IMSA: История и развитие североамериканской автомобильной ассоциации

North American auto racing sanctioning body

the International Motor Sports Association

The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida, under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive director of SCCA (Sports Car Club of America), and his wife Peggy in 1969 with help from Bill France Sr. of NASCAR. Beginning in 2014, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier series resulting from the merger of Grand Am Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series. IMSA is owned by NASCAR, as a division of the company.

John Bishop, a Sikorsky employee, first became involved in motorsport in the 1950s when he met Dave Allen, a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) staff member. Allen offered Bishop a management position on the SCCA Contest Board, which Bishop quickly accepted. Bishop moved to Westport, Connecticut shortly thereafter. Bishop's duties consisted of defining technical rules and general administration of SCCA competition, as well as providing artwork for many of the club's magazines and event programmes. He became well known in the motorsport scene and enjoyed a good relationship with the organization's president and Kimberly Clark heir, James H. Kimberly. In 1958, things changed for Bishop as the SCCA experienced internal changes. A new executive director position was created, to which each regional executive reported. This position was taken by Hugo Rush, who later became instrumental in Allen's departure. Although Bishop's relationship with Rush was not good, Bishop gained a vast amount of experience and began to show his qualities as a manager. The first race to be organized by IMSA was a Formula Vee and Formula Ford event at Pocono Raceway in October 1969. The SCCA threatened the circuit management and asked them to block IMSA from racing there. The event was held, although IMSA had to pay an additional $10,000 in rental fees. The race had an attendance of 328 spectators.]] At the end of the 1970 season, Bishop helped to establish the foundations of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) "J appendix" for World Championship for Makes sports cars. For the end of the 1970 season, he advertised a new championship for Group 2 and Group 4 cars with equity between competitors. Later that year, the organization gained recognition from the ACCUS and the FIA. IMSA was scheduled to sanction the 1974 24 Hours of Daytona, but the race was cancelled because of the oil crisis. Bishop did not believe that factory teams would stick with the new series, so he tried to ensure that the rules were not biased in their favor. He was in favor of looking after privateer teams and helping them to become competitive. As European cars began to dominate, a new series was formed in called All American Grand Touring (AAGT) to give equal latitude to foreign cars. Turbocharged cars were permitted in
In the same year, Bishop invited a pair of Jean Rondeau built Inaltera's to compete as "special prototypes". They became the foundation of the newly formed Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) category in , with separate rules similar to Group C (Bishop was unhappy with the fuel consumption formula of the latter). In , Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA), the organizers of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), attempted to unite the two organizations by scrapping the existing formula and adopting IMSA rules. This did not please Porsche, which was spending vast sums of money on engine development at the time. Porsche responded by boycotting the 24 Hours of Le Mans of that year. FISA responded by abandoning the rule change for the time being. In 1996 Slater sold the organization with previously accumulated debt to Roberto Muller (ex CEO of Reebok) and Wall Street based portfolio manager for Bill Gates, Andy Evans, who also was an IndyCar owner and owner/driver of the Scandia World Sports Car team. These changes would lead to the departure of many of the executive board members. In 1998 the United States Road Racing Championship was revived as an alternative to Professional Sports Car Racing, involving the Sports Car Club of America and headed by a group of competitors and ex IMSA personnel, including John Bishop, Bill France Jr., Rob Dyson, Roger Penske, Skip Barber, and Ralph Sanchez. They wanted to keep rules within the United States. When this initially failed, as a result Don Panoz and Barber departed to affiliate themselves with PSCR. One month following that announcement, then director of Mazda's motorsports program in North America, John Doonan, was confirmed to be Atherton's replacement. Ed Bennett, longtime NASCAR executive, was also President and CEO of Grand Am Road Racing from August 2011 to December 2013 during the merger period and has continued as CEO of the modern era IMSA since January 2014. In January 2022, IMSA bought Historic Sportscar Racing, whose events include the Classic 24 Hours of Daytona, the Classic 12 Hours of Sebring and the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

These are the series that are currently sanctioned and managed by the IMSA organization.

