Road America hints IMSA sports car racing after dark could come soon
Road America fans got their IMSA endurance event, so is racing in the dark next? The Wisconsin track's boss drops hints about the possibility.
ELKHART LAKE – With IMSA bringing an endurance race to Road America in 2026 , the logical next step toward making diehard sports car fans even happier would be a race that ends at dusk or beyond. Mike Kertscher, the track ’s president and general manager, raised that during his annual preseason sit-down with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Kertscher did nothing to throw cold water on the idea, either; in fact he seemingly hinted such a move could come as soon as next year.
IMSA President John Doonan also sounded eager for the possibility. More: Key Wisconsin motor sports events for the 2026 racing season “There’s all the rumblings already,” Kertscher said in the wide-ranging, hourlong interview April 15 at the track. “I get the question, ‘Are we going to run into the night sometime?
’ “I mean, people still remember the [2012] ALMS outing and how that worked here. That was pretty cool. ” The American Le Mans Series, which subsequently came together with Grand-Am to create what is the latest iteration of IMSA, ran a 4-hour race at Road America that ended at dusk in 2012.
For its 2026 schedule, IMSA swapped the standard sprint race of 2 hours and 40 minutes at Road America for the 6-hour race that had been held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. The Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix is set to begin at 10:40 a. m.