Daytona Has Future “Vision” for IMSA ‘Speedweeks’

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Daytona International Speedway has the “vision” to combine the Roar Before the Rolex 24 and Rolex 24 at Daytona into an IMSA version of ‘Speedweeks’ in the future according to track president Frank Kelleher.

Kelleher’s statements come amid the addition of Porsche Carrera Cup North America and Mustang Challenge North America to next year’s Rolex 24 and Roar weekends, respectively, which with Carrera Cup joining Michelin Pilot Challenge and the HSR IMSA Classic on the support bill for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opening weekend on Jan. 27-31.

“We’re thrilled with the development with IMSA as a whole and grateful for the opportunity to host Porsche Carrera Cup,” Kelleher told Sportscar365.

“I think when fans that may be new to Porsche Carrera Cup see those cars, see how fast they are and see how racy they get, I think that’s going to take the Rolex 24 weekend to a whole new level of excitement.

“Having competition on the track and the Mustang Challenge, I think that’s just going to be tremendous value for all of our guests.”

Kelleher said he’s had discussions with top management at IMSA of potentially adding even more single-make series to produce a combined event.

“For us as the property, we want to host races,” he said. “I’ve talked with John Doonan and Ed Bennett that from Roar weekend to Rolex, imagine if we have racing going on every single day. Is that a possibility?

“That would be through these single-make manufacturer series.

“Those are not things that we need to have done and figured out in 2027. I think those are long-gain opportunities for us.

“But that truly is some of the thoughts and ideas that we have to continue to expand IMSA racing at the World’s Center of Racing.”

When asked if he thinks the Daytona could replicate something similar to NASCAR’s ‘Speedweeks’ Kelleher wouldn’t rule out such a prospect in the future.

“The Roar starting Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and looking at the calendar, what’s going on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday?” he said.

“Where we run into an issue is getting racing series out and a new racing series in and giving everyone the proper amount of time to test.

“Our vision is to continue to challenge ourselves, to grow and to expand and if we had our own IMSA version of Speedweeks down the road, I think that would be great for racers, the manufacturers, for the economy, for everything at the World’s Center of Racing.”

Next year’s NASCAR Speedweeks will return into a two-weekend format with the return of NASCAR Clash the weekend before the Daytona 500.

“There’s reasons why the NASCAR schedule is what it is,” said Kelleher. “But when we look back and look at what NASCAR had at Daytona International Speedway from testing and Speedweeks and all of that, the model’s been built and proven.

“As IMSA continues to be a rocket ship and more single-make series want to race at the World’s Center of Racing, we’re open to trying to figure out how we can get more cars on track in competition throughout Roar to Rolex.”

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