The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship was created in 2014 through the merger of Grand Am Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series. It debuted under the name Tudor United SportsCar Championship on January 25–26, 2014 at Daytona International Speedway. For the 2016 season title sponsorship changed from Tudor to WeatherTech. This series currently features LMDh, LMP2, and GT3 cars.

The IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge is a grand touring and touring car racing series run by the International Motor Sports Association. The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge was the support series for GRAND AM's premier offering, the Rolex Sports Car Series. In 2014 it became the support series for the United SportsCar Championship series upon the merger of the Rolex Series and the American Le Mans Series. The series branded as the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, with Continental Tire having been title sponsor since the 2010 season until 2018. In 2019 Michelin replaced Continental Tire as supplier and title sponsor. This series uses TCR Touring Cars and GT4 cars.

The IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge is a development series featuring LMP3 and GT4 cars. The series was introduced in 2023 as a replacement for the IMSA Prototype Challenge series. Races in this series are usually run in support of events for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Events consist of two 45 minute sprint races with no pit stops or driver changes. Unlike its predecessor series, the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge features multi class racing with prototypes and GTs on track at the same time. As the series is a development series for higher tier series among IMSA's championships, drivers are required to hold either a Silver or Bronze categorization from the FIA.

The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama is a one make series dedicated to the Porsche 911 GT3, similar in concept to the Porsche Carrera Cup, held since 2005. Drivers are allowed to race in two different classes, Platinum and Gold. The entries were allowed in the American Le Mans Series starting in 2009, in the GTC Class. The series became the Porsche Carrera Cup North America beginning in the 2021 season.

The Ferrari Challenge is a one make series dedicated currently to the Ferrari 488, which was previously sanctioned by Grand Am prior to the merger.

The Lamborghini Super Trofeo is a one make series dedicated currently to multi class racing, showcasing both the new Huracán LP 620 2 Super Trofeo and the Gallardo LP 570 4 Super Trofeo that was the exclusive car for the first two seasons of the North America championship in 2013 and 2014. The series debuted in North America under IMSA sanction in 2013.

The Mazda MX 5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires is the signature spec series for the Mazda Road to 24. The MX 5 Cup race cars start as complete MX 5 road cars from the Mazda Hiroshima, Japan factory before being transported to engineering development partner Flis Performance in Daytona Beach, Florida, where they are transformed into a race car. The series entered a sanctioning agreement with IMSA beginning with the 2021 season.

In July 27th, 2023, Ford and IMSA announced that the 7th Generation Mustang would have its own spec racing series called Mustang Challenge, IMSA will sanction the championship with the organizaton of Ford themselves via the Ford Performance Racing School.

On October 24th, 2023, it was announced that HSR (owned by IMSA since January 2022) and IMSA were forming a new prototype only series for both LMP3 Gen 1 and Gen 2 cars called the IMSA HSR Prototype Challenge. A minimum 20 car grid was announced as the requirement for standalone races to be held, if not incorporated into races with other prototypes. The six event calendar will follow HSR's usual events, including the Classic 24 Hour at Daytona and the Classic 12 Hour at Sebring.

These are the series that were formerly run by the IMSA organization.

The International Sedan Series was short lived and the genesis of the Radial Sedan Series. It is unclear if the 1969 inaugural IMSA Sedan race held at the Talladega Superspeedway Road Course was designated International Sedan Series or not. That being the only race held in 1969 details are sketchy, but over the winter of 1969–70 rules were officially promulgated for this Series. It was initially to be known as the International 100 Series as it was intended for sedans up to 100 c. i or 1600 cc., however was revised prior to the start of the 1970 season to include larger engines and presumably the name change to International Sedan Series. The next year, 1971, the Series was revamped and became the Radial Sedan Series with the revolutionary innovation of requiring DOT radial tires. New rules allowed for cars over 1.6 L divided between two classes. Class A was for Sedans under 2 L., except for overhead cam engines which were limited to 1.6 L. Class B was for larger engines up to whatever IMSA decided appropriate for the Class which was the AMC Gremlin's 232 c. i. for the duration of the 'original' RS Series. As an aside, the "Baby Grand" moniker frequently applied to these IMSA Series was just that, a nickname. Around this same time a series that was officially designated Baby Grand (better and later known as the Goody's Dash Series) was sanctioned by NASCAR and consisted of 4 cylinder cars purpose built to run NASCAR ovals. A few RS regulars are known to have run both Series with the same car making minimal changes to accommodate the difference in rules. Carson Baird, driving a Dodge Colt, was one of these 'crossover' competitors.

