IMSA notebook: Blomqvist to Action Express, Glickenhouse shuts doors
Blomqvist To Action Express, Will Run Endurance Schedule in 2024
While Meyer Shank Racing’s IMSA days are currently in the books, Tom Blomqvist will stay, sort of.
Blomqvist will jump over to Cadillac come 2024, as the now-IndyCar regular will be taking part in endurance cup races for Action Express Racing’s #31 entry, the current GTP champions.
The Englishman, who won the DPi championship in 2022 with Meyer Shank, has been one of the better drivers among the GTP group, grabbing the podium with teammate Colin Braun in four of their last five races in 2023, a resurgence for a team that was underperforming after their season-opening Daytona penalty.
“After another great season with Meyer Shank Racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, it is an honor to be joining Action Express Racing and Cadillac for the endurance rounds of the 2024 campaign,” Blomqvist said in IMSA’s release. “It is a series I love being a part of, and I’m delighted to be returning once again. To be able to come back to the series and try to defend my title at Daytona is a huge motivation, and I can’t thank Meyer Shank Racing and Honda Performance Development enough for allowing me the opportunity.”
With this venture, Blomqvist will now be looking for his third straight Daytona Rolex 24 win, grabbing the previous two with Meyer Shank, and he will be joining their IndyCar stable for next season on a full-time basis.
There is a possibility to see Blomqvist rekindle his driving with Meyer Shank in IMSA, given that there were reports that the team may be looking at teaming with Alpine come 2025 in what would be the second new manufacturer to join with Aston Martin. However, there is nothing confirmed either.
There is even a chance he could team up with MSR minority owner Helio Castroneves, who has indicated there is a possibility he may still do some one-off events in the future in IMSA. However, for 2024, it would have to be as opponents, as his best bet would be jumping into one of Wayne Taylor Acura’s.
The addition of Blomqvist, though, is a big one and definitely brings some veteran insight to the team, helping a young Jack Aitken, who will be racing full-time for Action Express next season.
Having Blomqvist gives the team a nice sweetener, if you will, and rounds out the team quite nicely. However, with Blomqvist running in Acura equipment last season, it may be a new challenge for the second-generation sports car star.
Blomqvist and company will definitely still be a threat come the Rolex 24, as they will look to kick off the season the way this season ended, which is by being in victory lane and hoisting up a trophy.
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Glickenhaus Shuts Down Its Doors For 2024 in Hypercar Class
Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, which only had 12 races total in its Hypercar days, is no longer, as the team announced that it will be closing the door to racing in WEC in 2024.
The team, which made its debut in 2021, finished on the podium twice within a three-year span and grabbed pole twice, as well.
The team featured the likes of drivers Ryan Briscoe, Pipo Derani, and Richard Westbrook, all of whom have previous IMSA experience under their belts.
It was cited in Sportscar365.com that the reason for the shutdown was "costs.”
“No, we won’t be entering; it doesn’t make sense for us,” the team told Motorsport.com. “To be competitive, we’d need to do an evo-version of the car and run two of them. That’s not viable for a privateer. The only way we could do it would be with sponsorship or if a customer wanted to run a program with our car."
A group that grabbed a podium at Le Mans, Glickenhaus, is one of the many manufacturers that are feeling the effects of a loaded grid.
With 13 LMH and LMDh cars that could play a part in the WEC, the grid has started to shuffle out teams that may have been regulars in the past, with teams looking elsewhere to field a car.
There is a cause and effect with many of the new teams entering, and with the grid expanding to include Lamborghini, BMW, and Alpine for 2024, Glickenhaus had to make the unfortunate decision of dropping their Hypercar entry for next season.
It would be nice to see many of these different manufacturers on the grid, but when major brands such as Toyota, Ferrari, BMW, and others jump in to make their claim, whether that be in IMSA or WEC, some of the smaller teams have to pay the price for it, something that IMSA controls more than WEC.
It will be a disappointing loss to see a team just getting its feet wet in sportscar racing’s top class, but maybe soon there will be another chance to see Glickenhaus back on the grid in some way in 2025 or beyond.
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Plaid Porsche No More: What’s To Come For McLaren & Pfaff Partnership
A fan favorite will no longer be on the grid come 2024, with Pfaff departing from fielding a Porsche and moving over to McLaren.
Through this departure comes the loss of the iconic plaid livery, a staple amongst GT cars; however, there is more that will come through this partnership that fans should be talking about as we kick off the offseason for the 2024 season ahead.
Yes, moving over to McLaren brings changes, not just from a support aspect but also from a developmental level as well, something that will be drastically noticeable.
With that being said, let’s take a look at what is truly to come from the new Pfaff-McLaren connection in 2024:
Change in Competitiveness
The move from Porsche to McLaren is a notable one indeed for Pfaff, and with it comes the aspect of learning and molding this new venture into a success.
It has been a hot minute since McLaren has been a legitimate threat in IMSA, given that the manufacturer doesn’t have an overly massive presence in the series compared to Porsche or even BMW.
With that, however, comes the point that there may be more focus on building and working with Pfaff under guidance from McLaren.
With fewer cars on the grid under the McLaren umbrella and the fact that the team will almost be a manufacturer-led group, Pfaff may get the backing it needs need to get it back to being a contender this upcoming season.
While this may be a working process given that Pfaff as a team will be learning and growing with the new manufacturer, there may be future success for the Canadian-based team.
New Faces
Due to McLaren taking over, it results in Pfaff potentially losing both of its current drivers since they are under the Porsche umbrella.
While not as successful as their predecessors, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet -- who jumped to the GTP class for Porsche Penske after grabbing a title with the sprint -- Klaus Bachler and Patrick Pilet did a serviceable job this season in the #9 Porsche, keeping the contender in every race they were in, even given the smaller grid size in the GTD Pro class.
But with Proton Competition and JDC-Miller Motorsports having openings in their GTP class for drivers and being that the teams are both Porsche-run entries, Bachler and Pilet are both highly likely candidates for seats in those entries, an impressive send-off for the Porsche era having two straight driver tandems going to the top class if it were to happen.
Obviously, there’s a chance that Pilet and/or Bachler stay and switch over to being McLaren factory drivers because of the switch, but it seems that the team put out no indications of that happening, setting the team up for a new tandem potentially for a third straight season.
Final Thoughts:
Pfaff has potential, which feels like the best way to describe the new partnership the team is entering.
There should be some excitement surrounding this new venture for the Canadian GTD Pro regulars, but there is more mystery than anything.
While little has been said as to what is to come for this new partnership in terms of next steps, the fact of the matter is that things need to start rolling quickly for Pfaff.
As of now, this team looks as though it will have growing pains, and with an even tougher GTD Pro grid for 2024 coming, it may be behind the eight ball early. However, by the end of the season, this team truly could be a podium contender.
Given Pfaff’s competitiveness among the front office and its supporters within, it has a chance to take advantage of a golden chance to cash in its time with McLaren over its Porsche days.