IMSA has announced the postponement of the next two WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races at Sebring and Long Beach due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus.
The championship was scheduled to share a race weekend with the FIA World Endurace Championship for the March 18-21 weekend and now both races have been either postponed or cancelled.
On Thursday, the WEC announced they were cancelling their portion of the weekend due to the newly implemented travel restrictions that would have prevented the teams from entering the United States to contest the 1000 Miles of Sebring.
It was unknown at the time whether the Twelve Hours of Sebring IMSA race would go forward but its postponement has now been confirmed as well.
The race has been rescheduled to be the season-ending event of the 2020 season and will be run November 11-14, presumably as a standalone event without the WEC being present.
The series’ awards banquet will take place on Nov. 15 and will be held in conjunction with the Sebring race event weekend.
In addition, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach which was set to take place the weekend of April 17-19 as a shared event with the NTT IndyCar Series has also been postponed.
Both series set to compete at Long Beach have now had this round delayed to an undetermined future date due to the city imposing a ban on all public events with 250 or more people through the end of April.
In a statement the event organizers acknowledged that finding another day to run a race that requires city streets to be temporarily closed may not be possible. In that situation, the race would be cancelled for this season.
The next WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race is now scheduled for the weekend of May 3 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, placing 14 weeks between the opening round and the second race of the season.
