Third Straight IMSA Schedule Release at Sebring Proves the Positivity and Power of Advanced Planning
By Holly Cain
SEBRING, Fla. – For the third consecutive year, the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) has set the pace as the first major auto racing sanctioning body to release its next-year schedule – announcing 2027 dates for both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Thursday trackside at Sebring International Raceway, site of Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
The paddock’s reception to the news has been swift and enthusiastic.
IMSA President John Doonan proudly shared the update sitting alongside several track presidents. The schedule is not only significant in its early release, but also for the consistency it shows with the WeatherTech Championship competing at all the same tracks next year as it will this year.
“I think from the driver’s standpoint it’s nice to have some repetition and know the rhythm, it’s helpful,” said Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing driver Ricky Taylor, who shares the No. 10 Cadillac V-Series.R with Filipe Albuquerque and Will Stevens in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP). “And from a series standpoint, we get to build on the events and the series has so much momentum. We see it.
“And it’s nice for fans to have tradition. So many book their events a year in advance.”
Doonan emphasized the record car counts and sellout crowds that have been recent IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship staples and attributed the early schedule release as having a substantial and positive effect on it all.
“We’re in a place to announce the calendar, give people a longer runway for planning, for corporate partnership development, budgets, that type of thing,” Doonan said. “For me, it’s one of the major stabilizing factors that’s happening in the sport right now.”
While the 2026 WeatherTech Championship season is barely underway, fans can already look ahead to major milestones for several cornerstone events in 2027. One of them, perhaps the grandest, will come in 12 months at historic Sebring for the 75th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif. celebrates its 70th anniversary next year. January starts the season with the 65th Rolex 24 At Daytona, while the series’ traditional season finale will celebrate the 30th running of Motul Petit Le Mans.
The 2027 season will begin a week later than in past years with the traditional Roar Before the Rolex 24 slated for Jan. 22-24 at the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway Road Course followed immediately with the marquee Rolex 24 At Daytona race weekend, Jan. 28-31.
The legendary Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring follows on March 17-20 – both Daytona and Sebring races part of the five-race IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup (with races also at Watkins Glen International, Elkhart Lake’s Road America and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta) – races which feature all four classes of competition from GTP to Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD Pro) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD).
Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta President Rick Humphrey was among three track presidents present for the announcement at Sebring. He said this kind of consistency in the schedule and its early release is exactly what helped propel his property to have a sellout last year and initiate a facility revitalization project that will include among other things, 1,000 new parking spots and a new access road.
“There is such an advantage as a track promoter to know the dates in advance, to be able to prepare, to be able to communicate with the fans,” Humphrey said. “And from our standpoint, the 2027 calendar being released and us continuing to host that season finale and championship event, that is huge for us.
“There’s a lot going on at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.”
Sebring Raceway’s new president Matt Muha, who succeeds the retiring Wayne Estes, agreed. He’s busy preparing for next March’s 75th race edition celebration, unveiling a special commemorative logo for the 2027 race.
“I know our staff couldn’t be prouder of the work that’s gone into getting this logo put together and all the work you’re going to see [at the track] over the course of the next 12 months before we get back to the 75th running,” said Muha, who also announced this week that longtime partner Mobil 1 had extended its entitlement sponsorship. Its parent company sponsorship has been at Sebring since 1995 with the current race name in place since 2000.
IMSA’s news Thursday also included a change in the 10-race Michelin Pilot Challenge schedule, shifting its one West Coast event from WeatherTech Raceway to the Northeast in Connecticut’s iconic Lime Rock Park next fall, returning IMSA competition to the facility for the first time since 2023.
Doonan emphasized the beautiful “fall colors” greeting teams that will be – by that time in the season – in full championship mode.
“I feel like we are very well prepared, the track is ready,” said Lime Rock President and CEO Dicky Riegel, noting recent changes to the facility’s pit road that can accommodate the larger field the Michelin Pilot Challenge offers.
It’s all positive challenges for IMSA and the tracks – all who are enjoying the current state of the sport – large, competitive fields, fueled by eager corporate sponsors and appreciated by large enthusiastic crowds all over the country.
“We continue to investigate a bunch of different places that we could seriously go as a sanctioning body,” Doonan said of future expansion. “The consistency that you’ve seen has been a driver for what Rick [Humphrey] saw at Petit, what Matt [Muha] and his team are seeing here [at Sebring] and what all the promoters are seeing when it comes to record attendance.
“We continue to look at places we can go keep it continuously fresh … places our partners want to go and activate in markets that we think would put on a good show. But I think the consistency of this is one of the other stabilizing factors in why we are having such good turnouts right now.’’