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With more than twice the length this year, the differences in Road America’s IMSA race might be felt from the opening corner to the final stint.
Or maybe not. That’s the unpredictability of sports car racing in general.
“Funny enough,” Lexus GTD driver Aaron Telitz said, “in IMSA, these 6-hour races just inevitably end up being sprint races.”
The Aug. 2 Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix will be the first premier sports car race longer than 2 hours and 40 minutes at Road America since before the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am merged into the latest iteration of IMSA.
More: IMSA is racing 6 hours at Road America. Here's what to know
More: From IMSA to IndyCar, must-see racing in Wisconsin in August 2026
Endurance racing is in the DNA of the 4-mile track outside Elkhart Lake, with 500-mile sports car races on and off from the 1950s into the ’80s and then again in the early 2000s. The most recent extended sports car race was a 4-hour ALMS race in 2012.
It took IMSA swapping race lengths for Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course to revisit that history after years of discussion.
The length of the race and its early start (10:40 a.m.) aren’t the only number that will be different.
Total entries are up by five to 54, although none of the additions are the premier GTP prototype category. Some of the teams that compete in GTP and GTD Pro are opting for a three-driver lineup.
“Having Fred [Vesti] back with us is nice, and he's already tested the car at Road America and done a good job of getting back up to speed with it,” said GTP championship leader Jack Aitken, who is teamed regularly with Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Cadillac.
In the LMP2 and GTD pro-am classes, three drivers are required and each driver must be in the car for a minimum of 90 minutes.
LMP2 leaders Alex Quinn and George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike, welcome the return of IndyCar reserve driver Toby Sowery for the weekend. Together for the three endurance rounds so far, they won the Rolex 24 at Daytona, finished fifth in the 12 Hours of Sebring and placed second in the Six Hours at the Glen.
“I think for us, we see that as an advantage, because Toby's doing really well, and I think is a really strong asset to our lineup,” Quinn said.
“Also, the team I'm with in APR, they seem to always be very strong with strategies. So, it's a good confidence for us drivers to have them behind us. I think coming into the year, we've seen the endurance rounds as probably our stronger point.”
The endurance races do take some pressure off the drivers the day before. In this case, qualifying is scheduled to begin at 3:25 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1.
“You want to try to prioritize qualifying a bit more for a sprint race, compared to now having a six-hour race,” said BMW GTP driver Dries Vanthoor, a winner at Road America in 2025. “You don’t really care so much about that. You just focus on having a fast race car throughout the race.”
And then there’s that first lap itself.
“When you're on the outside, do you really need to hang onto that one position with five hours, 59 minutes to go? Or do you end up in the wall?” said Max Esterson, a GTD Pro rookie with Team RLL McLaren. “Whereas in a sprint race at Mosport [Canadian Tire Motorsport Park], where you may not be able to pass, you maybe do take that risk to hold on to that position.”
Esterson’s answer hinted at a sore spot for IMSA in recent years at Road America: cautions. The races have had their fair share, and a 4-mile lap means every yellow flag takes a noticeable bite out of the running clock. One-third of the 66 laps completed in 2025 were run at a reduced pace under the yellow flag.
The length and timing of those cautions can affect strategy, and the longer race, in some cases with an extra driver, multiplies the options.
“You’ll get to the end and one guy that's been leading for four hours ends up at the tail end because he's just on a different cycle,” said Kenton Koch, a winner in GTD at Road America last season. The No. 023 Triarsi Copetizione Ferrari he shares with Onofrio Triarsi and Robert Megennis is one of the entries added for the endurance rounds.
“When you're in the car, you're not the one controlling strategy. You're just out there doing the best you can, whether it’s fuel saving, or full-attack, full push,” Koch continued. “If you're at the front, if you're at the back, it kind of evolves as you run the race. So for a 6-hour, things just are gonna have a little bit more ebb-and-flow.”
Aitken’s team comes to Road America expecting a race in which that flow is disrupted frequently as it has been on an unforgiving track with close walls in some places and huge gravel traps in others.
“There are a few big braking zones where you can try [to pass] and a lot of places where you can go side by side, but it needs cooperation,” Aitken said. “We've had plenty of races, I think, over the last several years where cooperation is not always given.
“You get body parts, debris, cars off in the gravel, and all of those things can lead to cautions. With it being an endurance round now as well, you do have a lot of cars, a lot of drivers that are not full-time, full season entries, with a bit less time in the seat, and that can also contribute to yellows.”
That said, IMSA did crack down on overly aggressive driving after Road America last season, Koch said. While the pendulum has swung back some after “draconian” policing late in 2025, expectations for professionalism are still higher.
“The racing is going to be different, and I think a lot better,” Koch said. “And I'm all for it.”
Telitz, a native of Birchwood in northern Wisconsin, also predicted a significant improvement in the flow of the race as drivers take fewer over-the-top chances in the interest of completing the distance.
“Some of the restarts in the sprint race the last couple of years have been absolutely wild,” Telitz said. “But I think we'll see some more green flag running this time and hopefully that'll make for some really exciting racing.”
The 2027 IMSA schedule already is out, and Road America will again have a 6-hour race.
But before the first endurance race of the current era, drivers were already debating the optimal length. Koch and Telitz both voted for 10 hours, such as the season-ending Petit Le Mans, as the sweet spot for an endurance race.
“Tons of strategy plays out during it,” Telitz said. “You've got the endurance factor. [If] you have an issue, you can come back from it. But it's also one of those races that's just intense the whole way through.”
Koch suggested another twist, and he was hardly the first.
“I honestly kind of wish they were going into the dark because I think there’s another level of interesting things that might happen in The Kink,” Koch said of the signature, high-speed, right-hand bent. “But yeah, I think being here for six hours is gonna be fun.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Longer IMSA sports car race brings extra twists to Road America
Continue reading...
Or maybe not. That’s the unpredictability of sports car racing in general.
“Funny enough,” Lexus GTD driver Aaron Telitz said, “in IMSA, these 6-hour races just inevitably end up being sprint races.”
The Aug. 2 Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix will be the first premier sports car race longer than 2 hours and 40 minutes at Road America since before the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am merged into the latest iteration of IMSA.
More: IMSA is racing 6 hours at Road America. Here's what to know
More: From IMSA to IndyCar, must-see racing in Wisconsin in August 2026
Endurance racing is in the DNA of the 4-mile track outside Elkhart Lake, with 500-mile sports car races on and off from the 1950s into the ’80s and then again in the early 2000s. The most recent extended sports car race was a 4-hour ALMS race in 2012.
It took IMSA swapping race lengths for Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course to revisit that history after years of discussion.
The length of the race and its early start (10:40 a.m.) aren’t the only number that will be different.
Total entries are up by five to 54, although none of the additions are the premier GTP prototype category. Some of the teams that compete in GTP and GTD Pro are opting for a three-driver lineup.
“Having Fred [Vesti] back with us is nice, and he's already tested the car at Road America and done a good job of getting back up to speed with it,” said GTP championship leader Jack Aitken, who is teamed regularly with Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Cadillac.
You must be registered for see images attach
In the LMP2 and GTD pro-am classes, three drivers are required and each driver must be in the car for a minimum of 90 minutes.
LMP2 leaders Alex Quinn and George Kurtz, the CEO of CrowdStrike, welcome the return of IndyCar reserve driver Toby Sowery for the weekend. Together for the three endurance rounds so far, they won the Rolex 24 at Daytona, finished fifth in the 12 Hours of Sebring and placed second in the Six Hours at the Glen.
“I think for us, we see that as an advantage, because Toby's doing really well, and I think is a really strong asset to our lineup,” Quinn said.
