Sports car racing fans waited a long time before getting their IMSA endurance race at Road America in 2026.
Now they know they’re getting a second one before the green flag even flies on the first in Elkhart Lake.
IMSA announced its 2027 schedule March 19 with all 11 venues on the this year’s calendar returning and falling in the same order.
The season opens a week later that in 2026 with the 65th Rolex 24 at Daytona set for Jan 28-31. The Motul Sportscar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America lands on the weekend of July 30-Aug. 1.
Road America’s IMSA has grown to rival IndyCar as the most popular event on the schedule at the 4-mile circuit just outside Elkhart Lake. Fans had clamored for years for an endurance race to replace the standard sprint of 2 hours 40 minutes and got their wish for 2026 when IMSA reduced the length of of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course event and extended its Road America race.
The Road America 500 was a staple at the track in the SCCA, United States Road Racing Championship and IMSA Camel GT races from the late 1950s through the ’80s. Since then, Grand Am ran 500-mile races in 2000 and 2001, and there had been a handful of four-hour races.
Extrapolating from recent years and depending on caution flags, a six-hour race at Road America is likely to cover somewhere in the range of 135 to 180 laps, or 540 to 720 miles.
IMSA also announced it would sanction tests for the events at the tracks that make up the Michelin Endurance Cup: Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Road America and Road Atlanta. Those dates are to be determined.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: IMSA has announced its 2027 schedule already. Where does Road America fit?
Reporting by Dave Kallmann, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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