IMSA to Update Teams on Rescheduled Events

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

IMSA will update teams on the status of rescheduled events and calendar adjustments for its sanctioned series on Tuesday, according to series president John Doonan.

The sanctioning body has scheduled a teleconference for tomorrow afternoon that is expected to detail further information and potentially confirm several rescheduled events in the wake of the recently canceled Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and postponed round at Mid-Ohio.

The next WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event on the calendar is the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle on May 31, although that event remains in question amid a decision from Penske Entertainment Corp., the sister company that has taken over ownership of the NTT IndyCar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, on whether the Indianapolis 500 will go ahead as planned.

“Since the travel ban took place on the 11th [of March] over Thursday the 12th, we have been working non-stop,” Doonan told Sportscar365. “We were able to reschedule Sebring, [but] what’s next?

“We have sent out bulletins to inform the stakeholders and each of the series that were impacted that we are working on. I think we’ve made some good progress.

“We didn’t want to have conference calls until we felt like we had some solid information to share with the teams.

“Tomorrow represents a time where we can get everybody together, bring them up to speed on the state of the sport, which is obviously ever-evolving, [and] give them some solid date updates on rescheduled events.”

Doonan previously revealed that IMSA aims to complete “complete seasons” of all of its sanctioned series, with Sportscar365 learning that proposed double-header weekends are among the possible options.

“We’re [going to bring] everybody together as a team and let them know that IMSA is working hard as we make decisions about races,” Doonan said. “We’re deeply focused on their business models, the budgets and making sure that travel between races and things like that is reasonable.

“It’s really going to turn into, fingers crossed, a really busy fall for the race teams.

“In the meantime, I’ve been trying to stay engaged with as many of our team owners, our OEM partners, our race promoters as possible just to make sure that when we do make decisions we’re trying to take into consideration people’s schedules and some of their challenges too.”

When asked if a definitive updated schedule would be released, Doonan said they will share “as much as we can” at this time.

“[We will] try to give them a sense on where we’re headed with several of the events that either have been canceled or a fence line right now as to what can happen next given from the medical professional community,” he said.

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