2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship

The 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship was the third season of the United SportsCar Championship and first to be under the name as the IMSA SportsCar Championship organized by the International Motor Sports Association. It was the 46th season of IMSA-sanctioned GT Championship sportscar racing tracing its lineage to the 1971 IMSA Camel GT season. It began on January 30 with the 24 Hours of Daytona and ended on October 1 at Petit Le Mans.

WWW imsa.com

Classes

The class structure remained largely unchanged from 2015, with the major change coming in GTD which was now run full GT3 spec machinery.

Schedule

Race schedule

The 2016 schedule was released on August 8, 2015 and features twelve rounds.
There were also two test sessions before the beginning of the season. They were held on November 17–18 at Daytona International Speedway, as well as The Roar Before the 24, also at Daytona, January 8–10.

Rnd	Race	Length	Classes	Circuit	Location	Date
1	Rolex 24 at Daytona	24 hours	All	Daytona International Speedway	Daytona Beach, Florida	January 30–31
2	Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring	12 hours	All	Sebring International Raceway	Sebring, Florida	March 19
3	BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach	1 hour 40 minutes	P, PC, GTLM	Long Beach Street Circuit	Long Beach, California	April 16
4	Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix	2 hours	P, GTLM	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	May 1
4	Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix	2 hours	PC, GTD	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	May 1
5	Chevrolet Sports Car Classic	1 hour 40 minutes	P, PC, GTD	The Raceway on Belle Isle	Detroit, Michigan	June 4
6	Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen	6 hours	All	Watkins Glen International	Watkins Glen, New York	July 3
7	Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix	2 hours 40 minutes	All	Canadian Tire Motorsport Park	Bowmanville, Ontario	July 10
8	Northeast Grand Prix	2 hours 40 minutes	PC, GTLM, GTD	Lime Rock Park	Lakeville, Connecticut	July 23
9	Continental Tire Road Race Showcase	2 hours 40 minutes	All	Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	August 7
10	Michelin GT Challenge	2 hours 40 minutes	GTLM, GTD	Virginia International Raceway	Alton, Virginia	August 28
11	Lone Star Le Mans	2 hours 40 minutes	All	Circuit of the Americas	Austin, Texas	September 17
12	Petit Le Mans presented by Harrah's Cherokee	10 hours	All	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	October 1

''NOTE: Because of a high car count for the Mazda Raceway event, there will be two separate two-hour races with two categories racing in each race.''

Calendar changes

PC has been added to the lineup at Long Beach.
GTD has been added to the lineup at the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix, having the race feature all four classes.
The round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will return to a split race format because of field size.
GTLM will join PC and GTD at Lime Rock Park.

Entries

Prototype

Team

Chassis

Engine

Drivers

Rounds

Prototype Challenge

All entries use an Oreca FLM09 chassis powered by a Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8.

Team

Drivers

Rounds

GT Le Mans

Team

Chassis

Engine

Drivers

Rounds

GT Daytona

Team

Chassis

Engine

Drivers

Rounds

Team changes

After 8 years sported the higher E85 Ethanol blend, Corvette Racing officially switched to traditional E20 Ethanol 20% blend as it was announced on October 13, 2015.

Race results

Bold indicates overall winner.

Rnd

Circuit

Prototype Winning Team

PC Winning Team

GTLM Winning Team

GTD Winning Team

Report

Rnd

Circuit

Prototype Winning Drivers

PC Winning Drivers

GTLM Winning Drivers

GTD Winning Drivers

Report

Daytona

Championship standings

Points systems

Championship points are awarded in each class at the finish of each event. Points are awarded based on finishing positions as shown in the chart below.

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Race	35	32	30	28	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

Drivers points

Points are awarded in each class at the finish of each event. Drivers must complete a minimum driving time in order to score points. A driver does not score points if the minimum drive time is not met.
In addition, for each car credited with a race start, each driver nominated in that car also receives one additional “starting point.”

Team points

Team points are calculated in exactly the same way as driver points, using the point distribution chart and “starting points.” Each car entered is considered its own “team” regardless if it is a single entry or part of a two-car team.

Manufacturer points

There are also a number of manufacturer championships which utilize the same season-long point distribution chart, minus the “starting points” used for the driver and team championships. The manufacturer championships recognized by IMSA are as follows:
Each manufacturer receives finishing points for its highest finishing car in each class. The positions of subsequent finishing cars from the same manufacturer are not taken into consideration, and all other manufacturers move up in the order.
The points system for the 2016 season is the same as in 2015.

North American Endurance Cup

The points system for the North American Endurance Cup is different from the normal points system. Points are awarded on a 5-4-3-2 basis for drivers, teams and manufacturers. The first finishing position at each interval earns five points, four points for second position, three points for third, with two points awarded for fourth and each subsequent finishing position.

Position	1	2	3	Other Classified
Race	5	4	3	2

At Daytona, points are awarded at six hours, 12 hours, 18 hours and at the finish. At the Sebring, points are awarded at four hours, eight hours and at the finish. At Watkins Glen, points are awarded at three hours and at the finish. At Road Atlanta, points are awarded at four hours, eight hours and at the finish.
Like the season-long team championship, North American Endurance Cup team points are awarded for each car and drivers get points in any car that they drive, in which they are entered for points. The manufacturer points go to the highest placed car from that manufacturer, just like the season-long manufacturer championship.
For example: in any particular segment manufacturer A finishes 1st and 2nd and manufacturer B finishes 3rd. Manufacturer A only receives first-place points for that segment. Manufacturer B receives the second-place points.

Drivers' championships

Prototype Challenge

;Notes:

¹ – Jack Hawksworth did not drive any laps during the race and therefore did not receive the one "starting point".
Drivers denoted by † did not complete sufficient laps in order to score points.

GT Daytona

;Notes:

¹ – All drivers using Lamborghini Huracán GT3-cars were penalized with five minutes added to their total time due to BoP-regulations.
² – Bret Curtis, Ashley Freiberg, Jens Klingmann and Marco Wittmann were put to the back of their class for exceeding the maximum drive-time limitation.
³ – Andy Lally, John Potter and Marco Seefried were put to second to last in their class for a minimum drive-time violation.
⁴ – Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey and Matt McMurry were put to last in their class for a minimum drive-time violation.
Drivers denoted by † did not complete sufficient laps in order to score points.

Teams' championships

GT Daytona

;Notes:

¹ – All teams using Lamborghini Huracán GT3-cars were penalized with five minutes added to their total time due to BoP-regulations.
² – Car No. 96 of Turner Motorsport was put to the back of its class for exceeding the maximum drive-time limitation.
³ – Car No. 44 of Magnus Racing was put to second to last in its class for a minimum drive-time violation.
⁴ – Car No. 73 of Park Place Motorsports was put to last in its class for a minimum drive-time violation.

Manufacturers' championships

GT Daytona

;Notes:

¹ – Lamborghini was unable to score at Daytona as they were penalized due to BoP-regulations.