IMSA’s four Daytona Prototype international manufacturers are not expected to make additional cars available to customer teams next season.

Barring a late change of heart from Acura, Cadillac, Mazda or Nissan, 2018 will kick off with two ARX-05s from Team Penske, three DPi-V.Rs from Cadillac’s Action Express Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing, two RT24-Ps from Mazda Team Joest, and a pair of Nissan Onroak DPis from Tequila Patron ESM, to give IMSA nine factory prototypes.

Earlier this week, a Cadillac representative confirmed the plan to stick with three full-time cars next year. Honda Performance Development CEO Art St. Cyr said from the outset of the Acura program that customer DPis were not in its short-term plans, and Mazda, with a need to thoroughly redevelop its Riley/Multimatic-based cars, is not in a position to offer competitive DPis at this point in the RT24-P’s existence.

The last brand – Nissan, brought to the series in a relationship forged and funded by ESM involving French P2 constructor Ligier – is unlike the others due to its role as a service provider to team co-owners Ed Brown and Scott Sharp.

With the keys to chassis supply for the race-winning Nissan DPi, Sharp says 2019 would be the earliest point where customer cars could be considered.

“We have an exclusive arrangement for this year and next year,” he told RACER. “The potential to possibly extend that exists, but certainly I think if the right situation came about and benefited all parties, making cars available is something that could be looked at for sure.”

The veteran racer, whose prototype experience dates back to piloting customer cars in IMSA’s GTP era, expects the Nissan DPi count to grow at some point if the wins continue to build.

“If the success comes with the car, I’m sure there’ll be some more of them on the grid at some point,” he added.