IMSA has laid out its plans to return to racing at the Daytona International Speedway with a on-track schedule of two days and a maximum personnel number of 15 people per team while also reaching a deal with the Department of Homeland Security to allow foreign drivers into the country.
The championship looks set to resume with a two-hour and forty minute race for DPi, GTLM and GTD competitors on July 3-4. The on-track running has been limited to Friday and Saturday, with the opening practice session set for 6:15 pm on Friday.
A second practice session will then be held on Saturday starting at 10:15 am, before qualifying starts at 1:55 pm and ends at 3:00 pm. The race then kicks off three hours later at 6:05 pm and is expected to finish at 08:45 pm.
The provisional schedule, released on Friday, also states that teams will be restricted in the number of personnel that they are allowed to bring to the track, with teams competing in the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship restricted to 15 credentialed personnel. Additionally, each team is allowed to have one spotter, but the person in question must be based exclusively outside the facility.
IMSA has also reached an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security which will allow personnel based outside of the United States to enter the country which will see the DHS allow exemptions for drivers and other personnel. A significant amount of IMSA’s drivers and personnel would have been impacted by a ban on travellers from Europe, the United Kingdom, China and Iran.
This would likely have included the likes of championship leader Renger van der Zande, Mazda’s Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis as well as Porsche’s entire GTLM line-up amongst others, but these drivers will now be allowed into the country through one of 15 airports in the United States that currently allow flights from travel-restricted countries.
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