For the first time in three years, there were multiple chassis manufacturers competing against each other in the LMP2 class at the recent Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
Most of the field continued to run the proven Oreca chassis, but one team reintroduced the Ligier JS P217 to competition and attempted to make a statement on track. Manufacturer diversity has returned to LMP2.
Behind the Ligier decision
The 2024 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona hosted a bumper crop of sports cars and prototypes at the famous Daytona International Speedway, with 59 entries and well over 200 drivers competing against one another for the victory. The event was the attracted a record-setting crowd, and delivered on exciting racing for the duration of the endurance event.
For the first time since 2021, each of the four classes of cars contained chassis built by multiple manufacturers. The factory-led efforts were at the head of the field in the speed-topping GTP class, and LMP2 saw a lone Ligier JS P217 chassis fighting against the established Oreca 07 courtesy of Sean Creech Motorsport.
The privateer team had been competing in the LMP3 class since 2018, choosing to run the Ligier chassis in the budget-oriented category. When it was announced last year that LMP3 was going to be removed from IMSA’s top-tier line-up, SCM had to make an important decision for the future of the team. Several options were considered, but making the jump up to LMP2 quickly became the obvious choice.
“The genesis on the decision started well over a year ago, when it became clear LMP3 was moving out of WeatherTech,” Lance Willsey told MotorsportWeek.com, who has been driving for Sean Creech Motorsport since 2018 and is heavily involved in the direction of the Florida-based squad.
“We had to make a decision as a team, ‘Do we want to stay in WeatherTech, or do something else? And if we stay in WeatherTech, do we want to stay in prototypes or go to GT cars?’
“I had raced in the GT field years ago for many, many years. But I enjoy the prototype class a little more. Making that decision, it became fairly easy that LMP2 was the option for us.”
When looking at the existing LMP2 landscape, it would be easy to assume the only option was to pick up an Oreca chassis and get to work matching the teams that have had years of practice with the platform. But there are still four different chassis approved for use, and due diligence was done before a final chassis choice was made.
Among the obvious factors of availability and outright pace were more personal factors that influenced the decision. Prior experiences the team had with Oreca, which builds and services the engines used in LMP3, played heavily into the decision to strike a deal with Ligier instead.
“The easy thing to do is to be like every other team in the world, grab an Oreca chassis, and go racing,” continued Willsey. “But I wasn’t entirely pleased with the support we received from Oreca with the LMP3 engines.
“Exactly a year ago, when we were running the LMP3 cars here, we had a significant problem with the engines. There was a bad batch of pistons and stuff. I was not pleased the way that was managed by Oreca, so it made it a pretty easy decision for me to speak to the folks at Ligier, who we had a multi-year, long-term relationship with running the LMP3 car.
“So I spoke to them about the P217, then set out to talk to as many teams and individuals I could find who had experience with the car back in the 2017-2018 era. Trying to understand if it was a fundamental engineering problem, or if it was something else.
“I came to the conclusion as best I could, triangulating input from drivers, engineers, and mechanics, that it was a combination of bad timing with regards to the joker updates, not getting those updates done as quickly as the teams were hoping for, and developing the car on Michelin tires when Michelin tires were not being used in Europe. I believe Dunlops were [being used there].
“All the development had been done on a different tire manufacturer, different compound, and quite frankly the drivers were disappointed and frustrated with the car. We spoke a lot to the folks at Ligier, decided we thought this was manageable challenge, and here we are today.”
Though the challenge may be manageable, it certainly was not an easy program to get off the ground. Any time a team steps up to a higher category in racing competition, there are numerous factors to take into account. But this step up had many unique challenges to navigate.
One of the most notable hurdles was acquiring enough parts to be ready to race in this year’s Rolex 24. Funding was not as much of an issue as finding the parts to purchase in the first place. The Ligier JS P217 chassis had not been run in IMSA since 2021, and options were limited.
“It’s a challenge for sure,” said Joao Barbosa, who has also been driving for SCM for multiple years. “We have to look for the parts. Ligier doesn’t have some of the parts, but they are making a big effort. At least as this point we have everything we need. Ligier is making a big effort to get us everything we need as well.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of cars stopped across the world in case we really need to get another set of parts. I think the parts are available, we just need to look for them. At least at this point, we have an excellent head start and have everything you need.”
Ligier had not needed to supply a team with all the parts needed to run its P217 chassis for a single race in the United States in multiple years, and a full season effort had not been attempted with the chassis since 2018. Spare parts were not necessarily available on short notice, and that resulted in a scavenger hunt that spanned oceans.
“You have to realize, we’re the only team in the world running this car,” said Willsey. “We got the car, we got the spares that came with it. Because nobody has run these cars in anger in years, Ligier did not have a parts inventory available.
“Once we started going through the car and figuring out what we need to be able to run 10/10 in testing, we had to have [some parts] manufactured, we had to have things shipped from Europe. We were scouring the world for parts.
“Having said that, we have the benefit that Ligier has been an outstanding partner in this process and has embedded a number of engineers with us. We couldn’t do this without their all-in participation to make this happen.”
