Postponed 6H Watkins Glen to Clash With Indianapolis 8H

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Two major U.S. sports car endurance races are now scheduled for the same weekend following the postponement of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen to October.

Confirmed on Friday by IMSA, the rescheduled IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship round is now slated to take place on Oct. 1-4, the same weekend as the inaugural Indianapolis 8 Hour.

It poses a direct clash for SRO America competitors that compete in both IMSA and either GT World Challenge America powered by AWS or Pirelli GT4 America, which will also be competing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that weekend.

The Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli round was recently announced as a points-paying event for GTWC America, with the first three hours of the race serving as the season-ending race for the GT3-based series.

Sportscar365 understands that an initial clash with SRO America’s rescheduled race at Virginia International Raceway, on July 10-12, was avoided with the IMSA weekend being moved to October instead of mid-July.

When asked during a videoconference with series stakeholders on Friday about IMSA’s newly revised schedule clashing with other series, IMSA President John Doonan indicated they have done their best given the scheduling challenges.

In addition to the Six Hours of The Glen and Indy 8H, other conflicts now include the Sebring sprint race occurring on the same weekend as the European Le Mans Series season-opener at Paul Ricard and Lime Rock clashing with the ELMS round in Portimao.

There are also IndyCar clashes on the Daytona and Sebring sprint weekends as well, which could pose a challenge if foreign drivers are denied entry into the U.S. amid the country’s current travel ban.

“We have been working extremely close with our colleagues at IndyCar ELMS, WEC and SRO,” Doonan said.

“We do recognize that there are several event weekends that are conflicting.

“As I stated earlier in normal times, it’s extremely difficult to present event schedules that satisfy everyone’s needs.

“At this time our competition department is working on event schedules and we are recognizing that there’s potential conflicts on certain weekends with certain championships.

“We’ll do our ever best to try to develop a cadence that allows, for those who compete in multiple championships, as best an opportunity to do so despite the fact that we’re sharing weekends with several of our major championships around the world.”

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