All About IMSA

In this article I will explain what IMSA racing is. IMSA stands for International Motor Sports Association. They do endurance races on road courses about once a month. There are multiple classes out at once so it can get hard to follow your driver or team sometimes. Some races have four drivers to a team while others only have two to three. The number of drivers depends on the length of the race. Their season opener is the Rolex 24 at Daytona which is a 24-hour race at the Daytona International Speedway Road course. The Rolex 24 is usually the most popular race as well for IMSA.

There are multiple different class categories in each IMSA race. GTP stands for Grand Touring Prototype. GTPs are the newest class in IMSA which was added in 2023. They are the most technologically improved class that races in IMSA. They are a hybrid racecar. Porsche, Acura, and BMW races in the GTP class. The next class is LMP2 which stands for Le Mans Prototype 2. There are not a whole lot to LMP2 cars other than they race in FIA races as well. You see LMP2 cars in the Le Mans race as well. The next class is GTD Pro which stands for GT Daytona Pro. This class is a lot of people’s favorite class. Overall, it is my favorite because all the cars are the closest on speed. It is a relatively new class since its debut was 2022. The cars are built to FIA GT3 regulations. GTD stands for GT Daytona. They are the most advanced cars in the field with FIA GT3 specifications. This class consists of Acura, Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, and Porsche. All classes are racing at the same time, but they are not competing against each other. Since they are all on track together, it makes for a trickier race.

IMSA races eleven times a year at different road courses in North America. IMSA races only on road courses. Their biggest race of the season is the season opener at Daytona International Speedway for the Rolex 24, which I had previously mentioned earlier. IMSA has a 12-hour race at Sebring International Raceway. The 12 hours at Sebring is by far the toughest race for the drivers due to the technicality of the track. IMSA races at Road Atlanta for 10 hours called Petit Le Mans. Petit Le Mans is a very technical race due to the amount of turns the track has as well as the strategy needed. Those are just especially important and historic races. Obviously, there are a lot more races that IMSA races at, but these tracks are just very historic.

-Written by Mary Badgley


Works Cited

Venturoli, Emanuele. IMSA racing: cars, classes and structure. 8 January 2025.