IMSA buoyed by strong Long Beach TV ratings

A key shift on the Long Beach schedule allowed IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to take advantage of a live broadcast window on the FOX network and secure its best TV ratings in quite some time.

The valuable 1 p.m. time slot became available as a result of a swap with the Verizon IndyCar Series, which traditionally holds its Saturday qualifying at that time as IMSA prepares for a late afternoon race start. With FOX making network time possible in the early afternoon for IMSA's 100-minute event, senior brass from both series traded spots on the schedule. Crashes and caution periods aside, the WeatherTech Championship drivers ensured all who tuned in were entertained.

"This is just the most recent example of solid improvements in our results stemming from the great partnership we have with FOX," IMSA president Scott Atherton told RACER. "So far this year we had the first three hours of the Rolex 24 At Daytona on FOX Network TV, Sebring coverage featured 10.5 hours on FS1 – a big improvement over recent years and this past weekend the opportunity to put our entire Long Beach event, the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix live on FOX, generated some of our best results ever."

With IMSA's team and manufacturers constantly pushing for bigger TV ratings, Atherton was understandably pleased to see the Long Beach WeatherTech Championship race deliver well beyond the norm.

"Anytime we can expose a large scale national television audience to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – it can only be described as a great opportunity," he said. "And the FOX Network broadcast of the BUBBA burger Grand Prix was not an exception. IMSA and all of our stakeholders are thrilled at the ratings results and we look forward to continuing the positive momentum that has been generated by our first three events to all of our remaining '17 events. The quality of the racing, the fan turnout at the events and our TV ratings are all up over last year and trending even higher."