The IMSA RS Series (for radial sedan) began as the Baby Grand Series, in 1971. Originally sponsored by B. F. Goodrich (therefore known as Goodrich Radial Challenge) until they dropped sponsorship midway through 1975 (or 1976) and then by Goodyear (becoming the Goodyear Radial Challenge), and later as Champion Spark Plug Challenge. The initial race held was in 1969 at Talladega Superspeedway Road Course. Gaston Andrey was first overall in an Alfa Romeo Giulia Super sedan. The Series' first year was actually 1970 with only two races, the inaugural race was at the newly constructed Summit Point Motorsports Park on Memorial Day weekend; Rasey Feezell was first overall in an Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super sedan; the second race was held at the Montgomery Speedway, Alabama, Red Farmer won in a specially prepared Datsun 510. Feezell didn't fare too well having to drive against the local four cylinder "beater class" cars brought in to fill out the field, with their protruding wheels rubbing Racey's "immaculate" Alfa Romeo. Infuriated, Feezell quit and never ran another IMSA RS race after that. The idea was to attract racers who did not have the budgets that were required in the GT category as well as an emphasis on compact sedans such as the AMC Gremlin and the Opel Manta. There were two classes from 1970 through 1973: Class A for under two liters and under 1.6 liters with overhead cam and Class B for over 1.6 L with overhead cam and over two liters up to the largest permitted engine being the AMC Gremlin. In 1974 all cars were placed in one class, with the only parity for the smaller engines being free carburetion for under 1.6 liters. Limited preparation was permitted, and since the entrants were meant to be street driven race cars, the original rules required the retention of headlights, seats, upholstery, window cranks, stock brakes and original springs and radial tires. Only the exhaust systems and shock absorbers were free. Later rules regarding headlights, seats, upholstery, window cranks, original springs, and other stock elements were loosened up somewhat. From the beginning, engine modifications similar to Sports Car Club of America B Sedan were permitted, with the main difference being that over boring cylinders was not allowed, and stock carburetors being required, but modifications allowed. The series was loosely based on rival SCCA Trans Am's Two Five Challenge rules. The series became dominated mostly by Mazda's rotary powered RX 2 and RX 3 prompting IMSA to specify heavier weights than piston engined cars and prohibited any modifications to the rotors and more importantly to intake and exhaust ports. Datsun also had a fair share of success within the series with cars such as the 510 and 200SX. Many drivers would cut their teeth in this series such as Don Devendorf, of Electramotive fame, Jim Downing, of Kudzu, and Bobby Rahal. The final season was run in 1984 before it was replaced by the IMSA Showroom Stock class the following year, while retaining its sponsor until 1988. As with most now defunct racing classes, there are revival races run for this category and the SCCA sanctions events for mostly stock and all stock cars.

The American Challenge (in full, Kelly American Challenge), otherwise abbreviated as AAC was a category for US built cars and throughout the series, it was always run as a support race to the premier GT series. Starting in 1977, the series ran until 1989. In 1992, the premier GTO category was renamed to GTS due to sponsor reasons, and rather than leaving the GTO category redundant, the title was reallocated to the former American Challenge cars. As a result, they would be run alongside GTS cars. This series started the careers of Irv Hoerr, Kenny Irwin Jr., Patty Moise, Clay Young, Lyn St. James and Paul Gentilozzi.

