Welcome to 2026 with the clock still ticking down to the Roar before the 24
Sunday, January 04, 2026
Long time the opening event to the whole suite of IMSA Series as the Weathertech Sportscar Championship entries will be there for their mandatory test and Qualifying sessions prior to the Rolex 24 whilst the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge entries will be running their opening races to the season at the Roar, and the Michelin Pilot Challenge runners can also be there just as a pre-season test.
The two Heart of Racing full season IMSA entries have long been confirmed by the team within their #23 GTP Valkyrie and #27 AMR Vantage GTD entries, as has the #44 Magnus Racing but there is still news to come from the #19 Van Der Steur AMR Vantage GTD stable as to who else will be making up their (expected) four driver line up.
There has also been no officially supplied entry list into either of the VP Sportscar Challenge and Michelin Pilot Challenge Series as we do still expect there to be AMR powered participation within both series despite having lost the Team TGM team over the winter months to another OEM.
Over the closed season, the Rebel Rock Racing team announced their step up to the AMR Vantage GT3 platform for an intended participation within both the VP Sportscar Challenge and possible main IMSA series but nothing more has been heard from them since their debut test/race outing in their new car at the Apex One 10hours of Sebring event back in November.
There the team ran just restricted laps/durations for their three familiar driver names where more latterly the team have now listed for sale their previous AMR Vantage GT4 (Marty) that Frank DePew raced within the VPRSCC Series – so something is definitely changing within their programme for 2026.
Then we see both the Archangel Motorsport and 89X Motorsport teams putting out across their social media channels about their possible return to the IMSA family of series but again, nothing has been officially released by IMSA.
With track action formally kicking off at Daytona early on Friday 16th January with the first of many test session for the participating Michelin Pilot Challenge runners, it won’t be too long before many of these gaps have been filled.
Photo credits – Teams / series / social media
