IMSA Adds IMS Race for 2023
The International Motorsports Association (IMSA) will return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in 2023 for the inaugural “IMSA Battle on the Bricks,” the sanctioning body announced.
For the first time since 2014, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be back at IMS on the weekend of Sept. 15-17, 2023, as the headline event of a full weekend of IMSA sports car action billed as the “IMSA Battle on the Bricks” around the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course. The two-hour, 40-minute WeatherTech Championship event will be held on Sunday, Sept. 17 with live NBC network television coverage.
“Indianapolis Motor Speedway is hallowed ground in the world of motorsport, and we are honored to bring IMSA and the WeatherTech Championship back to IMS,” said IMSA President John Doonan. “There has been mutual interest and many conversations between IMSA and IMS leadership for quite some time to bring our brand of premium endurance sports car racing back to the Speedway and our collective fans. As we launch an exciting new era in 2023 and introduce GTP as our top category of prototypes alongside many of our other successful categories and sanctioned series, the timing is right for a full weekend of IMSA action in Indianapolis and on NBC next fall.”
In addition to Sunday’s WeatherTech Championship race, the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge will headline the action on Sept. 16 with a four-hour race. The weekend also will include other IMSA-sanctioned single-make series to be announced later, the sanctioning body said.
“Our reputation as the Racing Capital of the World will be further enhanced by the IMSA Battle on the Bricks, as IMSA will join the major series competing at IMS in 2023,” IMS President J. Douglas Boles said. “IMSA features some of the most evocative manufacturers and machines in global motorsports, so a return to IMS is a perfect fit for our loyal fans. We can’t wait to see exciting new GTP prototypes compete on the road course in yet another full weekend of action at the Speedway, complete with great racing in other classes and the Michelin Pilot Challenge.”
The WeatherTech Championship race marks the return of top-level IMSA competition to the Speedway for the first time since the 2014 Brickyard Grand Prix. The first IMSA race at the Speedway was a three-hour GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series event in 2012.
Fans also will be able to camp in the IMS infield, access not available during any other race weekend. Powered and primitive spaces will be available to purchase throughout the infield for public camping.
Additionally, IMSA will return to IMS in 2024 and 2025 as well for longer endurances races.
