Motorsport Governing Bodies: IMAS

The International Motoring Authority of Sport is an organization who prides themselves on fan engagement and entertainment week in and week out, making sure that accessibility, thrilling battles and juicy story lines is priority number one every weekend. With a huge emphasis on manufacturer involvement from brands like Corvette, BMW, Porsche and Toyota, IMAS also utilizes its marketing power to use racing as another means of promotion for car brands. Ruling on the track is key for these sports car manufacturers not only to sell cars, but to instill loyalty and pride in any potential lifelong fan. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday is in full effect making the IMAS GT Championship an enticing way to market a new model.

Origins: The Beginnings of Organized Sports Car Racing in the United States

IMAS can trace its roots all the way back to just after the second Great War, where soldiers returning from battle imported their British roadsters back home to show off to their countrymen. With a huge influx of sporty vehicles came the need to race them, and thus the Motorsport Authority of the Americas was established in 1949. Clubman racers gathered far and wide to race on newly paved road circuits and repurposed airfields, tuning up their cars to further gain the edge on one another. It was only a matter of time until these weekend warriors would turn into fierce competitors, and with the need for a racing series the MSAA introduced the American Sports Car Racing Tour in 1954.

It was not until the turn of the decade when constructors from Europe would begin to travel from overseas, quickly disposing of these amateur Americans with their newly crafted Ferrari and Jaguar sports cars. It was at this moment where the era of the professional began. Americans proving their worth would be sponsored by Ferrari as they made a base in the States, upholding the superiority of the Prancing Horse from coast to coast. Those not part of the Italian stable would import their own European roadsters from Stuttgart, challenging these professional contractors in Porsche 356s. Drivers looking for an English flair looked to Jaguar, Aston Martin and even Mini as the country’s offerings blew those old MG roadsters from the war out of the water. Some manufacturers would go as far as to even pick racers from off the street, drag racing and hill climbing their 30s Fords roadsters in the hopes of making their audience swoon.

As sports car racing further advanced in the mid 60s, these roadsters turned into full on sports prototypes with the most wacky devices ever seen by humankind. Cars sprouted wings nearly 5 feet above the driver, turbine engines were experimented with and even one team toyed with the idea of using fans to suck their car right onto the ground! With the demand for these experimental racing cars growing, the MSAA decided to spin off the series into the Grand Endurance Tour in 1965 where regulation simply called for four wheels, a seat, and an engine – the bare minimum. Constructors went wild as one could imagine, developing the biggest and baddest engines ever put into the back of a racing car. The speeds were insane, and the danger was outright dizzying.

Introduction: Anthony di Piscatore, original founder of IMAS

Another spin off would be created just the following year in order to meet the demands of a new segment in the automotive market – pony cars. Board member Anthony di Piscatore called for a new championship dubbed the Sedan Car Championship, where not only the competition would be close, but the running costs could be kept in check as well. Despite it being a hit amongst quite a number of teams at the time, a few executives grew suspicious of di Piscatore’s behavior. Every board meeting involved him getting heated about the concerns of the GET’s running costs rising and the competition becoming rather stale and predictable, with most entrants either crashing or breaking down. When his idea of the Sedan Car Championship was approved, many were to believe that he would use the success of his idea to run a coup on the head of the MSAA and put an end to the Grand Endurance Tour. After many heated discussions, di Piscatore was finally fired at the end of 1969, leaving him brimming with vengeance.



Using his connections to Europe and the growing Thunder Alley association, he formed the International Motoring Authority of Sport the very same year, planning to hold a Grand Touring championship in 1970 to get the ball rolling along with smaller junior level formula races. The first year yielded no rewards as the popularity of the MSAA’s series further grew, but once EURO’s new regulations were set in stone for the 1971 season, the IMAS GT Championship finally got underway with their first race at the Daytona International Speedway for the inaugural winter classic. Convincing the same manufacturers who made the trip across the Atlantic a decade ago to join his new series, di Piscatore found himself with a professional looking field filled with professional drivers, professional teams and world renowned brands. His series also had much closer racing, with the regulations drawn up by himself and EURO not only encouraging better competition but turning out to be far more cost efficient.

