The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive director of SCCA, and his wife Peggy in 1969 with help from Bill France Sr. of NASCAR. Beginning in 2014, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier series resulting from the merger of Grand-Am Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series. IMSA is owned by NASCAR, as a division of the company.
The GT World Challenge America is a North American auto racing series launched in 1990 by the Sports Car Club of America. It has been managed by the Stephane Ratel Organisation since 2018, and has been sanctioned by the United States Auto Club since 2017.
Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula Ford has traditionally been regarded as the first major stepping stone into formula racing after karting. The series typically sees career-minded drivers enter alongside amateurs and enthusiasts. Success in Formula Ford can lead directly to other junior formula series such as a Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Three, or the W Series for female drivers.
Gregory Ray is an American former race car driver.
The Nissan NX is a front wheel drive 2-door sports car produced by Nissan Motors. The NX was, loosely, an evolution of the Nissan Pulsar NX/Nissan EXA sold from 1987 to 1990 and the Nissan Sunny Coupe lines of the 1970s and 1980s, merging the Nissan B13 and N14 lineages. The NX was released in Japan in 1990.
Turner Motorsport is a professional sports car racing team located in Newton, NH, and is the second most prolific BMW privateer racing team in the world, second only to Schnitzer Motorsport, who stopped racing in 2020. As of 2023 Turner motorsport has competed in over 470 professional sport car races.
Kenneth Leroy Roberts Jr. is an American former professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer who won the 2000 FIM Road Racing World Championship, after finishing runner-up in 1999. Roberts Jr. is an 8-time Premier Class race winner. He joins his father Kenny Roberts as the only father-son duo to have won 500cc World Championships. Roberts was inducted into the F.I.M. MotoGP Hall of Fame in 2017.
The 1986 SCCA/Escort Endurance Championship season was the second year of the SCCA Endurance Championship. It was the first season of title sponsorship by Escort, replacing title sponsor Playboy Magazine from the previous season. The class structure was also modified, adding the Super Sports (SS) class and combining the C class of the previous year into the B class. The per race purse was set to US$28,000 and the year-end points fund grew to $80,000 - to be split among the four classes.
Peter "P.D." Cunningham is an American race car driver and owner of RealTime R&L, Inc., based in Saukville, Wisconsin and currently competing in the Pirelli World Challenge GT Championship. His name and his team, RealTime Racing, have become synonymous with the Honda and Acura brands. Through 2013, he has claimed 91 professional race wins across 12 different North American road racing series and holds numerous World Challenge records.
Ryan A. Eversley is an American professional auto racing driver. Since 2015, Eversley has been a Honda factory driver who primarily races in sports car racing championships such as the Michelin Pilot Challenge and Pirelli World Challenge. He won the 2018 PWC TCR championship.
RealTime Racing is an American professional motorsports team founded in 1987 by Peter Cunningham and headquartered in Saukville, just north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On gravel roads, frozen lakes, permanent road courses, or temporary street circuits, RealTime drivers have piloted Acura and Honda production-based automobiles to 18 professional titles in a variety of motorsports series.
SCCA Pro Racing is the pro racing division of the Sports Car Club of America. SCCA Pro Racing was formed in 1963, the company is a fully owned subsidiary of SCCA.
The 1999 SpeedVision World Challenge was the tenth running of the Sports Car Club of America's premier series. It was the first season that the series would be covered by the SpeedVision network. The season also marked a new format, with Touring 1 becoming Grand Touring and Touring 2 becoming Touring Car. 1999 was also the first year in which the series would have a corporate sponsor since 1991. Pontiac got its final series win this season, joining Oldsmobile and Saturn as General Motors brands gradually disappearing from the World Challenge. It was not until the rise of the Cadillac CTS-V that a GM division other than Chevrolet would see a win. This also led to the beginning of a longtime BMW-Mazda-Acura affair in touring car.
The 1992 SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge was the third running of the Sports Car Club of America's World Challenge series. It was the first not to be sponsored by Escort radar detectors. The series would not receive another corporate sponsor until its acquisition by SpeedVision in 1999. It included a 24-hour race at Mosport Park. It would be the final year with four or more groups until 1996. The season would also mark the end of the endurance racing the series was founded upon, gradually phased out until by 1999 its endurance races were replaced with one-hour sprints. The classes were changed from World Challenge, Super Production, and Super Sport to A, B, C, and D.
The 2014 Pirelli World Challenge season was the 25th season of the Pirelli World Challenge championship. It marked the debut of a new "Touring Car A-Spec" class. A new "GT A-Spec" class also made its debut. These new classes featured amateur drivers. The series also held a round at Brainerd International Raceway for the first time in its history, with a touring car doubleheader held in support of a Trans Am Series event; also making its series debut was Barber Motorsports Park. The GT groups competed in sixteen fifty-minute sprints on nine circuits. The touring cars competed in fourteen sprints on seven road courses. The first race for GT cars at St. Petersburg was canceled due to heavy rain, so a make-up race was added for the series finale at Miller Motorsports Park. The second race for touring cars at Barber was also canceled due to rain, so a make-up race was added to the schedule at Mosport.
Ken Murillo is a former racing driver from Santa Rosa, California. Murillo won the 1987 Barber Saab Pro Series and the 1988 Formula Super Vee USA Robert Bosch/Valvoline Championship. Murillow currently co-owns Michelin Pilot Challenge team Murillo Racing.
Lawson L. Aschenbach is an American professional racing driver. He is a four-time Pirelli World Challenge champion, and most recently, the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge GTS Champion. He is the 2006 SPEED World Challenge Rookie of the Year and became the first person to win the SPEED GT Championship in his rookie season. He is also the champion of the 2010 Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge ST Championship and 2014 Lamborghini Super Trofeo ProAM World Champion. Aschenbach first raced professionally in 2005. He currently races for Stevenson Motorsports in the IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
Ryan Norman is an American racing driver. Norman is a former motocross rider and is currently competing in the Michelin Pilot Challenge, driving for Bryan Herta Autosport and won the 2020 IMSA TCR Championship for the team. He formerly drove for Andretti Autosport in Indy Lights with multiple wins and podiums, and ran a race in the IndyCar Series in 2021 with Dale Coyne Racing.
The Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BF Goodrich is a single-make motor racing championship sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) in the United States. Mazda MX-5 Cup is the professional Spec Miata series of Mazda Motorsports, promoted by Andersen Promotions. The pro Spec Miata series has its roots in 2003, but a unified national championship was launched in 2006.
Mason Filippi is an American auto racing driver who competes in the TCR class of the Michelin Pilot Challenge for Bryan Herta Autosport. He previously raced for Bryan Herta Autosport, finishing the Michelin Pilot Challenge in second place in 2019 and third in 2020. Filippi also piloted touring cars in the TC America Series and the Pirelli World Challenge from 2017 to 2019, finishing in the top five of the standings each season. Prior to racing touring cars, he drove Spec Miatas, competing in the Global MX-5 Cup and the Teen Mazda Challenge and winning the 25 Hours of Thunderhill race in 2015 and 2016.
