IMSA sticks with stable 2027 calendar but eyes new…

The 2027 schedule for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship remains relatively unchanged, but IMSA President John Doonan shared that the series has explored the possibility of venturing out to new venues.

When next year’s schedule was revealed on Thursday afternoon, there were a few subtle tweaks, including the Rolex 24 At Daytona pushed back a week to the end of January. Additionally, there is a plan to have five series-sanctioned tests ahead of each of the endurance rounds.

“We know there’s a lot of consistency in the calendar,” Doonan said. “It’s venues, roughly the same dates. Once again, Road America will be a six-hour in 2027.

“And we continue to investigate, and Emily (Nash, Director, Track Marketing and Promotions) is my witness, a bunch of different places that we could go as a sanctioning body. The consistency that you've seen, I think, has been a driver for what Rick (Humphrey, President and General Manager, Road Atlanta) saw at Petit, when Matt (Muha, President and General Manager, Sebring International Raceway) and his team are seeing here, and what all the promoters are seeing when it comes to record attendance.

“We continue to look at places that we could go to keep it continuously fresh.”

And that is proof with IMSA also releasing next year’s schedule for Michelin Pilot Challenge, which will return to Lime Rock Park for the first time since 2023.

“This switch to Lime Rock is a touch of freshness for the ’27 calendar,” Doonan continued. “But just know that we continue to look at places that our partners want to go and activate and markets that we think would put on a great show.

“But I think the consistency of this is one of the other stabilizing factors in why we are having such good turnouts right now.”

During the press conference for the announcement, Motorsport.com asked Doonan if IMSA could add to its current 11-race schedule in the future.

“In terms of the sheer number of races during the year, yeah, it would be tough,” Doonan said.

“There's 226 transporters over there [pointing to the paddock at the teams], and I bet you, if you walked along each one of them and you talked about adding a race weekend, I would probably not make it out of here alive, because every time you add a weekend, the budgets go up.

“So, if you added something, you'd have to try to take something away, 'cause you just can't do that to the teams and the manufacturers and everybody that is building out the budget. So, if you added one, we'd probably have to take something away, to be candid.”