The 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship) is a planned motor racing championship, set to be the 54th racing season sanctioned by the
International Motor Sports Association, which traces its lineage back to the
1971 IMSA GT Championship. It will also be the eleventh season of the IMSA SportsCar Championship since the merger between the
American Le Mans Series and the
Rolex Sports Car Series in 2014, and the ninth under the sponsorship of
WeatherTech. Following a change in class structure for the 2024 season, the IMSA SportsCar Championship is poised to see a major expansion of its full-time grid across all of its classes.
At the end of the 2023 season, IMSA discontinued the involvement of the Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class from the main championship. The class was originally introduced in
2021 as a means of bolstering the overall grid size, which had seen a record-low 38 starting cars in the
2020 24 Hours of Daytona. IMSA cited the growth of the GTP class as a contributing factor to dropping LMP3 for 2024 onwards, in addition to growth in other classes.[1]
GTP is the flagship class of the championship, and consists of two sister technical regulations:
LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid), and LMH (
Le Mans Hypercar). The former regulation allows developing a bespoke design from a base chassis with a specification hybrid system on all cars, with freedom on aerodynamics and engine configuration. The latter regulation allows bespoke hybrid designs, and offers more design freedom in exchange for elevated development costs.
The GTP class is made of the same framework that comprises the Hypercar class of the
FIA World Endurance Championship, in accordance with the collaborative alliance between
IMSA and the French racing organizers
ACO, which resulted in the convergence of the two organizer's top class regulations.[2]
Schedule
The provisional schedule was released on August 4 2023, and features 11 rounds.[3][4][5]
Lime Rock Park was dropped from the calendar. The track had been a part of the championship since 2015.[3]
The Michelin Endurance Cup expanded to 5 rounds, with the event at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway transforming from a sprint race in 2023 to a six-hour endurance race for 2024.[3]
Notes
^The LMP2 and LMP3 class will only score points towards the Michelin Endurance Cup.