International Motor Sports Association

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IMSA
Sport governing body


Category Auto racing
Area of jurisdiction United States
Formation date 1969
Headquarters Braselton, Georgia
President Tim Mayer (CEO)
Other key staff Doug Robinson[1]
Website www.imsaracing.net

The International Motor Sports Association (generally referred to as IMSA) is an American auto racing sanctioning body based in Braselton, Georgia. It was started by John Bishop, a former employee of SCCA (Sports Car Club of America), and his wife Peggy in 1969 with help from Bill France of NASCAR.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] John Bishop and SCCA

John Bishop, an employee of Sikorsky, later for Martin Company, first became involved in motorsport in the 1950s, when he met Dave Allen. a SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) staff member, as he was interested in purchasing a Volkswagen. Allen mentioned an available vacancy that consisting of managing the SCCA Contest Board, in which Bishop quickly accepted and relocated to Westport, Connecticut.[2] His work consisted of setting up technical rules for the various classes and other administrative work including checking of the licences and recording of entries. Bishop would became known in the motorsport scene and enjoyed a good relations with the organization's president, Jim Kimberly[3] as well as providing artwork for many of the club's magazines and event programmes.[4]

In 1958, things would change for Bishop as the SCCA experienced internal changes. Each club region was to re-elect a regional area leader, necessating an executive director, who would be in charge of the entire staff. This position was taken by Hugo Rush, who later became instrumental in Allen's departure. Although Bishop's relationship was not good with Rush, Bishop gained a vast amount of experience and was showing his qualities in management and dealing in sticky situations.[2]

Rush would later depart due to disagreement with the organisation as it moved to promote professional as well as amateur motor sports. Bishop took over as his place as executive director. The SCCA had now taken the big step into including professional racing with the newly formed Pro Racing program as well as being in charge of the amateur program, he was tasked to rewrite technical rules for the former to ensure a more serious level of competition, despite being over occupied with numerous tasks.[2]

A divide within the organization formed between those who wanted only amateur level racing as it had been since its formation in 1944, and those who wanted to expand the SCCA to also include a premier national series.

By 1962, the SCCA was tasked to manage major World Championship for Makes rounds, particularly at Daytona, Sebring, Bridgehampton and Watkins Glen as well as the US Grand Prix. Bishop helped to create the USRRC (United States Road Racing Championship) series for Group 7 sportscars to recover races that had been taken by rival USAC (United States Automobile Club). Bishop was also instrumental in the foundation of the two major SCCA series, Trans-Am and the Can-Am series.[2]

In 1969, tensions were at their highest and Bishop resigned due to the managements in-fighting.[2]

[edit] Beginnings

As Bishop pondered his future, he received a call from Bill France, Sr., the founderr of NASCAR. France wanted him to pay a visit to Daytona Beach to discuss his wish to form a new organization for road racing. Bishop accepted his proposal and France gave Bishop total control over the new organization. France financed the organization and in return would own three quarter of the shares with Bishop controlling the last quarter. He returned to Connecticut and set up an office there, and with the help of his wife, Peggy, created the structure of the organization. He named the new organization International Motor Sport Association and recruited his former secretary Edythe Hindle and Bob Gilmartin, who was responsible for promoting the series.

In response, the SCCA threatened to penalize its members if they were to partipicate in any IMSA event.

The first series to be organized by IMSA was Formula Vee and Formula Ford, with the first race taking place at Pocono Raceway in October 1969. The SCCA threatened the circuit management and asked them to block IMSA from racing there. While not banned from the track, IMSA had to rent the track for an additional $10000 fee. The race had a crowd of 328 spectators. A month later, the second race took place at Talladega Superspeedway.

The organization soldiered on even though races brought only small crowd, and another ten races were plans. Bill France, suffering from financial setbacks, had to reduce his investments and brought on new investors to take over part of his stake in the series.

