Sean Creech Motorsport completed a day of testing last week with their new Ligier JS P217 Gibson at the Daytona International Speedway, in preparation for their IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar campaign in 2024.
The team has run a Ligier JS P320 LMP3 car during this year’s IMSA WeatherTech season, and are committing to the Ligier chassis in their step up to LMP2 next year, amidst the imminent departure of the LMP3 class from the championship.
Joao Barbosa, one of their current LMP3 drivers, turned 32 laps around the Daytona International Speedway last Wednesday.
Their Ligier LMP2 car was delivered to them on 24 July earlier this year, and the team has since stripped down and replaced every component on the car, which had been run before in previous ownership.
“I’ve lost count of the 12-hour days,” said Team Principal Sean Creech.
“By the end, it was just another test session. “We started working on the balance – getting more traction, reducing understeer.
“The point was to put miles on the car and see what we need to address, but now it’s just all the regular small things that you’d be working on at any test.
“It’s a brand-new car for the team. Some of the weekend mechanics have worked on P2 cars before but for most of the team, it’s a completely different car.
“I’m impressed with how well it came together.”
“At one point, four or five people were on the phone, each with different people,” added Barbosa, who will be one of the drivers in the sole Ligier LMP2 in 2024.
“They were talking to engineers from Gibson, from Cosworth, getting everything checked remotely, like the fly-by-wire system, engine mapping, everything.
“The team wanted to learn as much as possible before the car went out on track, to understand everything that was happening.
“I’m so happy for the team, to see their hard work pay off.
“They put so much time in to get it ready, with no breaks.
“For the first test, it definitely exceeded our expectations and that’s a testament to the work Sean and the crew put in. Our starting point is much further along than we thought we’d be at this point.”
“It’s a proper race car,” said Barbosa. “It’s a solid car, with a full carbon tub, and it does everything just a bit better than the LMP3 car.
“There’s a lot more aero, better brakes, better handling. We’ll be able to get a better run away from the GTD cars, which will help in traffic.”
The last time a Ligier raced in IMSA LMP2 class was in 2018, when two JS P217s was used by United Autosports and AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, in addition to the Onroak DPi used from 2017 to 2019, which was essentially a lightly modified Ligier JS P217 with a Nissan engine.
They intend to continue their preparations as they target their first race with the sole Ligier representation in a class of Oreca 07-Gibsons at the 24 Hours of Daytona next year.
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