MSA’s Earliest Golden Eras to be Celebrated Annually at IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Daytona Opener

The earliest golden eras of IMSA’s success will now share the spotlight at each year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona as IMSA celebrates its past while continuing to write the next and greatest chapter yet in the history of sports car racing in North America with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. 

Officials from IMSA and Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR) announced today the IMSA Classic invitational race that will annually showcase the sanctioning body’s more than 50-year history beginning at next month’s 63rd running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, January 23 – 26. The inaugural IMSA Classic will feature cars from the first three decades of IMSA sports car racing from 1973 through 1993. 

“For several years now, the rich history of the Rolex 24 has been celebrated with pre-race demonstration events, such as the 24 Minutes of Daytona and similar exhibitions, but this will be the first time an actual race featuring these great competition cars from IMSA’s past will be part of a Rolex 24 At Daytona weekend,” said IMSA President John Doonan. “We are proud of the pioneering and current era that we have all worked tirelessly on to bring IMSA to an unprecedented level of high-tech competition and entertainment, but what better time to take a moment to remember our past than just before our longest and season-opening race? The IMSA Classic will add to the grandeur of the Rolex 24, and we are grateful to both Daytona International Speedway (DIS) and HSR for the partnership and cooperation in making this vision a reality.”

Open only to a limited number of on-track competitors, invitations to apply for the inaugural HSR Classic are presently being distributed to HSR member competitors and other notable teams and entrants in the vintage and historic sports car racing arena. All received applications will then be reviewed by a selection committee to determine the participants in the inaugural IMSA Classic.

“We often refer to HSR as a rolling time machine and a high-speed motorsports museum, and that will be perfectly personified by the IMSA Classic,” said HSR President Chris Ward. “To be able to join IMSA in annually featuring some of the greatest racing machines from their first half-century of competition is truly an honor. We look forward to welcoming a spectacular lineup of legendary IMSA race cars to the Rolex 24 At Daytona next month.”

A three-day race event on Rolex 24 weekend, the IMSA Classic starts with an opening practice session Thursday afternoon that will be followed by qualifying Friday morning and a qualifying race early that evening. The main event will be the 30-minute IMSA Classic feature race Saturday morning that will set the stage for the Rolex 24 as the last on-track activity prior to the twice-around-the-clock WeatherTech Championship season opener.

Competing IMSA Classic cars and competitors will be paddocked in a large tent open to the public in the DIS Rolex 24 Midway. Several non-competing IMSA cars of historical significance will also be under the tent in addition to an additional group on display in the DIS FanZone as they have been in the past.

Plans for future editions of the IMSA Classic call for each annual running to feature a specific period of IMSA era cars. 

The introduction of the IMSA Classic is the latest in a series of new HSR racing series and major race event since IMSA purchased HSR in early 2022. The HSR Prototype Challenge presented by IMSA, for modern-day LMP3 cars retired from contemporary competition, debuted this year along with the HSR NASCAR Classic Presented by Petty’s Garage racing series for historic stock cars.

Just under three months ago, HSR announced what is now the HSR Classic Endurance Championship Presented by Mission Foods. Building on the success of the HSR Classic races at Daytona, Sebring and Watkins Glen, the Mission Foods Classic Endurance series will be a points-paying championship beginning next year for the season’s long-distance races, which also includes the new-for-2025 HSR Road Atlanta Classic 10 Hour Presented by Mission Foods.