Six months of intense preparation
The current LMP2 regulations were created in 2017, with designs from four different manufacturers being selected as options for teams that wished to participate in the class. Chassis from Dallara, Riley, Ligier, and Oreca were all approved for use and summarily balanced against each other to create fair competition.
In recent years, through various factors, the Oreca 07 has become the chassis of choice among teams competing in IMSA’s LMP2 class. Once it was being fielded by a large share of the paddock, the chassis became a self-perpetuating dominator in the field.
More teams were running the chassis, which meant there were more data points to develop from, which meant more gains were being made and more wins being logged. The scale of the operation also meant that Oreca had a large number of technicians and suppliers supporting the events, meaning it was easier than ever to add one more when a new team wanted to join the ranks.
None of these advantages are available for Sean Creech Motorsport in their latest venture. It is having to rebuild the program up again nearly from scratch, and is largely doing so on its own. That meant it needed to get as much testing under its belt as possible.
SCM took delivery of its used Ligier P217 chassis on the 24th of July, just six months before the green flag was scheduled to wave at the Rolex 24. 72 days of intense work followed, stripping the chassis down and evaluating the condition of every single nut, bolt, and custom carbon fiber component. On the 4th of October, the team took the car out on track for the very first time.
The crew leaned on their strong relationship with Ligier, and learned as much as they could from the expertise the French company provided. A couple test sessions followed over the next couple months, but it was barely enough.
“We had a very aggressive, but manageable testing schedule,” related Willsey. “Between a series of circumstances, the repaving of the track here [at Daytona] we lost two days, then bad storms we lost a couple more days of testing.
“Quite literally, the first time I drove the car on sticker tires was in qualifying. Some of that was by design, considering the testing we had. We as a team have had very, very little time to develop the car. Which in some ways is unfortunate, but it’s also encouraging that we find ourselves competitive.
“We’re nowhere close, nor will be the fastest car in LMP2 with what we know today, but we’re competitive and making improvement.
“Everybody knows where the ceiling for the Oreca is. After being here for five or six years, people have a pretty good handle where the ceiling is for the Oreca. We have no idea in the world where we can get to because we’ve done so few laps.
“I’m pretty confident we were the only team this week doing big swings with spring changes and bar changes. We’re still generating data to help us in our simulations to help us get to where we want to be.
“The synopsis is that the team has done a heroic job to get us where we are. We’re really in the first inning of learning this car and figuring out what it likes, what it responds to, et cetera. I’m extremely optimistic that it’s going to be a very competitive package in the field.”
Evaluating the differences of the Ligier P217
Only when Sean Creech Motorsport began testing its car out on track did it begin to truly understand the nuances of the Ligier chassis. Far from just a differently-shaped nose and more angled wheel wells, the car drove completely differently to the Oreca cars it would be competing against.
And there was an even bigger difference compared to the LMP3, which is what the team’s crew and two veteran drivers were used to. There was more power, more onboard tools, and a faster pace that demanded more from those behind the wheel.
From what Lance Willsey gleaned from his research, however, the Ligier is less demanding than the comparable Oreca chassis. Which will provide a distinct advantage during this season’s five endurance rounds.
“There are vast differences between the Oreca and Ligier,” said the 61-year-old Willsey. “There are some people on the gentleman driver side [who have told me] the Oreca is quite a small cockpit for the driver.
“The Ligier was designed slightly larger. It’s certainly not spacious or roomy, but it’s slightly larger than the Oreca. I’m told, because I’ve never driven the Oreca, that the ergonomics in the Ligier, the seating position and the layout of the cockpit, is more user-friendly.
“I find it to be very, very user-friendly. It’s a quite comfortable car to drive, which will play out to our advantage in the long runs. I hear a lot from the gentleman drivers in the Orecas that it’s an abusive car to run on double and triple stints. It really takes its toll on you physically.”
One driver in Sean Creech’s stable is well versed in the Oreca 07 chassis, however, as the team’s up-and-coming driver Nolan Siegel competed with the car last season. The talented 19-year-old, who is also rising through the ranks on the open wheel side in the IndyNXT series, confirmed much of what Willsey described. He also related that the Ligier LMP2 chassis is actually quite different to drive from the Oreca 07, and it reminds him of the feel of a GT car.
“It’s hard to compare,” said Siegel. “I didn’t know what to expect, but they are completely different cars to drive. Really, really different, which was unexpected for me. I wouldn’t say one is inherently better than the other, they just have different characteristics that will suit each one better in different places.
“If I could sum it up, the Oreca is a bit more reactive and feels a bit more like an open wheel car, while the Ligier, in a way, feels more GT-like. It’s a bit bigger, a little heavier, and seems to roll around a bit more. It’s smoother and in a lot of ways easier to drive.
“I think that will suit it in a lot of places. There are some places, like here, where we have been struggling with straight line speed. That doesn’t necessarily suit the car here at Daytona, but I think when they get to high speed places like Watkins Glen, the car’s going to be really strong”
These viewpoints have helped the team understand where its car fits in among the existing entries in the LMP2 class. When the differences, both relative weaknesses and relative strengths, are a known quantity, then those can be exploited to help gain race wins. Which, of course, is the ultimate goal.
