IMSA has released the Sporting Regulations, Standard Supplementary Regulations and Technical Regulations for the 2020 season, which include a number of notable changes for the Weathertech Sportscar Championship.
For starters, the 2020 season sees a number of changes to the championship’s GTD category, starting with the driver line-up rules. A bronze driver will be mandatory in every team, while Platinum driver will not be permitted during the season.
The Rolex 24 at Daytona is the sole exception to this rule, where each team is allowed to have one Platinum-rated driver in their line-up. As previously announced, the Daytona season opener does not count towards overall LMP2 championships points, but will count towards Michelin Endurance Cup points.
In GT Daytona, Long Beach has been added to the calendar, which serves as the opening round of the Weathertech Sprint Cup, which was introduced this past season. The Sprint Cup features eight races, including Detroit as an exclusive Sprint Cup event. IMSA has also introduced a Premium Entry package for GTD teams committing to enter the full Sprint Cup.
Finally, IMSA has also announced some rule changes for the entire series. Starting in 2020, all Weathertech Sportscar Championship teams will be allowed to use pit lane fuel rigs for all sessions.
Teams will also have the choice of lining their cars up at Pit Out during qualifying or any session stoppage or go to their assigned pit boxes before being released by race control. Base drive-time has also been eliminated. Instead, all drivers must meet minimum drive times as designated for their class in the Supplementary Regulations for each race.
The new regulations see a number of overhauls for all IMSA-sanctioned series which also affect the Weathertech Sportscar Championship. If a race is red-flagged after 50 percent has been completed and the race does not get restarted, final race results will be determined as of the last completed green-flag lap. This essentially means the standings at that time are treated as if the checkered flag was displayed to the overall leader and remaining cars at the conclusion of that last racing lap.
Also, Michelin RFID readers will be solely used to identify qualifying tires in 2020. This eliminates the requirement for tyres to be physically marked for identification purposes.
