English driver Stuart Wiltshire is joining Era Motorsport for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Challenge at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park next weekend when LMP2 becomes the headlining class, as well for the remaining 2024 sprint race at Road America in August. Dwight Merriman, who’s driven the car for the past several years and the first three races of the season, is stepping aside to pursue other racing interests.
Wiltshire has experience in Formula 3, and recently started racing prototypes in the growing “modern historic” racing world, including LMP2 prototypes, a Peugeot 90X LMP1 car and, most recently, an Acura ARX-05 Daytona Prototype international car run out of the Era Motorsport US workshop. Wiltshire gained experience in the IMSA-spec Era Motorsport Oreca 07 LMP2 last year at the Historic Sportscar Racing Daytona Classic where he raced alongside Merriman, and tested the No. 18 ORECA at CTMP last week.
“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 FP1,” Wiltshire said. “After the test, I feel great in the car, and I’m confident with the pace I have. 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.”
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Sharing the car with Wiltshire will be Ryan Dalziel, the team’s professional driver since 2021.
Merriman, Dalziel and Connor Zilisch, with Christian Rasmussen joining at Daytona, took victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring to open the season. Contact for Merriman in the first lap of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, however, scuttled hopes for a repeat performance and dropped Era out of the championship lead in LMP2.
With Merriman stepping aside, the team has a Bronze-rated driver opening for the 2025 IMSA season, and with a fleet of ORECA 07 LMP2 machinery the team is capable of re-entering the Asian or European Le Mans Series as well.
“We’re super excited to be opening up the team to more drivers and more opportunities,” said team owner Kyle Tilley. “Our current Bronze, Dwight Merriman, is looking to expand his racing portfolio into a new project which we will be announcing later this year, so that opens up the incredible team we’ve developed over the past five years to new drivers who might be interested in stepping into the world of professional racing, or moving into a new class.”
Interested parties can contact team owner Tilley at kyle@eramotorsport.com.