2018 Calendars: IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship

2018 IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship

The highest level of endurance sports car racing in North America is the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.

The Championship has three classes of car competing within the same race:

• Prototype:  For DPi and LMP2 cars, all Pro drivers;
• GTLM:  GT cars identical to those in WEC’s GTE Pro class, all Pro drivers;
• GTD:  GT3-class machinery, Pro-Am class, entries must have at least one non-Pro driver;

Races include the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, Petit Le Mans and a host of shorter races at such iconic tracks as Long Beach, Road America and Laguna Seca.

It also includes the North American Endurance Cup (NAEC), which is scored as a separate competition made up of the four longest races: Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen and Petit Le Mans.

Google/iCal Calendar links:   ICAL  -or-  HTML

For more championships click here.

*As at 2 January 2018*

2018 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship

• Prototype:  10 races;
• GTLM:  11 races;
• GTD:  11 races;

Date	Event	Classes	Circuit	Location	Country
27 Jan	Rolex 24 at Daytona	P, GTLM, GTD	Daytona International Speedway	Daytona, Florida	USA
17 Mar	Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring	P, GTLM, GTD	Sebring	Sebring, Florida	USA
14 Apr	Bubba Burger Sportscar GP	P, GTLM	Long Beach	Long Beach, California	USA
6 May	Mid-Ohio	P, GTLM, GTD	Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course	Lexington, Ohio	USA
2 Jun	Chevrolet Detroit GP	P, GTD	Belle Isle	Detroit, Michigan	USA
1 Jul	Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen	P, GTLM, GTD	Watkins Glen International	Watkins Glen, New York	USA
8 Jul	Canadian Tire Mosport Park	P, GTLM, GTD	Canadian Tire Motorsports Park	Bowmanville, Ontario	Canada
21 Jul	Northeast GP	GTLM, GTD	Lime Rock Park	Lakeville, Connecticut	USA
5 Aug	Continental Tire Road Race Showcase	P, GTLM, GTD	Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	USA
19 Aug	Michelin GT Challenge	GTLM, GTD	Virginia International Raceway	Alton, Virginia	USA
9 Sep	Continental Tire Monterey GP	P, GTLM, GTD	Laguna Seca	Salinas, California	USA
13 Oct	Motul Petit Le Mans	P, GTLM, GTD	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	USA

What’s Changed?

Returning or New:

• Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio.

Deleted:

• Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas.
• The Prototype Challenge class.
• GTD will not visit Long Beach.

There is one change of venue, the much-missed Mid-Ohio makes a very welcome return.

It is unfortunate to have to lose COTA, the races there were good even if the rule-makers were quite liberal with the officiating of track limits!

The PC class has been killed off. It was a great class 7 or 8 years ago and added a lot, but after some recent weak seasons it was overdue to be retired. And with plenty of full-season entries in the top Prototype class there is no longer a need for a ‘baby’ class to support it. Instead, a support race series has been renamed as Prototype Challenge and their races extended from 45 minutes to 120 minutes.

The only other change is that GTD will not visit Long Beach, making 2017 a one-off for that class at the street track. That race ended in a bit of a crash-up for the GTD’s, but I don’t think it is fair to punish them for it. Personally I think GTD should have a separate race at Long Beach and ditch PWC from the meeting instead, but I’m just being selfish because I can’t watch PWC races in the UK.

Unchanged are the other ‘split’ races:

Belle Isle will feature Prototypes and GTD cars. The GTLM entries get a pass as Le Mans Test Day falls on the same weekend – bad luck if you have an LMP2 car and want to go to Le Sarthe.

Lime Rock and Virginia International Raceway will again be GT festivals, for GTLM & GTD cars, as they successfully have been now for a few years.

Support Series

There are two major support championships for which I provide calendars and I’ll cover those together in another blog post tomorrow, these are:

• IMSA Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge – for GT4, TCR and ST cars.
• IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda – for LMP3 and MPC cars.

IMSA also sanctions many high profile one-make series including the Ferrari Challenge North America, Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America, Porsche Challenge USA and Porsche Challenge Canada. I do not offer calendars for these series but the dates are available to view at www.imsa.com.