LEXINGTON — Mid-Ohio’s newly-repaved surface will be christened this weekend.
The 2024 season goes green with the return of the International Motor Sports Association, highlighted by Sunday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge O’Reilly Auto Parts Four Hours of Mid-Ohio.
It’s the first of five spectator weekends at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn permanent road course, which was fully resurfaced for the first time in almost 20 years last October.
“It is going to be a tremendous summer at Mid-Ohio,” track President Craig Rust said. “A fully repaved racing surface should provide fans and competitors with outstanding on-track action, and we’re excited to expand our summer lineup to five events over the course of three months.”
Several support series will also run at Mid-Ohio this weekend.
The FIA TCR World Tour, an international touring car series, will make its only North American stop, along with the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, Mustang Challenge and Mazda MX-5 Cup.
“The return of IMSA is a great way to launch our 2024 expanded season,” Rust said. “We look forward to welcoming all of our loyal fans back to the track.
“We are grateful to O’Reilly for continuing to support road racing at Mid-Ohio and working with us to bring this exciting new event to the track.”
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Four Hours of Mid-Ohio will feature 40 entries in Grand Sport and Touring Car classes.
Former Mid-Ohio winner Harry Gottsacker will try to defend his 2022 Touring Car class victory with co-driver Robert Wickens. The duo shares the No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR and is the reigning class champ.
“We’re extremely hungry (to win again),” Gottsacker said. “We’re going to be giving it 100 percent full effort. … We’ve just got to be able to put the car in a position to win.”
On-track activities begin Friday with practice and qualifying sessions. Racing begins Saturday morning in the FIA TCR World Tour series and continues Saturday afternoon with VP Racing Sports Car Challenge, Mustang Challenge and Mazda MX-5 Cup events.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Four Hours of Mid-Ohio is scheduled for Sunday at 12:40 p.m.