[edit] The GT era

Further information: IMSA GT Championship

By the end of the 1970 season, Bishop, deciding on the future of the series, realized that single-seaters were not capable of attracting large crowds and realizing that he helped to establish the foundations of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) "J appendix" for World Championship for Makes sportscars, as these cars that had no suitable national series to compete in, Bishop fixed the issues by starting a new series for them. For the end of the 1970 season, he advertised a new championship for Groups 2 and 4 cars with equity between competitors.[2]

That following season ( 1971), that series became known as the GT (Grand Touring) series to present international endurance racing in North America. In 1972, it got itself a new sponsorship in the form of Camel Cigarettes and its sedan series became known as B.F. Goodrich Radial Challenge. By 1973, the organisation gained recognition from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and sanctioned the 12 hours of Sebring for the first time.

Upon foundation, Bishop set up rule, to ensure that rules are not especially written to now allow factory teams dominate the series as he did not feel that they would last long in the series, he was in favor of looking after privateer teams and helping them to become competitive.

In the mid-1970s, as European cars began to dominate, a new series was formed in 1975 called All American Grand Touring (AAGT) to give equal latitude to foreign cars and turbocharged cars was permitted in 1977.

In the same year, Bishop invited a pair of Jean Rondeau built Inalteras to compete as "special prototypes", that became the foundation of the newly formed Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) category in 1981, with a separate rules to that of the similar Group C as Bishop was unhappy with the fuel consumption formula of the latter.[5]

In 1984, the organizers of the World Endurance Championship (WEC), Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) attempted to reconciliate the two organisation by attempting to scrap its existing formula and adopt IMSA rules. This did not please Porsche, who spent vast sums of Deutsche Marks on engine development and responded by boycotting the 24 hours of Le Mans of that year. The FISA responded by abandoning the rule change for the time being.[5]

In 1987, Jean-Marie Balestre, then president of FISA, almost made a successful attempt to reconciliate the two together, by announcing that turbochargers and fuel restrictions would be phased out by 1989, but none for naturally aspirated engines below 3.5 liters, but that came to nothing. Another attempt was done again in 1991, with chassis ballast penalty for turbocharged cars that rendered them uncompetitive, except at Le Mans.[5]

IMSA however went its own throughout the duration of its Camel GT seasons.[5]

[edit] New ownership

In 1987, John Bishop had to undergo a heart bypass surgery, forcing him to rethink his priorities. He began to realise that the Camel GT series was in danger of becoming oriented toward the factory teams and less to the privateers as Bishop originally intended. Rules were modified to accommodate the factory teams, which wanted to get into the series, despite Bishop's belief that would be unlikely to the series on the long run, especially if they failed to meet their objectives.[4]

The following year, after their headquarters were relocated to Tampa, Bishop and his wife were approached by Mike Cone and Jeff Parker, owners of the Tampa Race Circuit with an offer that they were unable to refuse. By the following January (1989), the Bishops sold the company to Cone and Parker.[4] Bishop shortly stepped down as the organisation's president in favor of Mark Raffauf, his deputy president and the organisation's representative on the ACCUS (Automobile Competition Committee for the United States), an FIA recognised sporting body.[5] Cone and Parker in turn sold the organization to businessman Charles Slater by the early 1990s. [6]

In 1996 Slater sold the organization with previously accumulated debt to Roberto Muller (ex-CEO of Reebok) and Wall Street based portfolio manager for Bill Gates, Andy Evans, who also was an IndyCar owner and owner/driver of the Scandia World Sports Car team. These changes would lead to the departure of many of the executive board members.[6] Evans and Vice-President of Marketing Kurtis Eide were responsible for the name change to Professional Sports Car Racing (PSCR).[7]

A breakaway series formed by the USRRC in 1998 involving the Sports Car Club of America and headed by a group of competitors and ex IMSA personnel including John Bishop, Bill France Jr., Rob Dyson, Roger Penske, Skip Barber, and Ralph Sanchez. They wanted to keep rules within the United States initially failed, as a result, Don Panoz and Barber departed to affiliate themselves with PSCR.[7] A second attempt with full support of NASCAR's France family and other motorsports notables known as Grand-Am began in 1999. Grand-Am struggled early on, but has proven to be a formidable competitor to the ALMS in recent years with name drivers, considerably larger fields and much closer competition. Much like the split between Champ Car and the IRL this split has been detrimental to the sport as a whole. Attendance, sponsorships and media coverage have dropped dramatically since the split in 1998.

