A look ahead to the 2020 IMSA sports car season

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  2019 was the year that Mazda Motorsport finally saw victory with the RT24-P. The car lost none of its speed in the offseason and set a new unofficial track record in preseason testing at Daytona. There are even rumors of a third Mazda joining some rounds of the series, but it’s all unconfirmed as of now. [credit: Mazda Motorsport ]

Motorsport doesn’t have much of an offseason these days. That’s particularly true for IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, North America’s main endurance racing series. After wrapping up 2019 in late October, the series has already conducted its big preseason test—called “the Roar before the 24″—and is gearing up for the first and one of its biggest events of the year, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, which takes place at the end of January. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what storylines might be bubbling up for 2020.

IMSA’s series has been in fine form the past few years, with strong interest from manufacturers and teams eager to prove their prowess in each of the different classes that all compete on track at the same time. 2020 is going to be somewhat of a transition year for the sport. Entries are down, and fans of Nissan and Ford will have to find new teams to cheer for as both OEMs are ending their factory-backed participation.

But it’s not all bad. A new boss is running things, the highly anticipated new mid-engined Corvette makes its racing debut, and everyone’s starting to think about possible convergence with the new set of technical rules being written for Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship.