By 2023, a merger of the top classes of sports car racing in Europe and the US will bring at least eight manufacturers to a top level of competition that has not seen more than three since the 90s. That number, however, is deceiving. Two of those manufacturers, Acura and BMW, have yet to confirm that their new LMDh cars will ever race in Europe. Another three, the LMH group of Toyota, Peugeot, and Ferrari, are based in Europe and only learned that their cars will be eligible to compete in the US two days ago.
Eventually, business interests will likely get Ferrari and Toyota to the US in at least two races a year and BMW and Acura (albeit with Honda or HPD branding) to Le Mans for one. But Peugeot, the Stellantis-owned brand that sells no cars in the US and has no plans to return any time soon, seems likely to stay in Europe.
For fans of sports car racing, this is a shame. Peugeot's new-for-2022 sports car, the 9X8, is one of the most dramatic and exciting looking cars the category has seen in its recent history. The wingless prototype's dramatic features make it nearly as memorable as the front wheel drive Nissan GT-R LM Nismo, and, unlike that car, the underpinnings of the 9X8 are standard enough that it should actually be reliable and competitive in its class. Sure, the cars will visit the US for World Endurance Championship rounds held here, but those European-based prototype fields are nothing in comparison to the full-throated competition with American-based prototypes and other European one-offs the team would face if it entered IMSA's major endurance races.
Racing the car in IMSA, specifically in the traditional Floridian endurance rounds at Daytona and Sebring, is not a wise business decision. While Stellantis owns eight brands that sell cars in the US, Peugeot is not one. And, as the car is very specifically built to promote both Peugeot's hybrid performance lines and its dramatic modern design language, the 9X8 would make no sense whatsoever if re-branded as a Fiat, Abarth, Alfa Romeo, or Dodge entry for those two races. Any racing done in the US would be done solely to race the car for trophies and wins.
That probably is not enough in 2023, but it was back in the sports car-starved landscape of the late 2000s. Back then, another iteration of Peugeot racing competed in the 12 Hours of Sebring as a major tune-up before Le Mans. Daytona was organized by the now-defunct Grand-Am series and therefore not something their 908s could enter, but the cars also often raced at the Petit Le Mans in Road Atlanta to cap off their seasons. There was no business case in 2008, either, but it did not stop Peugeot from racing its dramatic diesel hybrids in the places where the trophies meant the most.
Come 2023, every announced LMDh program will be on the grid at Daytona. Toyota could bring what will then be a battle-tested GR010 Hybrid to that race, too. Ferrari, likely to seek a splashier debut for its new hypercar than a mere regular season World Endurance Championship round, seems like a logical fit to complete the grid. It would leave Peugeot as an outlier, with a strong understanding of business alone keeping them from America's largest endurance race and fans from an adequate preview of the much-anticipated 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. There is still time to solve this.
No sports car manufacturer owes fans of the sport their involvement. After all, relative to open wheel racing, there are hardly any fans of the sport in the first place. There is no smart business case to be made in chasing wins at Daytona and Sebring, and the races will almost certainly not be part of the World Endurance Championship. This would be about nothing but sending the best cars in the world out to the best races regardless of what titles they award and what cars they sell. That alone means no Stellantis executive would be expected approve this campaign.
Those executives should simply ignore these details. The business case for LMH category, significantly more expensive than LMDh and still much slower than the LMP1 class that preceded it, is already very suspect. If Peugeot can commit to the hyper-expensive development of a car in this class, racing it two more times a year is a relatively small budget item. Racing sustains itself not on smart business proposals but on the emotion of building a car, bringing it to a track, and racing for a glory that will be remembered in 25 years. While championships are great, regular rounds of the IMSA and World Endurance Championships cannot offer that emotion. Sports cars race to win the big ones, and, while Daytona and Sebring pale in comparison to Le Mans, they are the next biggest things in the category.
Yes, this is about at-track activation and dealership networks too, but the ultimate goal of building a sports car is to win Le Mans and make the thing a legend. Whether or not the 9X8 accomplishes its short-term goals in IMSA competition, battling its peers for wins in the types of races road cars get named after should be the goal. The design clearly indicates that this car is about more than just winning races, so why not lean into that illogical sort of dream and get it in front of as many eyes as possible? Peugeot's latest racer is the most exciting-looking car in the most exciting category in auto racing. It deserves nothing less than the most exciting schedule Stellantis can give it.
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