Under tremendous pressure from team owners and management Evans sold the organisation to Don Panoz in 2001,[7] to solidify the sanction for Panoz's American Le Mans Series which had been sanctioned by PSCR since 1999. Don Panoz renamed the sanctioning organization back to IMSA and is now the official sanctioning body of the ALMS, as well as the Star Mazda series and the Panoz GT Pro series. The ALMS uses regulations based on those of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but in 2005 the relationship between Panoz and the Le Mans organizers, ACO, has become problematic.

The ALMS and the ACO have disagreed on several point since the inception of their relationship which have caused lower than expected number of entries on the grid. This has forced the ALMS to make decisions that are contrary to ACO rules to boost field size and fan interest by allowing cars to campaign the 2005 season that do not conform to ACO rules. However, the announcement of Porsche's return to Le Mans style prototypes and several new chassis becoming available for 2006, there is optimism that the ALMS will rebound.

[edit] The series

These are the series that are run by the IMSA organisation

[edit] Current series

[edit] American Le Mans Series

Main article: American Le Mans Series

The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was launched in 1999 by Dr. Don Panoz as a replacement for the dwindling IMSA GT Championship. With keystone races such as the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans, the series serves as qualifier for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) who runs the 24 Hours of Le Mans has given their full backing of the American Le Mans Series, which currently runs two classes of Le Mans Prototypes and two classes of Grand Touring cars.

[edit] IMSA Lites

IMSA Lites is a series for single seater sportscars sponsored by Hankook Tire. There are three categories within the series, in each category. Onward from 2007, all cars raced are identically to each other with identical engines of each class. The main category, Lite 1 uses an Elan Motorsports Technologies DP02, [8] Lites 2 consists of West Racing WR1000, powered by a Kawasaki ZX-10R engine[9] [10] and Lites 3 consists of SCCA Sports Racer specification car powered by a Mazda MP2 engine. [11]

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[edit] Formula BMW USA

Main article: Formula BMW

The Formula BMW USA series is one the North American version of the open-wheel series supported by BMW. All running identical chassis powered by BMW motorcycle engines, the series serves as stepping stone for formula car drivers moving into higher international series. A world championship of all Formula BMW series is run at the end of the year, taking the top drivers from Formula BMW USA and the other similar series elsewhere in the world.

[edit] GT3 Cup

The IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge is a one make series dedicated to the Porsche 911 GT3 and is similar to the Porsche Supercup. The series is more cost effective then the Supercup in that drivers are allowed to race either newer 997-generation 911s or older 996s in a different class.

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[edit] Star Mazda Championship

Main article: Star Mazda Series

The Star Mazda Championship is a Mazda supported open-wheel road racing support series that serves to help drivers escalate through the ranks of American open-wheel racing. All teams run identical chassis with Mazda rotary engines out of a Mazda RX-8.

[edit] Panoz Racing Series

Originally began as Women's Global GT Series, formed by Lyn St. James in 1999, the series began as a support race to ALMS for women racers, using the race modified version of the Panoz Esperante series of cars.[12] The series was an invitational affair with forty one drivers are selected out of four hundred applicants to participate in the Women’s Global GT Series.[13] The grid would usually consists of experienced racers such as former Formula One drivers, Giovanna Amati and Divina Galica, NASCAR's Shawna Robinson, and Italian Audi factory team touring car driver Tamara Vidali against talented amateur drivers from varying degrees of professions, such as radio personality, police officer, law student, and racing simulations art designer for Microsoft.[14]

One of its most notable drivers to graduate from the Women series is Milka Duno, who currently competes, as of the 2007 season, in Indy Racing League.

