In a snap press conference held in the Apex tent at Sebring International Raceway Friday morning (March 15) where stakeholders normally gather to eat, IMSA officially announced the 2025 schedules for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. The move was seen as a rather substantial surprise since schedules are not usually revealed until the State of the Sport address in the summer.
Given the scheduling issues in 2024, it made sense to IMSA to get the schedules out as soon as possible.
“On behalf of my teammates at IMSA, I am proud to be able to announce our schedule for 2025 at such an early date,” stated IMSA president John Doonan. “This was made possible through a great spirit of collaboration with our promoter partners, and we are grateful to them for enabling us to make our 2025 plans known today. Putting next year’s schedule into everybody’s hands so soon allows fans, competitors and partners to get well ahead in planning for an amazing 2025 season, even with so much of our 2024 season still to come.”
The move comes after a series of clashes came to light. There are three schedule clashes this year between WeatherTech and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Those weekends are Long Beach, Laguna Seca, and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. These IMSA weekends conflict with the WEC race weekends at Imola, Spa-Francorchamps and Sao Paolo, respectively. The result is that a number of teams have had to come up with alternate plans for those races.
For instance, The Heart of Racing’s Alex Riberas was supposed to be full-time in their GTD Pro Aston Martin. However, the team announced in February that Riberas will focus on the LMGT3 class in the WEC on the three conflict weekends. As a result, teammate Ross Gunn will challenge for the GTD Pro title solo.
For the headlining championship, there are very few changes for 2025. The season will have 11 race weekends, 10 in the United States and one at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Ontario. The season will once again start with the Rolex 24 at Daytona the weekend of Jan. 24-26 with the ROAR Before the 24 the weekend before. That date had already been confirmed by Daytona International Speedway as ticket renewal notices for next year have already been sent.
There is one weekend change of note. Long Beach is scheduled to be a week earlier next year. That would put the race back on the typical weekend. This year’s IMSA race at Long Beach is scheduled for April 20.
This year, there are only six of the 11 race weekends that will see all four classes racing together. Those are the five Michelin Endurance Cup weekends (Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Indianapolis and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta), plus the sprint race at Road America. That will remain unchanged in 2025.
2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Schedule
| Date | Race | Track | Classes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan. 17-19 | ROAR Before the 24 | Daytona International Speedway | All |
| Jan. 25-26 | Rolex 24 at Daytona | Daytona International Speedway | All |
| March 15 | Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring | Sebring International Raceway | All |
| April 12 | N/A | Streets of Long Beach | GTP, GTD |
| May 11 | N/A | WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca | GTP, GTD Pro, GTD |
| May 31 | Detroit Grand Prix | Streets of Detroit | GTP, GTD Pro |
| June 29 | Sahlen's Six Hours at the Glen | Watkins Glen International | All |
| July 13 | N/A | Canadian Tire Motorsport Park | LMP2, GTD Pro, GTD |
| Aug. 3 | N/A | Road America | All |
| Aug. 24 | N/A | VIRginia International Raceway | GTD Pro, GTD |
| Sept. 21 | N/A | Indianapolis Motor Speedway | All |
| Oct. 11 | Motul Petit Le Mans | Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta | All |
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge teams will once again have 10 race weekends. Nine of those weekends will be as primary support to WeatherTech. There will also be a standalone race weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in early June.
Once again, there will be two four-hour races on the schedule and eight two-hour events. The four-hour races will once again be at Daytona and Mid-Ohio. Like in 2024, there will be no split weekends. The Grand Sport and TCR classes will race together in all 10 events.
2025 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Schedule
| Date(s) | Race | Track |
|---|---|---|
| Jan. 17-19 | ROAR Before the 24 | Daytona International Speedway |
| Jan. 24 | BMW M Endurance Challenge | Daytona International Speedway |
| March 14 | Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 | Sebring International Raceway |
| May 10 | N/A | WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca |
| June 8 | N/A | Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course |
| June 28 | N/A | Watkins Glen International |
| July 12 | N/A | Canadian Tire Motorsport Park |
| Aug. 2 | N/A | Road America |
| Aug. 23 | N/A | VIRginia International Raceway |
| Sept. 20 | N/A | Indianapolis Motor Speedway |
| Oct. 10 | FOX Factory 120 | Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta |
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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Isn’t that too early to release a race schedule for next year?