Country | United States |
---|---|
Inaugural season | 2014 |
Prototype Classes | Prototype (P), Prototype Challenge (PC) |
GT Classes | GT Le Mans (GTLM), GT Daytona (GTD) |
Tire suppliers | Continental Tire, Michelin |
Drivers' champion | P: Dane Cameron Eric Curran PC: Alex Popow Renger van der Zande GTLM: Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner GTD: Alessandro Balzan Christina Nielsen |
Teams' champion | P: Action Express Racing PC: Starworks Motorsport GTLM: Corvette Racing GTD: Scuderia Corsa |
Makes' champion | P: Chevrolet GTLM: Chevrolet GTD: Audi |
Official website | www |
Current season |
The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). It is a result of a merger between two existing North American sports car racing series, the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series. The initial United SportsCar Championship name of the series was announced on March 14, 2013, while Rolex SA signed their Tudor brand to a title sponsorship deal.WeatherTech later signed a deal to take over title sponsorship of the series starting in 2016, rebranding the series.
The inaugural 2014 season began with the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona on January 25–26 and ended with the Petit Le Mans on October 4.
On September 5, 2012 it was announced that the Grand-Am Road Racing sanctioning body would be merging with the Braselton based International Motor Sports Association, and as such both bodies would be merging their premiere sports car series, the Rolex Sports Car Series and American Le Mans Series respectively, with plans to debut in 2014. On November 20, 2012 the merger committee announced that SME Branding were selected to develop the name, logo and identity of the new series.
On January 8, 2013, the two series' announced a preliminary class structure for the new merged series. Grand-Am's Daytona Prototype category and IMSA's P2 would combine into a single prototype class, with allowances for the unique DeltaWing to also compete in the new class. The Le Mans Prototype Challenge class of single spec cars from the American Le Mans Series would continue as is, although the cars will switch to Grand-Am's Continental Tires. The GT class of the American Le Mans Series would remain unchanged, while Grand-Am's GT class will form another GT class, and be combined with the American Le Mans GTC category. The only category of cars not represented in the new series is the American Le Mans Series' P1 category.