The series would run for another year before the rules was changed to allow male drivers to compete, therefore it became the Panoz Racing Series. In 2004, the series would be split into a two-season series, a Winter and Summer GT series which would consist of races held over three rounds followed by finale round at a major ALMS race. The Summer Series finale would take place at the Petit Le Mans. The Winter Series would follow after that race concluding at the 12 Hours of Sebring

[edit] Defunct series

[edit] IMSA IS

The International Sedan series was ran between 1971 to 1993[15]

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[edit] IMSA GT

Main article: IMSA GT Championship

[edit] IMSA RS

The IMSA RS (abbreviated as Racing Stock or Radial Sedan) began as the Baby Grand Series, which was originally sponsored by B.F. Goodrich (therefore known as Goodrich Radial Challenge), in 1971 to attract racers who did not have the budgets that was required in the GT category as well as an emphasis on "compact sedans" such as the AMC Gremlin. Limited preparation was permitted, and since the entrants were meant to be street-driven race cars, the rules required the retention of headlights, seats, upholstery, window cranks, stock brakes and original springs and radial tires. Only the exhaust systems and shock absorbers were free and like its GT counterpart, engine size, otherwise the series itself was based on rival SCCA Trans-Am's Two-Five Challenge rule. [16] [17] The series, which would later be known as Champion Spark Plug Challenge, became dominated by a mostly by Mazda's rotary powered RX-2 and RX-3 as IMSA specified heavier weights than piston-engined cars and prohibited any modifications to the rotors. [18] Datsun also had a fair share of success within the series with cars such as the 510 and 200SX. Many drivers would cut their teeth in this series such as Don Devendorf, of Electramotive fame, Jim Downing, of Kudzu and Bobby Rahal. The final season was run in 1984 before it was essentially replaced by the IMSA Showroom Stock class the following year, while retaining its sponsor until 1988.[19] As with most now-defunct racing classes, there are revival races run for this category and the SCCA sanctions events for mostly stock and all stock, cars.

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[edit] American Challenge

The American Challenge or known in full as Kelly American Challenge, otherwise abbreviated as AAC was a category for US built cars and throughout the series, it has always been run as a support race to the premier GT series. Starting in 1977, the series ran until 1989. [20] In 1992, all this was rewarded, when the premier GTO category was renamed to GTS due to sponsor reasons, rather than leaving the GTO category redundant, the title was reallocated to the former American Challenge cars, as a result, they would be run alongside GTS cars. This series started the careers of Irv Hoerr, Kenny Irwin, Jr, Patty Moise, Clay Young, Lyn St. James and Paul Gentilozzi. [21]

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[edit] IMSA Renault Cup

The Renault Cup is an one-make racing series that ran between 1982 to 1985. The series began with the Renault LeCar which the series went on for another until the car's discontinuation in the US. The series went on for the remainder of the three seasons with the Encore. [22] [23]

One of the most notable drivers to come from the series was Parker Johnstone, he took runner-up spot on his debut season in 1984 and would virtually dominate the series following that.[24][25]

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[edit] IMSA Showroom Stock

In 1985, IMSA would undergo a major rules reformat while still retaining its sponsor, therefore it was still known as its sponsor's moniker. This time, the series was more restricted to current models that is being available in dealerships throughout the US, other than that, the series had rules and race format that were similar to the RS series, being an endurance series. At the end of the 1987 season, Champion stepped down as sponsor and was replaced by Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, therefore, the series was renamed IMSA Firestone Firehawk Endurance Championship or commonly known as Firehawk Series, after the brand of Firehawk performance tires.

Total prize purses, year-end point funds and manufacturer contingency awards in 1991 amount up to $1 million. As required by the sponsor, all cars are required to use its own Firehawk SZ or Firehawk SV tires which can be shaved to racing depth or the all season Firehawk GTX, Bosch and Kendall Oil are also associate sponsors. Most of the drivers that compete in the series are amateurs or semi professional, with a few made their living out of competing in the series, Dorsey Schroeder and John Andretti are one of the few drivers that cut their teeth in the series.[26] Meetings usually attracts over ninety entries and are often televised and duration of the race varies from one 2 hour and a helf event to one 24 hour race. The series would solder on until 1998, by then known as Speedvision Cup.