“Also, the team I'm with in APR, they seem to always be very strong with strategies. So, it's a good confidence for us drivers to have them behind us. I think coming into the year, we've seen the endurance rounds as probably our stronger point.”
The endurance races do take some pressure off the drivers the day before. In this case, qualifying is scheduled to begin at 3:25 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1.
“You want to try to prioritize qualifying a bit more for a sprint race, compared to now having a six-hour race,” said BMW GTP driver Dries Vanthoor, a winner at Road America in 2025. “You don’t really care so much about that. You just focus on having a fast race car throughout the race.”
And then there’s that first lap itself.
“When you're on the outside, do you really need to hang onto that one position with five hours, 59 minutes to go? Or do you end up in the wall?” said Max Esterson, a GTD Pro rookie with Team RLL McLaren. “Whereas in a sprint race at Mosport [Canadian Tire Motorsport Park], where you may not be able to pass, you maybe do take that risk to hold on to that position.”
Esterson’s answer hinted at a sore spot for IMSA in recent years at Road America: cautions. The races have had their fair share, and a 4-mile lap means every yellow flag takes a noticeable bite out of the running clock. One-third of the 66 laps completed in 2025 were run at a reduced pace under the yellow flag.
The length and timing of those cautions can affect strategy, and the longer race, in some cases with an extra driver, multiplies the options.
You must be registered for see images attach
“You’ll get to the end and one guy that's been leading for four hours ends up at the tail end because he's just on a different cycle,” said Kenton Koch, a winner in GTD at Road America last season. The No. 023 Triarsi Copetizione Ferrari he shares with Onofrio Triarsi and Robert Megennis is one of the entries added for the endurance rounds.
“When you're in the car, you're not the one controlling strategy. You're just out there doing the best you can, whether it’s fuel saving, or full-attack, full push,” Koch continued. “If you're at the front, if you're at the back, it kind of evolves as you run the race. So for a 6-hour, things just are gonna have a little bit more ebb-and-flow.”
Aitken’s team comes to Road America expecting a race in which that flow is disrupted frequently as it has been on an unforgiving track with close walls in some places and huge gravel traps in others.
“There are a few big braking zones where you can try [to pass] and a lot of places where you can go side by side, but it needs cooperation,” Aitken said. “We've had plenty of races, I think, over the last several years where cooperation is not always given.
“You get body parts, debris, cars off in the gravel, and all of those things can lead to cautions. With it being an endurance round now as well, you do have a lot of cars, a lot of drivers that are not full-time, full season entries, with a bit less time in the seat, and that can also contribute to yellows.”
You must be registered for see images attach
That said, IMSA did crack down on overly aggressive driving after Road America last season, Koch said. While the pendulum has swung back some after “draconian” policing late in 2025, expectations for professionalism are still higher.
“The racing is going to be different, and I think a lot better,” Koch said. “And I'm all for it.”
Telitz, a native of Birchwood in northern Wisconsin, also predicted a significant improvement in the flow of the race as drivers take fewer over-the-top chances in the interest of completing the distance.
“Some of the restarts in the sprint race the last couple of years have been absolutely wild,” Telitz said. “But I think we'll see some more green flag running this time and hopefully that'll make for some really exciting racing.”
The 2027 IMSA schedule already is out, and Road America will again have a 6-hour race.
But before the first endurance race of the current era, drivers were already debating the optimal length. Koch and Telitz both voted for 10 hours, such as the season-ending Petit Le Mans, as the sweet spot for an endurance race.
“Tons of strategy plays out during it,” Telitz said. “You've got the endurance factor. [If] you have an issue, you can come back from it. But it's also one of those races that's just intense the whole way through.”
Koch suggested another twist, and he was hardly the first.
“I honestly kind of wish they were going into the dark because I think there’s another level of interesting things that might happen in The Kink,” Koch said of the signature, high-speed, right-hand bent. “But yeah, I think being here for six hours is gonna be fun.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Longer IMSA sports car race brings extra twists to Road America
Continue reading...
