IMSA will change its face in 2018

On the sidelines of the Road America meeting (Wisconsin), the officials of theIMSA have revealed the new features to come for 2017 but also 2018. The next season of the major IMSA Sportscar Championship will see the arrival of the new DPi regulations, already announced in the past and which should renew the field of current prototypes. The Prototype category will bring together the DPi, but also the LM P2, while the PC, GTLM and GTD categories will always be there.

On the other hand, in 2018, the PC class, which features the Oreca FLM09s for Pro-Am crews, will disappear after eight years of service. This stop will move the field to three distinct classes: Prototype, GTLM, GTD.

The crews bringing together professional and amateur drivers competing in Prototype will compete for the Jim Trueman Award. The winner of this trophy will receive an invitation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans the following year in LM P2. An identical reward will be offered in Pro-Am in GTD, with an invitation to Le Mans in the GTE Am category.

The other changes concern the other series in the IMSA fold. The Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda championship, the new name of the Mazda Prototype Lites presented by Cooper Tires, will host LM P3s from 2017 in class PC1. The current Prototype Lites 1 will still be accepted, and will evolve into PC2. The current Lites 2 Prototypes will no longer be accepted after the end of 2016.

All ACO-approved LM P3 chassis built by the six approved manufacturers will be permitted to participate in the PC1 class, and all PC1 cars will be powered by identical V8 engines. The PC2 class will feature the Élan DP02 chassis.

the GT4 managed by SRO Motorsport will make its appearance in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge in the Grand Sport class. GS cars will all have to meet GT4 regulations in 2018.