Endurance racing is a form of motorsport racing which is meant to test the durability of equipment and endurance of participants.
Teams of multiple drivers attempt to cover a large distance in a single event, with participants given a break with the ability to change during the race.
Endurance races can be run either to cover a set distance in laps as quickly as possible, or to cover as much distance as possible over a preset amount of time.
Historic chronology of endurances racing
24 hours races
12 hours races
8 hours races
Kyalami 9 Hours (since 1958)
1000 km of Buenos Aires
6 hours races
6 heures de Dakar (since 2001)
6 Hours of Watkins Glen
1000 km of Buenos Aires
4 hours races
Endurances Championships
World Endurance Championship
WEC
The FIA World Endurance Championship (abbreviated as WEC) is an auto racing world championship organized by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). The series supersedes the ACO’s former Intercontinental Le Mans Cup which began in 2010 and is the first endurance series of world championship status since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship at the end of 1992. The World Endurance Championship name was previously used by the FIA from 1981 to 1985.
World Sportscar Championship (1953 - 1992)
International Motor Sports Association
IMSA
The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). It is a result of a merger between two existing North American sports car racing series, the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series. At its inception, the name was United SportsCar Championship,[1] which subsequently changed to IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2016. Rolex SA’s Tudor brand was the championship’s title sponsor in 2014 and 2015,[2] and since 2016 WeatherTech has served as title sponsor.[3]
The season begins with its premier race, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the last weekend of January and ends with the Petit Le Mans, another North American Endurance Cup race, in early October.
European Le Mans Series
ELMS
The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the former American Le Mans Series (ALMS) based in the United States and Canada that was running with ACO and IMSA between 1999 and 2013. ELMS team champions and runners-up receive an automatic entry to the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Originally titled the Le Mans Endurance Series before becoming simply the Le Mans Series in 2006, the series was renamed once more in 2012, reusing a name previously utilized by IMSA in 2001.
Asian Le Mans Series
ALMS
The Asian Le Mans Series (AsLMS)[1] is an Asian sports car racing endurance series created by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and based in Asia. It is the successor to the defunct Japan Le Mans Challenge which folded in 2007 after its second season. The ACO aims to attract teams and drivers from Asian countries.
Intercontinental GT Challenge
The Intercontinental GT Challenge is a sports car racing series developed by the SRO Group in 2016.[1] It consists of international endurance races for grand tourer racing cars complying with the FIA’s GT3 regulations. The series is aimed at manufacturers. Instead of fielding their own cars, manufacturers can appoint and support local teams in selected events to gain points.
The races may be stand-alone events, like the Suzuka 10 Hours, (which the event are organized by GT Association, Super GT race promoter) and the Bathurst 12 Hour (the event are organized by Supercars Events), or part of another championship (like the 24 Hours of Spa, Indianapolis 8 Hour and Kyalami 9 Hours) but they are all contested by cars complying with the same technical regulations
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
The Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup powered by AWS, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports Group and the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium (RACB) with approval from the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). It features grand tourer racing cars modified from production road cars complying with the FIA’s GT3 regulations. The series’s goal is to be an endurance racing championship for GT3 cars, similar to the FIA World Endurance Championship which uses GTE cars and Le Mans Prototypes (now Le Mans Hypercars). The series was primarily sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Blancpain, and the company’s Lamborghini Super Trofeo series serve as support races. In 2019, SRO announced that their sponsorship deal with Blancpain had been discontinued and the series was renamed the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for the 2020 season.
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