Few can argue the merits behind IMSA’s decision to adopt full FIA GT3 specifications for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona class in 2016. The current blend of modified GT3 machinery and non-GT3 cars built specifically for the North American market has been a bit messy, leading the series to consolidate GTD’s future around a single set of rules. The move, however, has come at the expense of those who purchased brand-new Porsche 911 GT Americas to campaign this season.

With no provisions at this moment to update the GT Americas to GT3 specifications – Porsche already sells a full GT3 model, teams that purchased or run 911 GT Americas on behalf of customers have a pricey quandary on their hands at the end of 2015 when the cars are no longer eligible for GTD.

Should Alex Job Racing, Dempsey Racing, GB Autosport, Magnus Racing, Muehlner Motorsports America, NGT Motorsport, Park Place Motorsports and Snow Racing – teams that comprise 11 of the 23 cars that just raced in GTD at Circuit of The Americas – spend 2015 with a lame duck chassis in GTD, make the switch to a GT3 car that can be converted to GTD spec in 2015 and then convert it back to full GT3 in 2016, or look to run in the World Endurance Championship next year while they figure out the best direction to take with IMSA?

Depending on the owner, entrant or driver, the answer could involve some or all of the scenarios listed above.

“2015 is a transition year, so the new GT3-spec GTD car isn’t coming until 2016, so we have to figure out what we’ll do for 2015 because it will only be for one year,” Alex Job (LEFT) told RACER. “I’m not a fan of GT3 as a concept; there’s no technical rulebook; GT3-spec cars are things where manufacturers can build what they want and the series makes up the [Balance of Performance] to fit. The thing I don’t like from a pure competition standpoint is your destiny is in the hands of the series. It’s all about the BoP from the beginning, instead of it coming in at the end to make smaller adjustments. For me, that’s just a conceptual problem.

“What happened to the days when you had a rulebook and the manufacturers built their best car to those rules. Now it’s BoP’ing everything and it really came in with GT3. It seems like we can’t stop that freight train.”

Alex Job Racing is synonymous with the Porsche brand, and the Florida-based team owner expects that relationship to continue through the entries he fields for the WeatherTech and Team Seattle 911 GT America programs.

“If we continue to run GTD, it makes sense to run it with the same product,” he added. “WEC is definitely an attractive proposition, but it’s run elsewhere other than the one race here so it’s not the most interesting to me. World Challenge is something I’ve looked at and it’s interesting, but for me, sports car racing is endurance racing. For the moment, the TUDOR Championship has the most appeal, they’ve made improvements throughout the year and they’re moving in a better direction.

“Clearly both of my customers’ preference is the Porsche brand, and it has been mine for 25 years. My first love is with Porsche, as is it for (WeatherTech owner) David MacNeil, but I wouldn’t say it’s the only choice. For my other team, Team Seattle, they seem to be committed to Porsche and I’d need both my customers to run the same [car].”

Converting 911 GT Americas to Porsche Cup configuration and selling the cars to reduce the financial loss is a possibility, according to Job, but it won’t be a simple or inexpensive process.

“It would take some work – we’ve done a lot of work on these cars that involve more than installing or removing parts, plus you’ll need to fit a lot of things specific to the Cup cars, so it can be done, but it’s not as simple as it might sound,” he said.

Like Job, Magnus Racing owner/driver John Potter isn’t discouraged from continuing with IMSA, but does have an eye on adding some WEC outings.

“At this point in the season we’re looking at several options to be honest, but it’s tough to say where we’ll land,” he said. “While IMSA has had its struggles, we’d be open to returning in 2015, and obviously it makes financial sense given that our program is already in place and the rules should be somewhat stable next season. Having said that, the WEC is a very attractive prospect, but it would require some new partners to make up the jump in budget, but it’s something we’re absolutely pursuing.

“Running in an international championship, especially Le Mans (BELOW), is something that as a team we’d definitely like to conquer, but at the same time the budget needs to be something we know we can sustain once we commit. At this moment, we don’t want to distract the team from their primary objective, which is to try and win Petit Le Mans, but there’s a couple of us behind the scenes who have been involved in several meetings and conversations in a number of different directions.”

Park Place Motorsports owner/driver Patrick Lindsey (LEFT) has two full-time 911 GT Americas in action this season and says making new car purchases in such a short timespan will be hard to swallow.

“The pros are that we’ll have a competitive car when everyone goes to GT3 cars, and the cons are that until then, we have a [Porsche] Cup car going up against GT3 cars that have been dumbed down, and we’re at the short end of the stick,” he noted. “You see that when they try to slow down the [GT3-spec] BMW Z4 by adding 25 kilos and it didn’t even make a dent in its performance. Our car is sucking wind trying to keep up with it, so I’m happy we’ll have a more solid platform in a few years.

“The investment we have is obviously not going to be worth as much when we go to GT3 cars. From Porsche’s side, they were told one thing, and the goal post was moved. I don’t blame them, and I don’t blame the series; things change. I’m not angry, but it’s a short timeline – 24 months – where you’re taking two big hits on buying brand-new cars. Our capital expenditures are taking big hits like buying a new trailer and awning to make the series look better, but we can’t do that because we’ll be scraping the money together to buy new GT3 cars.”

Lindsey is also interested in the WEC, but says the team’s sports car racing plans in North America would be reserved exclusively for IMSA.

“We’ve had our officiating problems in IMSA, but it’s light years better than World Challenge – and I say that after racing there for years before moving to IMSA,” he opined. “The reason I’m going to stick with IMSA is even if they put together a rule package that might not be perfect, I know it will be officiated capably. That’s why we’re here.”

“We have spoken about WEC, and the great thing about it is going to Le Mans. For guys like me, John Potter, Patrick Dempsey – we’re all looking at getting to Le Mans and the budget to get there isn’t that extreme compared to what we’re spending in GTD. But you’d miss out on a lot of great racing here, too.”

With the clock winding down on their GTD-spec Porsches, Lindsey could join some of the other 911 GT America owners who might tailor the 2015 TUDOR Championship season around some WEC appearances.

“We may have a situation where we can go race [in the WEC] next year, but we’re not going to ditch our IMSA program next year to do it,” Lindsey confirmed. “Our primary plan is in America and if the funding is there, we’ll also look to do something in the WEC.”

The cost implications of having to purchase new GT3-spec cars for 2016 is clearly significant and troublesome for IMSA’s Porsche GTD entrants, but if the byproduct includes joining the global sports car community through the WEC, the chassis changeover could come with an unintended benefit in the interim.

“It’s hard to say what everyone will end up doing, but [the GT3 change] has made a lot of guys in our situation sit up and think about their options and what makes sense – at least in the short-term,” added Lindsey. “Everyone in GT racing wants to race at Le Mans, so if you can make it happen, the timing is right. We’ll see how many get there.”