Boy, does it get late early? A month ago, it felt like there was a lot of racing left. Now, not so much. The races are running out. The championships are being claimed. October is a tough time. There is the excitement of championships being decided, but the sadness in an extended break from some series about to begin. It is a cycle. It gets better from here.
To pick ourselves up, we should look at some positive aspects from this season and some positives of what is to come.
DTM: The GT Drivers' Championship
This was the second season for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters contesting GT3-spec automobiles, and after a contentious ending to the 2021 season that soured the competition on track, there was some apprehension entering the 2022 season, but what we saw on track eases all nerves and DTM is again one of the hidden gems of the motorsports world.
The 2022 season was a who's who of the top GT drivers from around the world competing in this series. You look down the top 15 in the championship and there is no weak driver in that group, and the grid was regularly over two-dozen entries.
Sheldon van der Linde was champion, still a young driver, but van der Linde has been emerging in recent seasons, including competing in DTM prior to the GT3 switch.
Who did he finish ahead of?
Lucas Auer, another DTM race winner who was also successful in junior single-seater race.
René Rast, a three-time Porsche Supercup champion and a ADAC GT Masters champion and a race winner in the 24 Hours of Daytona and Nürburgring 24 Hours and Spa 24 Hours before becoming a three-time DTM champion.
Mirko Bortolotti, who is a Blancpain GT Endurance Cup champion as well as a multi-time class winner in the 24 Hours of Daytona and a class winner in the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Thomas Preining, a Porsche Carrera Cup Germany champion who has won in the European Le Mans Series and competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
And that was just the rest of the top five in the championship.
That isn't taking considering...
Luca Stolz, a GT World Challenge Europe champion...
Nico Müller, a multi-time DTM vice-champion...
Marco Wittmann, a two-time DTM champion...
Kelvin van der Linde, a two-time ADAC GT Masters champion and Nürburgring 24 Hour winner...
Dennis Olsen, an Intercontinental GT Challenge champion...
Maximilian Götz, a champion in ADAC GT Masters, Blancpain GT Sprint Cup and DTM...
Maro Engel, a Blancpain GT Endurance Cup champion...
Nick Cassidy, a champion in Super GT and Super Formula and a Formula E race winner...
Philipp Eng, a Porsche Supercup champion...
Ricardo Feller, an ADAC GT Masters champion...
Felipe Fraga, a Stock Car Brasil champion and a regular winner in sports cars...
And Laurens Vanthoor, a Blancpain GT Endurance Cup and Overall champion, an Intercontinental GT Series champion, an IMSA GTLM champion and an IMSA GTD champion, plus a winner in the Nürburgring 24 Hour, Spa 24 Hour, and a class winner in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
And Vanthoor was 18th in the championship!
Are all the big GT names there? No, but it is as healthy of a GT grid as you can ask for, and it is an individual sprint series. When DTM was switching to GT3-specs, many wondered if we needed another GT3 series, but there wasn't a pure GT3 sprint series where a single driver drove a car. There was a vacuum in the GT3 world, one that was left after Pirelli World Challenge morphed into GT World Challenge America and even went away from an all-pro classification in the top series.
DTM is a driver's championship. Yes, the manufactures will still try to pull the strings, but this is the healthiest DTM has been in 20 years. Six manufactures participated in this series. There were 11 race winners in 16 races. The grid is rounded out with some slower drivers, but it is nearly a dozen-and-a-half drivers deep.
The series is still evolving. The 2023 calendar is trending toward being mostly Germany and Austria based with maybe one trip to Vila Real, Portugal, but this series, this format, could expand beyond the center of Europe. I don't think the DTM teams want to become a world championship of sorts, I think that range has gotten the series in trouble in the past, but this could definitely be a European-based championship with a German center, what DTM has practically always been since its revival in 2000.
I hope DTM continues in its current form and becomes a little more refined. It has found a good space in the motorsports landscape and hopefully more people will start to notice it.
Ode to IMSA
On the first day of this month, the IMSA season ended with five championships being claimed. It was an extraordinary season for the North American sports car championship. Every class was breathtakingly competitive. There was never a race weekend where you felt you knew the result before the cars hit the track. On top of it, this was the final season for the Daytona Prototype international class.
Before moving to 2023, I wanted to celebrate the best of the IMSA season.
Which begins with Meyer Shank Racing taking the DPi championship. MSR won the 24 Hours of Daytona, its second victory in that event, a decade after its first, and it won Petit Le Mans, its second victory in that event as well.
But in-between, it was runner-up in five races. Driver Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis never finished outside the top five. Jarvis, a veteran of the Audi LMP1 program, who was twice runner-up in the world championship, claimed his first title since the 2005 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship. It was Blomqvist's first championship since the 2010 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship... oh and Blomqvist's father Stig Blomqvist won the 1984 World Rally Championship driving for Audi. Talk about symmetry in this lineup.