The Renault Cup was a one make racing series that ran between 1982 and 1985. There was an East Coast (1982–1985) and West Coast series (1983–1985) as well as an overall championship. The series began with the Renault Le Car for two seasons on the East Coast until its discontinuation in the US. The last two seasons, the East Coast Series ran the Renault Encore. The West Coast Series started after the first successful year on the East Coast, but ran the Renault Alliance which had just been introduced. The genesis of the series was an association of drivers, Associated Road Racers (ARR), founded by Steve Coleman of Raleigh, North Carolina. The association's objective was to start an inexpensive but competitive series with large car counts. The main prerequisite requirement was a series that would allow drivers who had regular jobs and a life to compete with at least a chance to win the championship without having to travel coast to coast, as was the case with other similar series such as the VW Bilstein Cup. The preference was to have a roughly ten race schedule, with each driver's best six finishes counting toward the Championship. ARR's members were mostly Showroom Stock racers from the Southeast and Northeast Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) regions. All members put up a bond to ensure they would participate if it came to fruition so that a sanctioning body and a sponsor would be assured success from the start. In the beginning an outline of series rules was drawn up to attract like minded drivers to join in the effort. Once the association was formed, a final version was to be drafted with all the members' input. The rules along with the association's proposed plan to organize and launch the series, were sent to several manufacturers soliciting sponsorship, including Mazda, Toyota, Nissan, and Renault. All except Renault either rejected the proposal or did not respond. Renault not only responded, it jumped at the chance, since it was quite familiar with the concept of a one make series. ARR and Renault negotiated to finalize a format competing with the Le Car R5. Due to classic concerns of track owners and sanctioning bodies, Renault was reluctant to agree to the drivers' points system. Their counterproposal was to run an East Coast series in lieu of nationwide. Since most of the interested drivers were from the East Coast, and the amount of travel required was somewhat limited, this was accepted by the drivers. Once Renault was on board, John Bishop, President of IMSA, was approached to sanction the series. He was very skeptical at first. A meeting was held on at Road Atlanta between Bishop, B Clar, the US Competition Director of Renault, and Coleman representing the drivers. Renault offered a major support program and ARR would guarantee a minimum of twenty five entrants for the first race. Bishop, still skeptical, agreed to sanction the series. Coleman even suggested there might be as many as fifty, if Renault and IMSA didn't revise the proposed series rules to a point the majority of drivers would pull out before then. Still skeptical he agreed, convinced by Renault's commitment and the driver's assurances of a full field for the inaugural race. Exactly one year to the date on April 4, 1982, the inaugural race was held at Road Atlanta. 51 Le Cars started the race. One notable driver to come from the series was Parker Johnstone; he took runner up spot on his debut season in 1984 and would virtually dominate the series following that.

IMSA also hosted the Bridgestone Supercar Championship, sponsored by the sister brand of Firestone, Bridgestone, which was for higher end sports cars such as the Porsche 911 Turbo, Lotus Esprit X180R, Chevrolet Corvette, Mazda RX 7 and Nissan 300ZX and was run between 1991 up until 1995. Usually a televised support race to the GT races, running at 30 minutes, the series attracted some well known professional drivers such as Hans Joachim Stuck, Hurley Haywood, Doc Bundy, Elliot Forbes Robinson, Andy Pilgrim and Paul Newman. with a total prize fund of $555,555 for the 1992 season. All cars had to run on road going Bridgestone Potenza RE71 tires which were trimmed to semi racing depth and during a wet race, cars raced on full depth. The series was an invitational affair with forty one drivers are selected out of four hundred applicants to participate in the Women's Global GT Series. The grid would usually consists of experienced racers such as former Formula One drivers, Giovanna Amati and Divina Galica, NASCAR's Shawna Robinson, and Italian Audi factory team touring car driver Tamara Vidali against talented amateur drivers from varying degrees of professions, such as radio personality, police officer, law student, and racing simulations art designer for Microsoft. Each class had an overall championship, a master's championship for drivers at least 40 years of age, and a team championship. In 2017 the series became the IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda, featuring LMP3 cars and L1 cars re branded as MPC (Mazda Prototype Challenge). In 2023, the series was replaced by the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, which featured LMP3 and GT4 in their respective classes with shorter race distances.