JOHN DOONAN

'B' IS FOR BANDLEADER.

- Chris Perkins

JOHN DOONAN IS EXCEEDINGLY NICE. The Illinois native isn't just "Midwestern nice" either. He's widely considered one of the nicest men in motorsport [fig. 1]. His passion for racing can disarm even the most cynical among us. That's a good thing in his line of work.

Since late 2019, Doonan has been president of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), the NASCAR-owned sanctioning body of the premier American sports-car-racing series. His job is to, essentially, keep a lot of people happy-promoters, advertisers, racers, automakers, drivers, fans, and many, many more. He's also one of a handful presiding over the biggest shift in sports-prototype racing in a generation.

Not since 2013 has a top-level sports prototype been eligible to compete globally, and not since 1997 has a single car been able to run the triple crown of endurance racing: Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans. That changes in 2023 with the introduction of LMDh, a new rule set agreed upon by IMSA and the ACO (governing body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans) that promises to bring an unprecedented number of manufacturer entries to prototype endurance racing. In the new regulations scheme, the hybrid vehicles will be able to compete on even ground through the use of a balance of performance mechanism, with cars built to the FIA and ACO's existing Le Mans Hypercar class.

Doonan's first IMSA races as an attendee were at Road America in 1979-he was nine-and 1981, when the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) era began. "It was magical," he tells R&T' in an interview held during the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. The idea with LMDh was to re-create the magic, and in the IMSA WeatherTech series, the GTP name was revived for the occasion. (LMDh is the type of car; GTP is the name of the class in which these cars will compete in the U.S.)