Racing News

     

    IMSA has released the long-awaited schedule for the new Tudor United SportsCar Championship series. The announcement was made at Circuit Of The Americas on the day before the American Le Mans Series race. The new series combines Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series, which are running their final events as separate series this year.
     
    As expected, the series begins at Daytona in January, continues at Sebring in March, and ends with the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta in October.

    The twelve-race series includes the following events:

    Jan 25-26 Daytona International Speedway

    Mar 15 Sebring International Raceway

    Apr 12 Long Beach Street Circuit

    May 4 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

    May 31 Detroit Belle Isle

    Jun 29 Watkins Glen International

    Jul 13 Canadian Tire Motorsport

    Jul 25 Indianapolis Motor Speedway

    Aug 10 Road America

    Aug 24 Virginia International Raceway

    Sep 20 Circuit of The Americas

    Oct 4 Road Atlanta

    Notably missing from the 2014 schedule is Lime Rock Park, which has had events in both the Grand-Am and American Le Mans Series for some time. Also missing are Mid-Ohio, Barber Motorsports Park, and Kansas Speedway, each of which was on the 2013 Grand-Am schedule, and the Baltimore Street Circuit, which has run an ALMS race on Labor Day Weekend for the last three seasons.

    BMW has always been strong at Lime Rock, a circuit that favors handling. Long Beach, also a good track for BMW, remains on the schedule.

    Each of the new series’ classes will run a total of eleven events; the new series’ prototypes and GT Le Mans classes will run in Long Beach, while the Prototype, Prototype Challenge, and GT Daytona classes will run in Detroit. The prototypes will sit out VIR, leaving the race to the Prototype Challenge, GT Le Mans, and GT Daytona classes. The series’ classes are described here. Since the class structure was announced the GX class has been folded into GT Daytona.—Brian S. Morgan