Scott Sharp has revealed that the two-year private arrangement with Onroak for Extreme Speed Motorsports to use the Nissan Onroak DPi will conclude at the end of the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
The conclusion of the exclusive agreement will open up the opportunity for others to come in and use the Onroak chassis, which is powered by a twin-turbo V6 engine, alongside ESM from 2019 onwards.
Sharp, the co-owner of the outfit that has taken two victories with the DPi across the past two seasons including the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring earlier this season, sees this as a positive for ESM, providing they can work closely with them, as it will likely help make the Nissan Onroak DPi a much more competitive entity.
“We’ve had two years of exclusivity, which ends at the end of the season, and now we’re open to the package becoming available,” said Sharp to RACER.
“We’d like to talk to other teams about coming in and working closely with us, work with our partners, and excel.”
Sharp says it would be wise for potential partners to make contact with Onroak sooner rather than later, particularly as the 2019 season begins in January with the Roar Before the 24.
“That’s really a conversation that starts with Onroak, and yeah, I wouldn’t wait,” added Sharp. “January will be here in no time.”
Acura’s alliance with Team Penske and Mazda Team Joest’s reluctance to allow customers to use their RT24-P means Cadillac and now Nissan will offer alternatives to customers wishing to come into the championship, particularly now the decision was made to split the prototype class up into separate DPi and LMP2 championships from 2019.
