INDIANAPOLIS — The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile road course will feature six hours of competition, an expansion that makes it the fourth of five rounds in the 2024 IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. That’s still more than twice the length of the 2023 Indianapolis race, won by Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet and Porsche Penske Motorsport, which at two hours, 40 minutes was run as a standard WeatherTech Championship “sprint” race.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles is pleased with how the lead-up to this year’s event has gone. Activities started Thursday evening with a fan event, the IMSA Street Festival, on Main Street in Speedway, just outside Turn One of the IMS oval.
“I think the event went really well for the first year,” Boles said. “Having the GTP prototypes back last year was really big for us. A lot of people love the GT cars because they connect with them; they look like the cars we drive. But the GTP cars have an extra cool side – the hybrid side of it, just how advanced they are. You look in the cockpit at all the buttons that all the drivers have to manage, and the solutions that each manufacturer has developed.
“What I’m most excited about this year is going from the two-hour, 40-minute race to the six-hour race as part of the endurance championship.”
The 2023 Battle on the Bricks was the first major event where IMS created an infield camping area. The offering was a success and is back this year.
“We liked it enough that we allowed camping (this year) on the weekend for the Brickyard 400 NASCAR weekend, which was the first time we’ve done that,” Boles said. “Our camping numbers are up a bit for this race because I think camping is such a big element at a road course when you go to a place like Mid-Ohio or Watkins Glen or Road America. Fans love camping next to the track at a racetrack.
“It’s going to take some time to continue to grow it, but it’s done really well.”
While obviously most famous for the Indianapolis 500, IMS has embraced sports car competition as a key element in its growth and development.
“We’re known for the month of May, and people have always asked, ‘What do you do for the rest of the year?’” said Boles. “The nice thing about IMSA is that there are 18 different manufacturers that participate in the weekend activities – that’s a lot of OEMs. We have cars on track 140 days of the year, and most of those days are OEM testing days, where they bring in new product to demonstrate to their sales teams and others.
“We have a lot of sports car teams testing, and special manufacturer events like Ferrari Challenge,” he added. “That’s great for the racetrack because when people hear the noise because cars are on the track, that’s the best marketing tool we have.”