Era Motorsport announced Tuesday (July 2) that Stuart Wiltshire will join the team and make his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut in the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on July 14. Wiltshire will drive the team’s No. 18 ORECA 07-Gibson at CTMP and at Road America alongside Ryan Dalziel, replacing Dwight Merriman.
“After getting a few years of experience driving prototypes, I’ve gotten quite comfortable behind the wheel, and I can’t wait to see how things stack up once we get on track for [practice],” Wiltshire said in a press release.
Although he is a new face to IMSA, Wiltshire is a known quantity to Era Motorsport. He has been a client of the team’s historic program in the past.
Ahead of his debut, Wiltshire has already completed a test with the team at the 2.439-mile undulating road course. He thinks that he can impress in his debut.
“After the test, I feel great in the car, and I’m confident with the pace I have,” Wiltshire continued. “The biggest difference for me will be the longer stints in IMSA as opposed to the 45-minute drive times I’m used to in historic racing.”
Wiltshire owns multiple historic prototypes, including an Acura ARX-05 that was previously campaigned in the DPi class by Wayne Taylor Racing that Era Motorsport maintains. Those cars are a very different experience to drive as compared to a current LMP2 car, but no experience is bad experience.
Prior to his experience in historic race cars, Wiltshire raced in Formula 3 equipment in a number of different series in Europe. These include EuroFormula Open and the MSV F3 Series.
Outside of racing, Wiltshire, 59, is the CEO of the JSM Group, a British contractor that installs utility lines (electrical, gas, fiber optic, etc.)
Merriman, who Wiltshire is replacing, is not leaving the team despite his campaign being cut down to just the Michelin Endurance Cup races (Note: At this point in the WeatherTech season, LMP2 teams have only participated in the three Michelin Endurance Cup races so far). In fact, the team announced Monday that he is expanding his horizons by “expanding his racing portfolio into a new project.” That new project has not been announced as of yet, but it will likely preclude Merriman racing with the team in 2025 in IMSA.
The team is currently looking for new drivers to plug into their LMP2 program for the 2025 season. Wiltshire could end up being one of those drivers, but not…
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