Yahoo Autos IMSA aims to have 2024 full-season entry list by Petit Le Mans
In presenting the 2024 IMSA schedules to partners, teams and media on Friday, IMSA president and CEO John Doonan also spoke about the expected entries for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, announcing that full-season entries would open on Aug. 8.
Doonan said the goal was to allow teams to plan ahead, but also give the series a better idea of who is committed to running the full season, because several events could easily be oversubscribed.
“Because of the current early-days forecast of the interest that we have from teams and manufacturers competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, if the Rolex 24 was today, if everybody that wanted to come was able to come, it would be a 74-car field. If we were to come here [Road America] today, and everybody who wants to come next year was able to come, it would be a 55-car grid full season. So you understand the predicament when we have only a certain amount of space in pit lane and in the paddock,” Doonan said.
Road America has room in pit lane for only 53 cars. As one of six races — and the only sprint event — to feature all four WeatherTech Championship classes in 2024, that means that 53 is the maximum number of full-season entries. Road Atlanta can accommodate 54, so that’s the maximum number for teams campaigning the full Michelin Endurance Cup. And while IMSA eliminated LMP3 from the WeatherTech Championship, most of the LMP3 teams have committed to moving to other classes. Riley Motorsports and Sean Creech Motorsport have committed to LMP2. AWA Racing is moving to GTD with Corvette. In addition, the LMP2 ranks are set for further growth from European teams looking for opportunities with the class no longer included in the FIA World Endurance Championship; United Autosports has already committed to two cars in the WeatherTech Championship.
Not only does IMSA plan to open entries early, but will close them early –on Oct. 3 — as well, with the aim of having a full-season entry list by the time of Petit Le Mans on Oct. 14.
“We are going to open entries earlier than ever; the entry process will be open on Aug. 8,” Doonan said. “We have a set of dates there throughout the year that hopefully we can get to a place that we can announce IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship full-season entries at Petit Le Mans. We know this moves the timetable up, but I think it gives us all the proper planning cadence to get ready for the new year.
“I think it gives everybody a longer planning runway; it definitely helps us in terms of paddock planning, and pit lane planning and things like that. I know it puts a lot of pressure on everyone, but hopefully that gives everybody a clearer picture of what it’s gonna look like.”
Daytona has the most spots, but even the Rolex 24 will be capped at 60 entries. Ultimately there may be some teams that are left out.
“It’s never easy to tell people, ‘No,’ but I think for the sport, it’s a really special time when you have that many people that are interested in competing with us, partners that want to be here,” Doonan noted. “Clearly, they see value of being a part. It’s going to be a difficult process to choose the entries.”
That’s part of the reason half the races won’t see all four classes — there’s simply not room, either in pit lane or paddock. And with Detroit returning to the schedule, the need to eliminate a class, plus the desire to keep the various classes at nine events or fewer, led to GTP being cut from the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park round. The other cut was the GT-only race at Lime Rock Park.
“It was extremely difficult. I’ve been in touch with [Lime Rock Park owner] Skip Barber, Dickey [Riegel, president and CEO] and Steve Sewell [ vice president of operations]. We will will engage in opportunities to find a way to go back there in ’25 and beyond. But we just couldn’t make all the pieces work for ’24. It was a very painful discussion, but we’ve been in constant contact with them.”
Another difficulty in scheduling was avoiding conflicts with other sports car racing series. The 2024 calendar has three conflicts with WEC races, plus the 24-hour touring car and GT races at the Nurburgring and Spa, all of which feature significant crossover, especially in factory drivers. But IMSA doesn’t control the dates for Long Beach and Detroit, which are two of the conflicting events. The conflicts were an influence on the selection of classes for those dates. For WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Doonan said the opportunity for live network television drove the date selection, which conflicts with the Spa WEC round.
