Atherton: IMSA Has Time for Decision on Hypercar Adoption

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

IMSA has not yet ruled out the possibility of adopting the FIA and ACO’s newly announced ‘Hypercar’ regulations, with series President Scott Atherton indicating that time is on their side before needing to make a final decision.

Revealed on Wednesday, the FIA World Endurance Championship’s new top-class regulations will debut in the 2020-21 season, although would not come into effect in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship until 2022 at the earliest, should IMSA elect to utilize the platform.

The sanctioning body has been an active participant in the technical working group meetings.

“Our DPi and LMP2 cars have a current homologation through the end of our 2021 season, so there is time for current and potential DPi manufacturers to evaluate these regulations as we look ahead to any possible evolution of the current platform,” Atherton said.

Atherton had previously stated concerns over the projected budgets for the new platform, which had initially been announced to be in the €25-30 million ($30-35 million) range but have since dropped to around €20 million ($23 million) for a two-car WEC team.

A current full-season DPi program in the WeatherTech Championship is estimated to be in the $6-8 million range.

“We continue to be committed to the growth of sports car racing worldwide with a focus on maintaining a thrilling and sustainable North American championship,” Atherton added.

It’s understood a final decision is not likely to be made by IMSA until next year.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John