[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

I can see the points that are trying to be made. I doubt that Cadillac cares who wins as long as a Cadillac wins. Same with Joest and Champion when the ran Audi R8s, Audi Sport didn't care as long as an Audi won. And when Porsche dominated GT racing in the first half of the 2000s they didn't care that much if their favored team, be it Dick Barbour or AJR won or a true customer team. All they really cared about is that a Porsche won.

Same thing here, and it still gives Cadillac strength in numbers relative to the rest of the DPI field. That's unless Acura or Mazda sell customer cars, which Mazda has seemingly ruled out per Racer and Acura at least publicly doesn't have plans right now for customer cars.

I also agree to an extent that splitting a 12 or so car class into two 6-8 or so car classes doens't make a ton of sense, but the DPIs have been hamstrung, especially in terms of engine power, compared to initial performance levels. But as I've pointed out before, that was a device of IMSA's making by allowing development in what was intended to be a BOP class in an attempt to limit development, or at least discourage the spending of so much money and resources on it. Especially given that LMP2s were held to ACO specs and the ACO, outside of joker upgrades and basic car set up, doesn't allow any noteworthy changes during or between seasons currently.

Reminds me of the 2014 Petit Le Mans. The factory Porsche GT was working extra hard to fight off the Dodge Viper to protect the Falken Tire Porsche which was leading at the time. Falken did subsequently win GTLM at the 14 PLM.