The series traces its roots to the IMSA GT Championship, which began in 1971 and ran until 1998. From the late 1990s until 2013, top-level sports car racing in North America was split between the high-tech American Le Mans Series and the low-cost Rolex Sports Car Series. These two series were merged in 2014 to form the United SportsCar Championship, which was subsequently renamed the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2016. Rolex SA's Tudor brand was the title sponsor of the championship in 2014 and 2015, and WeatherTech has served as title sponsor since 2016.
The season begins with its premier race, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, on the last weekend of January, and ends with the Petit Le Mans, another Michelin Endurance Cup race, in early October.
On September 5, 2012, it was announced that the Grand-Am Road Racing sanctioning body would merge with the Braselton-based International Motor Sports Association, and that both bodies would merge their premier sports car series — the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series respectively — with plans to debut in 2014. On November 20, 2012, the merger committee announced that SME Branding had been selected to develop the name, logo and identity of the new series.
On January 8, 2013, the two series announced a preliminary class structure for the merged series. Grand-Am's Daytona Prototype category and IMSA's P2 would combine into a single prototype class, with allowances for the unique DeltaWing to also compete. The Le Mans Prototype Challenge class of single-spec cars from the American Le Mans Series would continue as is, although the cars were to switch to Grand-Am's Continental Tires. The GT class of the American Le Mans Series would remain unchanged, while Grand-Am's GT class would form another GT class, combined with the American Le Mans GTC category. The only category not represented in the new series was the American Le Mans Series' P1 category.
The reveal date for the new series was March 14, 2013, at the Chateau Élan Hotel and Conference Center at Sebring International Raceway, two days before the 12 Hours of Sebring. American Le Mans CEO Scott Atherton announced that the new sanctioning body would remain IMSA, while Ed Bennett revealed the new titles for the series' five classes. SME Branding Senior Partner Ed O'Hara then announced the new United SportsCar Racing title and logo, a name submitted through a contest won by Louis Satterlee of Florida, a racer in the Florida Karting Championship Series.
On August 9, 2013, Fox Sports 1 announced it had signed a TV contract with IMSA to televise the entire United SportsCar Championship season between 2014 and 2018. On September 12, 2013, Tudor was announced as the title sponsor for the series, which was named the United SportsCar Championship. On August 8, 2015, WeatherTech was announced as the new title sponsor, renaming the series to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship starting with the 2016 season. Beginning with the 2019 season, the series was covered exclusively by NBC Sports in the United States, with the NBC broadcast network airing nine hours of coverage annually, the majority of the coverage airing on NBCSN, and CNBC and the NBC Sports app providing supplemental coverage. Beginning in 2022, USA Network replaced NBCSN as the cable home of the series.
Originally based on a Canadian series before being acquired by Grand-Am, the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (originally known as Grand-Am Cup) is a production-based touring car series. The series is split into two classes known as Grand Sport (GS), intended for large-capacity GT-style cars, and Street Tuner (ST), consisting of smaller sedans and coupes, some of which are front-wheel drive. The IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge until 2013 supported some Rolex Series races but also headlined some of its own dates. This series continued with the United SportsCar Championship after the merger and is somewhat comparable to the old Trans Am Series.
The IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup (MEC) is a championship for drivers, teams and manufacturers, comprising the five endurance races on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule. It began in 2014 in the inaugural United SportsCar Championship season, where it was called the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. In 2019, Michelin became the title sponsor. The five races that award MEC points are the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring, 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, the SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix and the Petit Le Mans.
Points are awarded at varying intervals depending on the length of the race. Six-hour races award points at three hours and the finish, while Petit Le Mans offers points at four, eight and ten hours. Sebring awards points every four hours, and Daytona awards them every six hours.
There are four classes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship series, featuring two sports prototype categories and two grand tourer classes. Some races may only use selected classes of cars: for example, any class of car may be permitted entry at Daytona, while at the Northeast Grand Prix only the GT Daytona Pro (GTD Pro) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes are entered. The Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) classes are compatible with regulations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Classes are also distinguished by regulations on driver lineups, using a rating system. GTP and GTD Pro have no restrictions; however, teams competing in LMP2 can only field one gold driver, and teams competing in GTD must field one amateur driver with a bronze or silver rating.
The flagship class of the championship, GTP replaced the DPi (Daytona Prototype International) class starting in 2023. It features cars built to IMSA's LMDh and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's Le Mans Hypercar regulations.
A class introduced in 2019 after being split from the DPi class (which ran 2019–2022), LMP2 features pro-am driver lineups. The class features cars built by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's four licensed manufacturers (Riley-Multimatic, Ligier, Oreca and Dallara) to the specifications of the FIA/ACO 2017 Global LMP2 regulations.
A class that utilizes the FIA GT3 specifications, GTD Pro replaced the GTLM class starting in the 2022 season. There is no driver class restriction in GTD Pro.
A class running since 2016 that uses the same specification cars as GTD Pro. At least one silver- or bronze-rated driver must be in a GTD team, and more than one platinum driver in a team is prohibited.
There were five classes formerly used in the IMSA SportsCar Championship series, featuring four sports prototype categories and one grand tourer class.
The former flagship class of the championship from 2019 to 2022, DPi featured cars built to IMSA's Daytona Prototype International regulations, which are based upon the 2017 Le Mans Prototype LMP2 cars. Previously, the DPis had competed against their base LMP2 counterparts in the Prototype class from 2017 to 2018, before the LMP2 cars were split into a separate class in 2019. Starting in 2023, the DPi class was replaced by the GTP class in an effort to further improve the racing in the Prototype class, as well as to create a closer bond to the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The former flagship class of the championship from 2014 to 2018, before splitting into two separate classes in 2019. It featured prototypes carried over from the previous series, the American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series — namely Daytona Prototypes, LMP2 prototypes and the Nissan DeltaWing. Starting in 2017, the original Daytona Prototypes and the DeltaWing were phased out of competition and replaced by the new DPi cars. At the end of the 2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season this class was split into two separate classes, DPi and LMP2, for the 2019 season.
A one-make spec class in which all cars used by drivers and teams were Oreca FLM09 LMPCs powered by 6.2L Chevrolet V8 engines making 430 hp each. This class was used from the 2014 season until the end of the 2017 season.
Introduced in the 2021 season, having previously been in the IMSA Prototype Challenge category as one of the feeder series to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. This class of prototypes features cars built according to the ACO's 2020 LMP3 Generation II ruleset from manufacturers such as Ligier, ADESS, Ginetta and Duqueine Engineering. The class was removed after the 2023 season due to growth in grid sizes.
A continuation of the ALMS GT class, GTLM consisted of cars matching the ACO's GTE specification and competed in the series between the 2014 and 2021 seasons.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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