Sudden tests of Kvyat in the USA on a Lamborghini: the latter lost to his partner by 1.5 seconds. What kind of race and why was it

We understand.

In early February , Daniil Kvyat said that he would continue his career in the WEC – world endurance racing (there is also 24 Hours of Le Mans ). He will ride on the LMP2 class prototype for the Prema team in crew number 63. Later it turned out that Kvyat was not limited to one WEC.

In the middle of the month, the name of a Russian suddenly appeared in an application for IMSA tests – American endurance racing. “Suddenly” – because neither Kvyat, nor the team, nor the series itself reported anything about his participation in the tests. And then in all social networks there was emptiness. But he was included in the same crew with another ex-pilot of F-1 Romain Grosjean – in the Iron Lynx team from the professional GT class.

Kvyat ended up driving one session. He did not chase the best time: for 22 laps on the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2, the Russian showed the worst time in his class (where there are only seven pilots; Kvyat is 55th out of 61 among all) and lost to the same Grosjean – the penultimate in category – one and a half seconds.

Why did Kvyat need such an experience? And what is this championship?

IMSA is a very young but promising series. The sponsors liked her so much that they helped her out during the pandemic

These are American endurance races – although only four of the 11 stages can be called such (including the famous 24 Hours of Daytona). The rest of the races are sprint races: they last no more than three hours and are not held for all classes.

The championship itself has a rather difficult history: in the 1960s, it was spun off from NASCAR and managed to survive only thanks to the sponsorship of American ovals boss Bill France. Further, the series changed owners and concepts several times. IMSA acquired its modern look only in 2014 after the merger of the American Le Mans Series and racing on the Grand-Am road tracks.

The championship has grown quite quickly: now IMSA holds seven series – in addition to the main one – and attracts many top factories from the world of the automotive industry (Ferrari, Mercedes, Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, BMW and others) . They (and the sponsors) love these races so much that they even helped IMSA survive the pandemic crisis.