There are three classes, sorted in order from the highest

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[edit] IMSA Bridgestone Supercar Championship

IMSA also hosted the Bridgestone Supercar Championship, sponsored by the sister brand of Firestone, Bridgestone, which was for medium to higher end sports cars such as the Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911 Turbo, Nissan 300ZX or Lotus Esprit and was run between 1991 up until 1995. Usually a support race to the GT races, running at 30 minutes which were televised, the series attracted some of the well known professional drivers such as Hans Joachim Stuck, Hurley Haywood, Elliot Forbes-Robinson and Paul Newman. [27]with a total prize fund of $555,555 for the 1992 season. All cars had to run on roadgoing Bridgestone Potenza RE71 tires which are trimmed to semi-racing depth and during a wet race, cars race on full depth.[26]

The series was not without controversy, mainly for the all composite Consulier GTP as it was bordering on the showroom stock ethos as well as being criticised for having little common with cars that the general public see on public road. [26] The GTP, debuted with just four silver Consulier Series II GTP at Lime Rock in 1991, despite having a 2.2 liter turbo with about 195 hp connected to a 5 speed gearbox, weighing at 2100 lbs, the car took a pole to chequered flag finish easily outpaced the other more powerful but heavier cars, especially if they were piloted by talented and more experienced drivers such as Hurley Haywood in a factory Porsche, Boris Said's Callaway Twin Turbo Corvette, and Jim Minnaker in a factory ZR1 Corvette. It was subsequently announced by IMSA felt that it was not in the best interests of the series to allow the Consulier to win, so as a result they added a 300 lb weight penalty to the GTP before being barred from the series at the end of the season despite taking a runner up spot.[28].

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[edit] World Sports Racer

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[edit] References

  1. ^ Contact details imsaracing.net, retrieved on August 15 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d e f IMSAblog: A tribute to John Bishop (23 April 2006). Retrieved on 21 January 2008.
  3. ^ IMSAblog: Do you want to know about GT racing in the 70s (January 2006). Retrieved on 21 January 2008.
  4. ^ a b c (January 2001) Prototypes: The History of the IMSA GTP Series, 1st (in English), United States: David Bull Publishing, 13/14. ISBN 1893618013. 
  5. ^ a b c d e Briggs, Ian [1991] (1991). Endurance Racing 1981-1991, 1st (in English), United Kingdom: Osprey Automotive, 24&21. ISBN 1-85532-228-5. 
  6. ^ a b IMSA wheels some of its people to NY, Indy. Tampa Bay Business Journal. Retrieved on December 20 1996.
  7. ^ a b c Smotherman, Mark (24 June 2007). Selected Sports Car Racing History:1997 shakeup in US. Retrieved on 21 January 2008.
  8. ^ Microsoft Word - IMSA Lites1 Tech Regs _attachment 1_.doc
  9. ^ PVM Motor Sports
  10. ^ http://www.imsaracing.net/2007/lites/bulletins/IMSA%20Lites2%20Tech%20Regs%20_attachment%202_.pdf
  11. ^ http://www.imsaracing.net/2007/lites/bulletins/IMSA%20Lites%203%20Tech%20Regs%20(attachment%203).pdf
  12. ^ Giovanna Amati - Biography
  13. ^ A Sporting Life page 2
  14. ^ Giovanna Amati - Biography
  15. ^ Auto Racing Analysis (ARA) Home Page
  16. ^ History of the Trans-AM 2.5 Challenge
  17. ^ Grassroots Motorsports » Potent Pintos: These Drivers Have No Worries About Being Hit from Behind
  18. ^ MazdaUSA > MAZDASPEED > Motorsports > Racing Heritage
  19. ^ 1987 Champion Spark Plug Challenge Mid-Ohio Photo Gallery by Mark Windecker at pbase.com
  20. ^ Auto Racing Analysis (ARA) Home Page
  21. ^ http://www.wspr-racing.com/wspr/results/imsa/nf_imsa_home.html WSPR-Racing.com
  22. ^ My Renault Racing History
  23. ^ Charles Downes still ‘fast and furious’ at 60
  24. ^ Parker Johnstone - A Sponsors Dream Driver
  25. ^ INDYLIGHTS: Parker Johnstone Teams With Dorricott Racing
  26. ^ a b c McKnight, Nigel [1991] (1991). Showroom Stock Race Car Preparation, 1st (in English), Motorbooks. ISBN 0-87938-652-5. 
  27. ^ International Motor Sport Association
  28. ^ http://matt_yapit.tripod.com/American-auto.html

[edit] External links