Like MSR in DPi, Pfaff Motorsports won the GT Daytona Pro championship and never finished worse than fifth this season. Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet ended the season with seven consecutive podium finishes and started the season with a thrilling victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Meanwhile, in the GTD Pro class, Antonio García and Jordan Taylor dropped to third in the final standings, but this is the 11th consecutive season García has finished either first or third in the championship dating back to the American Le Mans Series GT class in the 2012 season.
García's championship finishes as a Corvette factory driver are third, first, third, third, third, first, first, third, first, first, third.
Also, it was a great year for Canada in IMSA. John Farano won the LMP2 championship, the Canadian-based Pfaff Motorsports won the GTD Pro title, and Roman De Angelis won the GTD championship. This was the second consecutive season a Canadian won the GTD championship after Zacharie Robichon took the title with Laurens Vanthoor driving for Pfaff Motorsports.
Jon Bennett and Colin Braun won the IMSA LMP3 championship, their third championship together as co-drivers after they won the 2014 and 2015 Prototype Challenge class championship, which also negates to mention they were runners-up in the 2018 Prototype championship and they were second in LMP3 last year.
GT Daytona had seven manufactures win a race, but one of the two that did not win was Lamborghini, the first time the Italian manufacture has not won in IMSA since full GT3-specs were adopted for the GTD class ahead of the 2016 season. The other manufacture that did not win in GTD this season was McLaren, which was second on two occasions. I would say Balance of Performance is working in this class.
We did have BMW win the GT Daytona manufactures' championship, its first manufactures' championship in the class. It was also the fourth consecutive year with a different manufacture winning the GTD manufactures' title after Lamborghini, Acura and Porsche won it the three prior seasons.
The 2023 season and the introduction of the LMDh category has been highly anticipated. We will see Porsche and BMW join Acura and Cadillac in the renamed GTP class. The GTD classes should remain highly competitive. IMSA could not be entering this new era at a higher level.
November Preview
Keeping the sports car theme, the FIA World Endurance Championship season will conclude on Saturday November 12 with the 8 Hours of Bahrain. All four class championships are undecided but this is how the picture looks in each class.
Hypercar World Endurance Drivers' Championship: The #8 Toyota and the #36 Alpine are tied on 121 points with the #7 Toyota 26 points back. All three cars could win the championship as Bahrain pays 38 points to win, plus a point for pole position. With the two Peugeot entries on the track, the lowest points a finishing car can score is 15. The #7 Toyota can only win the championship if the #8 Toyota and #36 Alpine both finish unclassified, which constitutes completing less than 70% of the overall winner's race distance.
Toyota does have 147 points in the manufactures' championship, 26 points ahead of Alpine. The only way Alpine can win the manufactures' championship is if both Toyota finish unclassified.
LMP2: There are five teams competing for the LMP2 championship.
The #38 Jota Oreca-Gibson of António Félix da Costa, Roberto González and Will Stevens leads with 114 points, 28 points clear of Josh Pierson and Oliver Jarvis in the #23 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson and 34 points ahead of the the #41 RealTeam by WRT Oreca-Gibson of Ferdinand Habsburg, Norman Nato and Rui Andrade. The #31 WRT Oreca-Gibson is the only LMP2 car to have multiple victories this season, but two non-points finishes has Robin Frijns and Sean Gelael 36 points back. Prema Orlen Team has its #9 Oreca-Gibson of Lorenzo Colombo, Louis Delétraz and Robert Kubica 38 points off Jota.
Jota will clinch the championship with a finish of sixth or better.
World Endurance GTE Drivers' Championship: It is Ferrari vs. Porsche. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi is looking for its second consecutive title and lead the championship with 120 points, 11 points over #92 Porsche of Kévin Estre and Michael Christensen. Gianmaria Bruni is 14 points back with Richard Leitz 24 points back. Leitz missed the Monza round due to a COVID-positive test.The #52 AF Corse Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina are 27 points off the sister car.
The only way the #51 Ferrari can clinch the championship is to finish second with the #92 Porsche not winning from pole position. If the #51 Ferrari finishes second and the #92 Porsche wins the race but does not win pole position, the #51 Ferrari would hold the tiebreaker with two victories and two runner-up finishes to the #92 Porsche's two victories and one runner-up finish.
GTE Am: It is an all-Aston Martin championship battle in GTE Am. The #33 TF Sport Aston Martin versus the #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin. Ben Keating and Marco Sørensen have scored 123 points in the #33 Aston Martin, 20 points more than David Pittard, Nicki Thiim and Paul Dalla Lana in the #98 Aston Martin.
TF Sport clinch the championship with a podium finish or a finish of fourth and the #98 Aston Martin not winning pole position. TF Sport owns the tiebreaker with two victories and two runner-up finishes while the best Northwest AMR can do is two victories and one runner-up finish.
The 8 Hours of Bahrain will start at 6:00 a.m. ET on Saturday November 12.
Other events of note in November
NASCAR championships will be decided in Phoenix.
Formula One has a few races left.
MotoGP will have the championship decided at Valencia.
World Superbike has a few rounds left.
And the FIFA World Cup begins.
