2015 United SportsCar Championship

The 2015 United SportsCar Championship was the second season of the International [Motor Sports Association]'s United SportsCar Championship and the last to be held under that name. It was also the 45th overall season of the IMSA GT championship tracing its lineage to the 1971 IMSA season. It began on January 24 with the 24 Hours of Daytona. and ended on October 3 at Petit Le Mans.

Classes

The class structure remained largely unchanged from 2014.

2015 will see the introduction of two awards for the top-finishing Pro-Am drivers in Prototype and GT Le Mans. The Jim Trueman Award will be given to the top finishing Pro-Am pairing in Prototype, while the Bob Akin Award will be given to the top GTLM pairing. The top Pro-Am pairings from these classes at the end of the year will be given automatic entries to the 2016 [24 Hours of Le Mans], with the Trueman award winner eligible for the LMP2 class, while the Akin Award winner would be for the LM GTE Am class. To be eligible for these awards, the drivers must at a minimum contest the North American Endurance Cup events.

Schedule

Race schedule

The 2015 schedule was released on August 10, 2014 and featured twelve rounds. One major change to the rules for 2015 was a slight reduction of race time to fit television constraints. Two and three hour races, which were 15 minutes shorter than their times, will have their race times reduced five more minutes, so that they would be 1:40 and 2:40, respectively, instead of 1:45 and 2:45, as was the case in the previous years. The races set for 6, 10, 12, and 24 hours will remain at the respective lengths.

Rnd	Race	Length	Classes	Circuit	Location	Date
1	Rolex 24 at Daytona	24 hours	All	Daytona International Speedway	Daytona, Florida	January 24–25
2	Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring	12 hours	All	Sebring International Raceway	Sebring, Florida	March 21
3	Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase	1 hour 40 minutes	P, GTLM	Long Beach Street Circuit	Long Beach, California	April 18
4	Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix	2 hours 40 minutes	All	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	May 3
5	Chevrolet Sports Car Classic	1 hour 40 minutes	P, PC, GTD	The Raceway on Belle Isle	Detroit, Michigan	May 30
6	Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen	6 hours	All	Watkins Glen International	Watkins Glen, New York	June 28
7	Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix	2 hours 40 minutes	P, PC, GTLM	Canadian Tire Motorsport Park	Bowmanville, Ontario	July 12
8	Northeast Grand Prix	2 hours 40 minutes	PC, GTD	Lime Rock Park	Lakeville, Connecticut	July 25
9	Continental Tire Road Race Showcase	2 hours 40 minutes	All	Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	August 9
10	Oak Tree Grand Prix	2 hours 40 minutes	GTLM, GTD	Virginia International Raceway	Alton, Virginia	August 23
11	Lone Star Le Mans	2 hours 40 minutes	All	Circuit of the Americas	Austin, Texas	September 19
12	Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda	10 hours	All	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	October 3

Calendar changes

The events at Kansas Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway have been discontinued.
A round at Lime Rock Park was added for PC and GTD.
The round at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park will see PC replace GTD alongside P and GTLM.
The IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge support series follows the same schedule as above in 2015 except for the street circuits of Long Beach and Detroit Belle Isle for a ten-round season.
On October 31, 2014, the calendar was modified removing PC from the Virginia International Raceway round and adding the class to the round at Detroit Belle Isle alongside P and GTD.
The Monterey round would feature all four classes in a single event.

Entries

Prototype

Team

Chassis

Engine

Drivers

Rounds

Prototype Challenge

All entries use an Oreca FLM09 chassis powered by a Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8.

Team

Drivers

Rounds

GT Le Mans

Team

Chassis

Engine

Tyres

Drivers

Rounds

Michelin

GT Daytona

Team

Chassis

Engine

Drivers

Rounds

Results

Bold indicates overall winner.

Rnd

Circuit

Prototype Winning Team

PC Winning Team

GTLM Winning Team

GTD Winning Team

Report

Rnd

Circuit

Prototype Winning Drivers

PC Winning Drivers

GTLM Winning Drivers

GTD Winning Drivers

Report

Daytona

Championship standings

Points Systems

Championship points are awarded in each class at the finish of each event. Points are awarded based on finishing positions as shown in the chart below.

Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Race	35	32	30	28	26	25	24	23	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

Drivers Points

Points are awarded in each class at the finish of each event. Drivers must complete a minimum driving time in order to score points. A driver does not score points if the minimum drive time is not met.
In addition, for each car credited with a race start, each driver nominated in that car also receives one additional “starting point.”

Team Points

Team points are calculated in exactly the same way as driver points, using the point distribution chart and “starting points.” Each car entered is considered its own “team” regardless if it is a single entry or part of a two-car team.

Manufacturer Points

There are also a number of manufacturer championships which utilize the same season-long point distribution chart, minus the “starting points” used for the driver and team championships. The manufacturer championships recognized by IMSA are as follows:
Each manufacturer receives finishing points for its highest finishing car in each class. The positions of subsequent finishing cars from the same manufacturer are not taken into consideration, and all other manufacturers move up in the order.
The points system from the 2014 season is the same as in 2015.

North American Endurance Cup

The points system for the North American Endurance Cup is different from the normal points system. Points are awarded on a 5-4-3-2 basis for drivers, teams and manufacturers. The first finishing position at each interval earns five points, four points for second position, three points for third, with two points awarded for fourth and each subsequent finishing position.

Position	1	2	3	Other Classified
Race	5	4	3	2

At Daytona, points are awarded at six hours, 12 hours, 18 hours and at the finish. At the Sebring, points are awarded at four hours, eight hours and at the finish. At Watkins Glen, points are awarded at three hours and at the finish. At Road Atlanta, points are awarded at four hours, eight hours and at the finish.
Like the season-long team championship, North American Endurance Cup team points are awarded for each car and drivers get points in any car that they drive, in which they are entered for points. The manufacturer points go to the highest placed car from that manufacturer, just like the season-long manufacturer championship.
For example: in any particular segment manufacturer A finishes 1st and 2nd and manufacturer B finishes 3rd. Manufacturer A only receives first-place points for that segment. Manufacturer B receives the second-place points.

Teams' Championships

Prototype

;Notes:

¹ – Car #10 was moved to last in class at Daytona for exceeding maximum drive-time limitation.
² – The #7 of Starworks Motorsport withdrew from the 12 Hours of Sebring before Practice with only Scott Mayer and Brendon Hartley confirmed as drivers.

Prototype Challenge

;Notes:

¹ – Car #16 was moved to last in class and only scored one point at Daytona for exceeding maximum drive-time limitation.
Cars denoted by † did not complete sufficient laps in order to score points.

GT Daytona

;Notes:

¹ – The #18 of Mühlner Motorsport America and the #009 of TRG-AMR North America withdrew from the 12 Hours of Sebring before Practice with only Connor De Phillippi and Dennis Trebing confirmed as drivers respectively.
Cars denoted by † did not complete sufficient laps in order to score points.

Manufacturers' Championships

GT Daytona

;Notes:

¹ – Porsche was unable to score at Laguna Seca due to a technical infraction, so they did not get the 35 points the winner usually gets. Audi finished second in the manufacturers' championship that race, but they did not get the points for first place.

Tires' Championship

''No North American Endurance Cup in the tires' championship''