IMSA Rules Out Move to Charter System

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

IMSA has no plans to adopt a charter system for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship or any of its sanctioned series in the future according to company president John Doonan, amid a recent increase in so-called ‘franchise systems’ in other motorsports series.

Charters, which was introduced into the NTT IndyCar Series this year, guarantees entries for most of its races, while is also linked to a financial package for teams.

NASCAR was the first major U.S. motorsports series to launch a charter system, known as a franchise in stick-and-ball sports, in 2016, providing 36 teams with guaranteed race entries, increased financial stability and a share of TV revenue.

Its system, however, has recently come under fire in a widely-publicized lawsuit involving Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin’s 23Xl Racing, as well as Front Row Motorsports, alleging antitrust violations and monopolistic practices.

When asked during this week’s IMSA-hosted media Zoom session about the chances of such a system being introduced in IMSA, given the recent trend of capacity fields and turning away entry request for major races such as the Rolex 24 at Daytona,  Doonan was quick to confirm that the “short answer is no.”

He explained: “We have such a wide variety of participants from, independent teams to call it manufacturer-based, factory-endorsed programs.

“It’s really difficult to have a model like that with a variety of participants we have. We’re going to continue to provide what we believe is a value equation for the independent teams as well as all the manufacturers to compete.

“And I think at its core value when IMSA was founded… Bill France Sr., John Bishop, Peggy Bishop, they established this to allow that huge variety of teams to go racing.

“You and I can start a race team, we could work with a manufacturer to get their support to our independent program or if we had enough experience and they felt like we could represent their brand enough, we could be a factory-endorsed program.

“I think we have such a nice variety, and all of those teams should be able to compete and come with a very detailed Balance of Performance program and be able to compete for a win.

“That’s our goal every single year, every single event is that everybody’s got a chance.”

When asked if the ongoing NASCAR lawsuit is having any impact on IMSA, Doonan said: “First of all, IMSA is a sister company to NASCAR. We’re proud of that association.

“Obviously, [I] can’t speak to anything related to the litigation and we’re focused on celebrating what we accomplished in 2025 and trying to surpass and beat all the records, attendance, and racing that we had this past year in 2026.

“We’re going to keep our head down and keep focused on that.”

Doonan Proud of Level of Competition, Manufacturer Diversity

As more manufacturers join IMSA, with Spanish brand CUPRA having been the most recent newcomer this year, and Genesis set to join with its GMR-001 in the GTP class in 2027, Doonan said the momentum in IMSA is at an all-time high.

“I think the level of competition is at a level maybe I’ve never seen before,” he said. “I’ve been gone to IMSA races since I was nine years old.

“When you look at the driving talent, the team talent, the engineering talent, with the manufacturers have done across their customer programs of course, across their call it factory-endorsed programs, the competition level and IMSA is at an all-time high.

“In my office… I list off all the races on my whiteboard, and every category across from the WeatherTech Championship to Michelin Pilot Challenge to VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, and I just go down the list of manufacturers and who’s had the chance to win a race or be on the podium.

“When you look at that picture at the end at the season, it’s so special that everybody at some point stood on the podium, I think in 2025, all manufacturers at some point stood on the top step, except maybe one.

“So, the fan in me, you said it is super excited about keeping the momentum going.

“We made some strategic decisions back in 2021, 2022, obviously [top-class] convergence in 2020, but, the GT3 platform has proven, not just in IMSA, but around the world to be a really, really special piece for the manufacturers to participate in, the same with GT4 and TCR.

“We continue to be in this moment. I think the business model for the manufacturers is stable relative to customer racing, and we just want to continue to provide this awesome stage.”

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