![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/IMSA-logo-min-300x73.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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The health of IMSA, the International Motor Sports Association, has never been better. Under the leadership of John Doonan, who previously led Mazda Motorsports activities, the sanctioning body that currently runs the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Michelin Pilot Challenge, VP SportsCar Challenge, Ferrari Challenge, Mustang Challenge, Mazda MX-5 Cup, Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America and Super Trofeo Lamborghini Challenge has gone from strength to strength during Doonan\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n With a new-for-2023 GTP class leading the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and alignment with the Automobile Club de l\u2019Ouest (ACO) that runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship (WEC), IMSA GTP cars are able to compete with and against the Hypercars in the World Endurance Championship. That type of alignment is the reason major manufacturers are building and racing cars in IMSA. The series meets their marketing and performance needs.<\/p>\n During his State of the Sport address during the Petit Le Mans weekend, Doonan announced long-term extensions with three entitlement partners through 2028 and 2030: both WeatherTech and VP Racing Fuels are set to continue with IMSA through 2030; Michelin has extended its partnership until the close of the 2028 racing season.<\/p>\n WeatherTech initially agreed to their partnership with IMSA as a 10-year agreement in 2016; the Bolingbrook, IL firm will now be the entitlement partner at IMSA through to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship\u2019s Petit Le Mans race in 2030. VP Racing Fuels joined IMSA in 2014 and is now locked in through 2030 as the official fuel supplier and entitlement partner of the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge. Michelin became the official tire of IMSA in 2019 and will keep that partnership going, along with the Michelin Endurance Cup, through 2028.<\/p>\n With the success of this year\u2019s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, more teams and more manufacturers are on-board for the 2024 season, with 48 full-season entries for next year and a capacity 57-car field expected to compete in the Michelin Endurance Cup Races at Daytona International Speedway, Sebring International Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen International and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The full-season entry list of 48 cars is spread through four classes: GTP, LMP2, GTD PRO and GTD. LMP3 is discontinued for the near future.<\/p>\n The Michelin Endurance Cup can accommodate no more than 57 cars at their quintet of events and that\u2019s exactly what the series is expecting. At the first race of the year, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the maximum number is 60 cars.<\/p>\n In GTP, the inaugural season featured eight entries for all contests while next year 10 cars are committed to all events. Porsche Penske Motorsport will continue to field two cars, as will BMW M Team RLL, while both Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport and Cadillac Racing (fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing) intend to add one car each to their stables. JDC-Miller Motorsports and Proton Competition, both racing the Porsche 963, were part-timers in 2023; they\u2019ll be full-time next year. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing team returns, while the new Iron Lynx Lamborghini GTP entry will contest selected Michelin Endurance Cup rounds, which could bring the class entries to 11 for those races.<\/p>\n In LMP2 there were seven entries racing full-time this year; that swells to a total of 11 LMP2 cars for next year. There are a pair of entries from United Autosports USA, with single entries planned for CrowdStrike Racing by APR, Tower Motorsports, TDS Racing, Era Motorsport, High Class Racing, Sean Creech Motorsport, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports, Riley and AO Racing. A single entry at selected events from AF Corse will swell the class to an even dozen cars.<\/p>\n GTD PRO will double in size for the 2024 season with a total of 10 entries committed for the 10-race campaign. As is customary, for the Michelin Endurance Cup, IMSA expects to see an added three cars, swelling the class to 13 entries. It will be interesting to see the renewed competition between two two-car teams: Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports against Ford Multimatic Motorsports as Ford vs Chevy battles continue apace. Single-car entries are expected from Paul Miller Racing, Pfaf Motorsports, Vasser Sullivan, Heart of Racing Team AO Racing and Kellymoss with Riley. Risi Coompetizione is slated to return for the Michelin Endurance Cup with selected Endurance Cup races on tap for Iron Lynx and Sun Energy 1.<\/p>\n Traditionally the largest class in WeatherTech competition, GTD retains that distinction next year, with 17 cars committed for the full year. This class features single-car teams with one exception: European-based AWA intends to field a pair of cars in 2024 after not being part of the series this year. Single, full-season entries come from Vasser Sullivan, Heart of Racing Team, Korthoff\/Preston Motorsports, Conquest Racing, Andretti Motorsports, Magnus Racing, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport, Winward Racing, Gradient Racing,\u00a0 <\/span>Inception Racing, Forte Racing, MDK Motorsports, Kellymoss with Riley, Turner Motorsport and Wright Motosports.<\/p>\n GTD entries for the Michelin Endurance Cup rounds include AF Corse, Trials Competition, Cetilar Racing and Iron Dames. One Iron Lynx entry in GTD intends to compete in selected endurance contests.<\/p>\n \u201cWe continue to ride an amazing wave of momentum as evidenced by the number of teams and race cars that have committed to our 2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Michelin Endurance Cup seasons,\u201d Doonan stated. \u201cTo have this many teams confirmed for next year is a testament to the stability of the platform we have collectively built. Being able to make this announcement in October – even before our 2023 season has been completed – helps us carry that momentum into the off-season and enables IMSA fans to make their 2024 plans that much earlier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Rolex 24 at Daytona opens the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship the weekend of January 25-28.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" IMSA has been getting stronger and stronger under Doonan’s leadership.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":92838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470,3699,5029,3713,543],"tags":[395,9483,9295,450,7725,9294,9950],"class_list":["post-92836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-other-racing","category-racing","category-road-racing","category-sports-car-racing","tag-imsa","tag-michelin-endurance-championship","tag-michelin-raceway-road-atlanta","tag-rolex-24-at-daytona","tag-vp-racing-fuels","tag-weathertech-sportscar-championship","tag-world-endurance-championship-automobile-club-de-louest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/IMSA-logo-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-o9m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92836"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92842,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92836\/revisions\/92842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/John-Doonan-mug-min-300x200.jpg\")