Motorsports, Riley, Tower Motorsports and TDS Racing. |