Breaking open the single-make lockout of LMP2
One thing that was plain to see during the opening round of the 2024 season was that the decision to run a Ligier chassis has garnered a lot of extra attention. Not just from media looking for an underdog story, but also from SCM’s rivals in the paddock.
Many of the competitors watched on intently to see how the Ligier would fare against their own proven Oreca chassis. Had this team, which was moving up to LMP2 for the first time in its history, found some new bit of knowledge that would give them an advantage? Surely the Ligier was all but abandoned years ago because it wasn’t capable of the same pace. Right?
Joao Barbosa had a laugh recalling how many visitors his team’s garage area had gotten in the week leading up to the Rolex 24. Some were looking to simply check out the competition, including sending their own photographers over to get sneaky looks at the car as it sat in the garage bay. Others, such as the owner of United Autosports, which ran the Ligier JS P217 in 2018, expressed gratitude for attempting to bring Ligier back to LMP2.
“It’s funny,” recalled Barbosa. “One of the owners of United came over, because they still have two cars in their shop, and said ‘Thanks for increasing the value of our cars.’
“There’s more people interested and more people considering [running the Ligier chassis] because the car is not as bad as they were saying. Unfortunately, the car stopped running early on [in the current rules package]. They had the updates that nobody really tried. It’s proven the car is actually race-able and it’s a good car.”
It is possible that what the paddock needed was someone to take chance on the abandoned chassis and look at it from a fresh perspective. If there were new tricks that could be exploited, there is a chance it could become a viable option against the de facto standard.
For the past five years, outside of a single race at Daytona in 2021, LMP2 has been effectively a single-make series. Despite four chassis designs outlined in the rulebook, the competition has been racing for the class win against drivers with the exact same machinery.
A veteran of over a dozen 24 hour races on the famous Daytona course, Willsey feels like he is helping to ensure LMP2 continues to be a competition between manufacturers as well as drivers.
“This is my 15th Rolex 24, 14th year,” said the accomplished surgeon turned racer. “There’s nothing overwhelming about this at all. This is in no way shape or form about me. I hope that it’s about the LMP2 class, and about the Ligier chassis. That it’s not the car it was portrayed to be through a variety of circumstances.
“It’s important. The LMP2 class was never meant to be a single make series. It wasn’t meant to be spec Miata. Now, we have to be spec on the tires, we have to spec on the Gibson motor. The least somebody could do is bring some diversity to the grid to see if it works.
“Thus far, it’s working. We’re not where we want to be, and we’re not where we will be, but we’re getting closer every session. We have no idea where our ceiling is. We’re just scratching the surface.”
The ultimate goal: Victory
Turning back to what this entire endeavour is about, can a bet on the Ligier P217 chassis land Sean Creech in victory lane? That level of success is not likely for at least the first portion of this season, considering the lack of data the team is currently working with. But more data points are gathered with every outing, and the team certainly believes the potential is there.
Once SCM made the decision to run the Ligier for the 2024 season, people began to warn them not to expect immediate success. In fact, they said the chassis would not be much faster than the LMP3 they had been running for the past few years, placing them solidly behind the competition.
“People much smarter than me had prepared me for the fact that Daytona would be the toughest challenge for the 217 chassis for a variety of reasons,” said Willsey with a hint of smugness.
“Right now, we’re a mid-pack car. We’re not on the sharp end, but there were people that were telling me we would be two seconds off the pace. People much more experienced than me were saying ‘If you guys get within two seconds, that’s your victory.’ I was like ‘Oh man, that’s tough.’
“But we’re not. We’re there. Not where we want to be yet, but we’re chipping away.”
While qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the #33 turned a lap comparable to the teams that were running the vaunted Oreca chassis. SCM qualified 12th out of 13 LMP2 entries, and its lap time was within a second of two other established teams. Considering all the disadvantages the team was fighting against, that alone meant the effort is not as hopeless as some had made it seem.
During the race, the car developed an electrical issue just after sunset, but the crew was able to diagnose and fix the problem with approximately one hour of track time lost. Unfortunately, the car had to be retired with just five hours remaining in the 24 hour race after the engine cover blew off while at speed.
Despite the disappointing retirement, the team still finished ninth in class and completed 510 laps of the 3.56 mile course. Considering the longest single run the team completed during testing was approximately 45 minutes in length, the reliability shown during the race is fairly remarkable.
Running better than others predicted is not the ultimate goal, however. Neither is finishing the race. Victory is the ultimate goal. Willsey made it clear that he believes in the Ligier chassis, and he is putting all his effort into taking it all the way to the winner’s circle.
“There is a single solitary goal, and that is to win this race. At my age, I’m not here for participation prizes any more. I’ve done this 14 times, and I don’t need another participation prize. We’re here to win this race.
“Anything less than that will be a disappointment, and we’ll need to understand why that didn’t happen. It may be entirely factually correct that we do everything perfect, and we still can’t win. That’s okay, I accept that. But it doesn’t make me happy. That just means we got to figure out what we need to do better next time.”
