This past weekend was the annual IMSA SportsCar event at Road America. I’ve been fortunate to spend quite a bit of time at that track lately, and it was an exciting change of pace to see so much fan activity over the weekend!
I might be biased about IMSA racing, but this was absolutely the biggest crowd that I’ve seen at Road America this year. And I wasn’t imagining it: the weekend set a record for the most fans ever at an IMSA race at Road America!
That big crowd was on hand for IMSA’s announcement of their 2024 season, which will see a few changes to the existing schedule. The series is seeing incredibly promising growth heading into next season amongst their classes and even some new series coming on board. You can check out the schedule here.
The Mazda MX-5 Cup series was part of the IMSA weekend, completing rounds nine and ten of the championship, and the races did not disappoint! We had incredible racing in both rounds, and there was plenty of green-flag competition that resulted in a new points leader in the championship.
The defending $250,000 Championship winner, Jared Thomas, emerged atop the points battle at the end of the weekend with his teammate, Aaron Jeansonne, close on his heels. The championship picture is in full view now, with only four rounds at two events left in the 2023 season. The $80,000 Rookie of the Year battle is still up for grabs, and the top two contenders were both Mazda Shootout winners at last year’s event.
The fresh pavement at Road America continues to evolve, and all the IMSA action this past weekend certainly helped with the breaking-in process as plenty of rubber was laid down. At the same time, though, the track claimed its fair share of cars throughout the event!
I’m excited to be back at Road America again this weekend for Sprint Challenge. The racing at that track will continue to be exciting and intense, as more cars see the four miles of the incredibly smooth new surface.