LE MANS — During today’s annual press conference preceding the 24 Hours of Le Mans, officials from the International Motor Sports Association and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest announced the extension of their strategic alliance, securing its continuation through at least the end of 2032.
The IMSA-ACO strategic alliance provides for three automatic invitations for each year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans for IMSA competitors.
Effectively, IMSA provides one automatic entry in each of the three classes racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The championship-winning team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class earns a Le Mans entry for the following year in the Hypercar class.
The winner of the annual Jim Trueman Award for the top Bronze-rated driver in the WeatherTech Championship’s Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class earns a Le Mans entry for the following year in the LMP2 class.
Similarly, the winner of the Bob Akin Award for the top Bronze driver in the WeatherTech Championship Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class earns a spot in the next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMGT3 class.
This year’s automatic Le Mans entries from IMSA are the No. 4 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 shared by Nick Tandy, Felipe Nasr and Pascal Wehrlein in Hypercar; the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07 of Nick Boulle – the 2024 Jim Trueman Award winner and WeatherTech Championship LMP2 champion – being co-driven by Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer and Luca Ghiotto in the LMP2 class; and the No. 13 AWA Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R for 2024 Bob Akin Award winner Orey Fidani and co-drivers Matt Bell and Lars Kern in the LMGT3 class.
IMSA also will continue to hold exclusive rights in North America for the use of LMP2 and Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) race cars. As a component of the extension, IMSA will adopt the new LMP2 regulations announced by the ACO in Friday’s press conference. The new LMP2 cars are expected to begin competing in the WeatherTech Championship in 2028.
The agreement also allows IMSA to use “Le Mans” in the title of the annual 10-hour season WeatherTech Championship season finale – known as Motul Petit Le Mans – at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
IMSA and the ACO have been strategic partners since the launch of the modern-day IMSA at the beginning of the 2014 season, with formal links between the two organizations dating back for decades prior.