It was no wonder why, when the threat of an energy crisis began to loom in the distance, many competitors quickly flocked to the IMAS side of the fence. Despite the MSAA aggressively locking his organization out of numerous large venues such as Road America and Watkins Glen, the GT Championship further gained a following with its much more reasonable offering. With stupidly large engines and muscular cars phasing out in order to circumvent a surely disastrous possibility for the world’s energy reserves it was no surprise that the Grand Endurance Tour and Sedan Car Championship along with the MSAA itself began to wither away from relevance, losing its strong hold on not only their premier venues but on the approval of fans across the US.

IMAS as a result emerged as the new top dog in not only North America, but across the globe. Thanks to the regulations made up in conjunction with EURO, teams from the States routinely made the trip to France every year to contest the French endurance classic, with half the grid consisting of regular IMAS entries. Once the turbo was introduced along with the advancements in ground effects and aerodynamics it was only a matter of time until the cars quickly evolved into full-blown prototypes ripping through the track at speeds never thought possible until then. The introduction of the Aero-C cars would mark the golden age of the association.

The Rise and Fall: Aero-C and IMAS’ Golden Era

It is somewhat ironic that di Piscatore’s firing from the MSAA due to his criticism of the extreme prototype regulations would lead him into adapting another set of extreme prototype regulations for the full part of a decade, but a few key differences made sure that this time it would be here to stay. With an emphasis on fuel efficiency rather than outright power, these Aero-C cars could reach ridiculous speeds and go the distance! The machines from Nissan, Porsche, Chevrolet, Ford and countless others transformed into turbocharged fire breathing monsters that threatened to rip the rubber off of the rim with its ungodly amount of downforce. Not one to leave his back uncovered, di Piscatore also introduced a new GT regulation allowing silhouette cars to follow the same philosophy for drivers to train themselves up to the top class. Aero-C for as groundbreaking and exciting as it was however was quite dangerous. The aforementioned rubber flying off became a huge problem in the late 80s as drivers careened into the tire walls due to tire failures constantly occurring. The amount of downforce these cars created also generated lift when spun around, launching them high up in the air and creating spectacular flips. Teams also were searching for every bit of weight reduction, not taking the driver’s safety into account and finding themselves with a beat up pilot every weekend.

The irony caught up to the chairman as costs began to spiral out of control as much as the cars did, scaring manufacturers off and taking themselves off the entry list one by one. Fans grew irate with di Piscatore’s inaction in regards to driver and fan safety, calling for his head as much as they felt their own were in danger on any given weekend. His reign finally came to an end in 1991 as he exited the IMAS headquarters in Daytona Beach with a number of bodyguards protecting him from objects being pelted left and right; a rather inglorious sight captured by news outlets across the United States. It didn’t stop there – it was soon revealed that he used many teams as a means to smuggle illegal substances from overseas to across the US for his own financial gain, ruling over the teams like a mob boss if one refused to play along. A massive black eye for the organization; one the MSAA gladly witnessed in front of their eyes!

A New Leader: Jane Levenger

With the IMAS in disarray, a rather daring person would have to take the reins and steer the ship away from impending doom. That person would turn out to be Jane Levenger, a former board member from Thunder Alley who helped the series gain nationwide appeal. Jane would then set out to work with EURO much like her predecessor and create a new prototype regulation from scratch to not only combat the rising costs, but to ensure a safe and close competition between rivals. Thus, Open Prototype was born; an open cockpit regulation that put emphasis on not only appealing to manufacturers looking to experiment with new engine developments but allow privateers and constructors to develop their own home build creations to compete against the likes of Ferrari. The Ferrari 333 SP was introduced as the basis of the Open Prototype philosophy, bringing the screaming symphony of a V12 engine along with the modern safety advancements seen on open wheel racers of the era.

