WeatherTech SportsCar Championship

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In many ways, the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship went about as Acura Team Penske expected it would have gone. The team debuted a pair of brand-new Acura ARX-05 Daytona Prototype international (DPi) race cars and a vaunted driver lineup that included a pair of multi-time Indianapolis 500 winners in Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya combined with WeatherTech Championship Prototype class champions from the previous two seasons in Ricky Taylor (2017) and Dane Cameron (2016). Castroneves and Taylor brought the team’sRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – At the Motul Petit Le Mans last month at Road Atlanta, there were a total of nine race cars riding on Michelin tires, and all of them were racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. When the 2019 season begins in January, Michelin will be providing tires for more than 100 race cars across three IMSA-sanctioned series and seven different classes of race cars as the new “Official Tire of IMSA.” All four WeatherTech Championship classes –Read More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (November 2, 2018) – The introduction of the LMP2 class and forthcoming changes to the GT Daytona (GTD) class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship were the impetus for refinements to the 2019 IMSA Sporting Regulations released today. “Between the completion of a successful 2018 season last month and next week’s Michelin IMSA SportsCar Encore at Sebring, our team here at IMSA has hit another key target with the distribution of our 2019 Sporting and Technical Regulations,” said IMSA Vice President, Competition SimonRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 co-driven to the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) title by Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow finished on the podium eight times in 11 races, including a run of five straight podiums to start the season. It won twice, at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts and the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. It finished inside the top five 10 times. And itRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Even Action Express Racing Team Manager Gary Nelson has a hard time believing it. “I mean, think about the championships we’ve been able to pull off,” he says. “There’s two championships available per year [the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup]. In the last five years, that would make 10 championships. “What I’m hearing is we’ve won nine of those. That’s 90 percent championships if that’s a true number.” It is, in fact, a true number.Read More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – How rare is it for a driver or drivers to win an IMSA championship without winning a race, as No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R co-drivers Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia did in the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) class? Pretty rare, as it turns out. Since the first year of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in 1999 and including all GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and WeatherTech Championship seasons, there have been a total ofRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The drama-filled closing hours of the 10-hour Motul Petit Le Mans on Oct. 13 brought a thrilling conclusion to a successful 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – and not just on the racetrack. The 2.54-mile Road Atlanta road course in Braselton, Georgia that has hosted the prestigious event run for the 21st time in 2018 was packed with race fans as perfect weather conditions combined with world-class racing brought one of the largest audiences ever for the event. And those fans wereRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was one of the most anticipated seasons yet, with legendary sports car teams and big-name drivers joining the fray to take on many of the world’s best, and it didn’t disappoint. It was an unpredictable season, with longtime, established teams duking it out for the championship in all three WeatherTech Championship classes. None of the championships were decided until the final minutes of last Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. Let’s take a quick,Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer After a growing year with new partner Team Joest, Mazda finished off their 2018 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship challenge with a double podium finish at this past weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans with a second and third place finish for their two RT24-P DPi machines. The No. 55 of Spencer Pigot, Jonathan Bomarito and Marino Franchitti led at times but they had the lion’s share of bad luck for the team with contact forcing the mechanics to replace the nose and tail on the carRead More