Doonan bullish on long-term future for IMSA/ACO alliance

IMSA President John Doonan is confident that IMSA’s strategic alliance with the ACO (Automobile Club de l’Ouest) and the FIA will continue beyond its recently announced extension through 2028, and expressed support for a further step of convergence upon a single platform of technical regulations for top-tier prototype racing by 2030.

“I had an opportunity to be in France a month ago with my teammates and 13 OEMs in the room. I joked that a few years ago, we could have got a table for four in the restaurant!” Doonan said during today’s IMSA State of the Series press conference at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. “But now we have a full boardroom at a hotel, talking about the future. I left there very excited and confident that convergence will continue, with the hope of one set of regulations down the road, perhaps in the 2030 time frame.”

Speaking with RACER after the press conference concluded, Doonan expressed his support for a single-platform future in step with the manufacturers and fellow promoters – but emphasized that he wants to be mindful that whatever step IMSA takes in the future does not cause a disturbance in the plans for current and future Hypercar manufacturers.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a room of individuals from the industry that care so much about doing the right thing. They’ve all made a significant investment to be here. And I think it’s our job as IMSA, the ACO, the FIA, to be really good stewards of that – and make sure that we’re not making these major dramatic swings for them,” Doonan said.

“We want to be sensitive to those who are here, and have an existing platform car, and those who are coming – I think of the Fords, the Genesis, and the McLarens – and make sure that whatever we do doesn’t land at a particular point in time that disrupts their development plan.

“I think with maybe a ‘bogey’ out til 2030 of when we’d love to have one set of regulations – not one or the other, but one set that everybody can plan around – for me, would be the best outcome for them, to know that they’ve got a pathway forward that’s really built around one set of regulations.”

Support among manufacturers for a single platform of top-tier prototype racing has rapidly gained momentum within the FIA WEC paddock. 2030, the first year of the latest Hypercar rules extension that now runs through 2032, is believed to be the target for such a step.

It’s believed that this next level of convergence would most likely take the form of an evolution of the current LMDh ruleset, potentially one which would allow manufacturers to design their own chassis rather than being constrained to use one of four “spines” supplied by ORECA, Dallara, Multimatic, or Ligier.