If she expected to be met with widespread fanfare, then she was most certainly setting herself up for disappointment. Whilst the prospect of a top class Ferrari racing sports car was exciting, the rest of the class left much to be desired as the few other prototypes in the field were ugly, slow, unreliable or a horrid mix of all three to the amusement of open wheel and stock car fans. Along with the MSAA reviving their Grand Endurance Tour in the late 90s to introduce their OmniRacer concept the situation seemed dire for IMAS. Thankfully, the two organizations settled their differences and agreed to share certain venues, meaning that the schedule conflicts were a thing of the past. They also agreed to let IMAS host GT Supercar teams, meaning that they would play host to the most popular sports car category in the world.

With a few changes to the Open Prototype category in response to the World Endurance Prototype regulations emerging, IMAS put themselves in a perfect position to withstand the great “exodus” as manufacturers quickly adapted to building the cheaper open top roadsters. Audi had the most to gain when they entered in 1999, quickly becoming a juggernaut in the endurance racing world by conquering both Europe and the Americas. Countless other constructors began to assemble their own Open Prototype entries, soon discovering that thanks to the introduction of Balance of Performance they had just as much chance at winning on any given weekend as the Audi guys and gals could. Along with preparing their GT categories for the influx of imported Japanese sports racers in the early 00s, IMAS once again became the place for motorsports fans to not only be entertained, but to become engaged into the secretive world of racing. Jane went as far as to coin the slogan “By the fans, for the fans!”

Present Day: The Philosophy of IMAS and Levenger’s True Intentions?

The importance of brand recognition was stated again and again as Levenger had the top brands compete in all classes of competition. Promising enticing sales and lifetime loyalty, many manufacturers who were once scared away from motorsport via the exodus re-emerged into either of the three classes, most notably Toyota who decided to import their Supra and MR-S J-Speed chassis from Japan to promote their TRD sports brand in the states. It worked a charm, and by the halfway mark of the 00s the grid was as healthy as could be as IMAS once again was the leading endurance organization in the Americas, this time with the cooperation of the MSAA.

This era was not without its critics however; most notable of them all were Audi themselves by the end of the decade when they decided to pack up and leave the series due to the constant balancing games going against their favor. Once Acura decided to throw their hat into the prototype ring, IMAS and Levenger worked together to create as balanced a playing field as they could to help promote both brands. Marketing representatives from Audi however saw it as hurtful to their image however that a team could simply use the organization to be as competitive as they themselves spending countless time and money developing their machines. With the goliath gone, the motivation for many other manufacturers to stay contending for the top was gone too and soon enough the Open Prototype was a running joke within the motorsport community with their three entries at most on any given weekend. And so when Levenger announced that the premier endurance series held by IMAS would go the route of the GT Masters and become GT focused, the racing world was taken by pleasant surprise. The decision made complete sense; despite the prototype field struggling to put up numbers the two categories beneath round after round filled up the remaining garage and pit stalls, becoming the main event itself.

Letting the MSAA become the sole organizer of prototype racing, both parties saw to benefit from the change as IMAS quickly found itself flooded with more interest than ever. Aleph and Northern Wolf’s constant back and forth battles throughout the 2010s were the stuff of legends – along with a few party crashers along the way (sometimes literally!) whilst the GT Daytona category became a hotbed for emerging talent and privateer efforts. With the focus on pure entertainment, the Balance of Performance has been carefully tinkered with to an almost exact science, bringing the closest racing ever seen in endurance racing with the gaps at the finish never going above a lap even at the end of 24 hours!

However a new era now is on the horizon as behind closed doors IMAS has been working together along with the WRA to bring forth a new prototype regulation. Levenger has been known to pull off rather stunning surprises, and the biggest surprise yet would be again to contest the MSAA and attempt to become not only the biggest GT organization in the Americas, but also the biggest sports car organization in the Americas period. As their influence grows, perhaps they could have as much of a say in the philosophy of sports car racing as J-Speed did just a couple of decades ago… Levenger’s true intentions have yet to be seen, and those who have had a small peek of them such as Audi have been known to show varying degrees of extreme disgust or praise and loyalty towards them. Time can only tell where IMAS brings the world towards next.