Road America enduro ‘creates excitement and newness’ - Doonan

IMSA President John Doonan discussed in further detail the changes to the 2026 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar, headlined by Road America joining the Michelin Endurance Cup with a six-hour endurance race as Indianapolis reverts to a two-hour, 40-minute sprint.

The fan-favorite venue at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin joining the Michelin Endurance Cup with a longer event is something that Doonan revealed has been in the works for nearly two years.

"We want to create excitement and newness for our fans, primarily for the race teams. Every round of our championship is important," Doonan said. "And in talking with (track president) Mike Kertscher and his entire team at Road America -- for the last, I'd say, 18 months, two years -- of saying: 'At some point, we'd love to bring an endurance round to your facility.' And we've had great conversations with Doug Boles and Roger Penske and everybody there (at Indianapolis Motor Speedway) about wanting to maintain an IMSA event.

"So what you're seeing is newness, and excitement for the audience and the fans - and some tremendous flexibility with the promoters and partners to say, 'You know what, let's shuffle it up a bit.'

"Now, it gives a really nice cadence to the calendar: Rolex, Sebring to kick it off. A mid-season at Watkins Glen with the Sahlen's Six Hour, first weekend in August at Road America. And then the teams have another 2:40 before they go to battle at Petit."

Indianapolis has sacrificed its place on the endurance calendar, as IMSA maintains its stance of needing to be sensitive and considerate to the budgets of its competitors.

"Adding an endurance round or an additional weekend is very difficult. I try my hardest, as does our entire staff, to keep our finger on the pulse of the budgets. So just adding another weekend, or another few hours to a race, is something that we take very seriously," Doonan said, referencing the difficult decision made last season to shift the premier GTP class out of IMSA's annual visit to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in exchange for adding a fifth endurance race.

"The idea of flexibility is key here. We did a 2:40 at Indianapolis in 2023, we did a six-hour in 2024, we'll do another six-hour, and we'll go back to a 2:40 at Indianapolis with the sensitivity around the budgets.

"If you had a 2:40 at Road America, you can't just plop in another three hours and 20 minutes. It just doesn't pencil for the race teams -- just the hours on the engine, hours on the components, more tires, more fuel. There's really careful consideration with all those factors.

“We want to keep it fresh. No doubt we’re looking at other opportunities, but that stability, I think, is really important for everybody’s health, and the health of our sport.”

On the side of Road America, Doonan foresees a significant uptick in attendance for the Aug. 2 race, in particular with fans camping at the venue across the entire weekend, taking advantage of the relatively mild summers in the Midwest.

"Big time," remarked Doonan. "It's right at the heart of what these natural-terrain road courses mean.

"One of the things through the pandemic that I believe gave us a boost, besides convergence, is the idea that you can come to an IMSA race and pull your family car or your camper right up to the fence and have the action right in front of you. And the fan attendance that we've seen at these venues is, I think, a big spark to bringing out families.

"Road America, along so many other places, has put the infrastructure in place -- and my hope would be that we burst the seams of space, like they have been the last several years by putting a six-hour there."

Although Indianapolis will be a sprint race for the foreseeable future, Doonan has affirmed that the Brickyard will be a long-term component of the IMSA calendar. "I think in every discussion with Doug Boles, with Roger Penske, they want to continue to be a part of this, and we want that iconic circuit on our calendar," he said.

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The 2026 calendar also sees Watkins Glen moving to the final weekend in June after this year's race was moved up a week to accommodate NBC's broadcast window. That window has now been moved back to the last weekend in June for next year -- although in 2025, the 24 Hours of Spa runs on the final weekend in June. It also avoids a calendar clash between Sebring -- holding to its third Saturday in March date -- and the inaugural IndyCar Grand Prix of Arlington the week before.

"My hope is we're giving everybody a long enough runway that they can plan, and making sure we avoid as many conflicts as possible," said Doonan, who acknowledged the potential for a clash with the Spa 24 Hours. "This schedule doesn't happen overnight -- or, it happens overnight because there are a lot of all-nighters by our staff, putting together the sanctioning agreements and working with our partners.

"But the conversations with our great partners at the ACO, Pierre Fillon, Frederick Lequien from WEC, our partners in NASCAR no doubt, IndyCar... We're just making sure that we're doing all the right things when it comes to not having conflicts as best as we possibly can."

There are no new WeatherTech or Michelin Pilot Challenge venues -- Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will still stage a four-hour endurance race for Pilot Challenge in 2026. Doonan is also open to adding another venue for such a stand-alone event, like Lime Rock Park -- which, for the third year running, will not be on the IMSA calendar in its two biggest multi-class series.

"That type of venue, and that type of weekend are increasingly important to us," he affirmed. "So a weekend where we can feature Michelin Pilot Challenge is exciting. We'd love to get back to Lime Rock.

"We had deep discussions with Dicky Riegel (Lime Rock Park president and CEO) and his team, and you just know that we want to bring IMSA's exciting action back to a venue that has so much IMSA history. And we want to continue to look at those weekends where we could feature Pilot Challenge and some of the others.

"We're considering it, no promises, but it's something we have to keep our eye on."