IMSA to Reveal 2024 Confirmed Entries at Petit Le Mans

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

IMSA is planning to reveal the list of full-time confirmed teams for the 2024 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season at this year’s Motul Petit Le Mans, as part of a new streamlined entry process.

Announced during Friday’s unveil of the 2024 schedules at Road America, IMSA President John Doonan confirmed that entry requests will open this Tuesday, with an Oct. 3 deadline for both full season and Rolex 24 entry requests.

This is due to an expected oversubscribed field for both the WeatherTech Championship season-opener and full-time ‘Premium’ entrants competing in the series.

“I think it gives everybody a longer planning runway,” Doonan said. “It definitely helps us in terms of paddock planning and pit lane planning and things like that.

“The intent of moving it up, I know puts a lot of pressure on everyone. But hopefully that gives everybody a clearer picture of what it’s going to look like.”

Doonan said IMSA currently has estimated 74 theoretical entry requests for the Rolex 24, with 55 of them being full-season teams, both of which would need to be pared down in order to meet track-specific requirements.

Out of the six tracks that will host four-class races next year, Road America has the lowest capacity at 53 cars, while others can accommodate slightly more entries.

“Some of the tracks are different,” Doonan explained. “Watkins Glen has 57 pit boxes. Road Atlanta has 54 based on giving teams the space that is appropriate to work in and not unsafe in any way.

“Daytona, 60 is the max. We did 61 the last couple of years but we’re going to cap it at 60 for 2024.”

Despite the removal of the LMP3 class, it’s known that grid numbers are expected to increase in the four remaining classes, particularly in LMP2 and GTD Pro.

No word has been given if certain classes will be capped by a number of entries, as had been the case with LMP3.

The Oct. 3 entry request deadline would then give the sanctioning body roughly one week to make its final selections that will be revealed at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in mid-October.

“It’s never easy to tell people no, but I think for the sport, it’s a really special time when you have that many people that are interested in competing with us,” Doonan said.

“There’s partners that want to be here. Clearly they see value in being a part of IMSA. It’s going to be a difficult process to choose the entries.”

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