A surprise announcement came this week when it was revealed that Ray Evernham and Rob Kauffman had secured the rights to the International Race of Champions.
In its original configuration, IROC was an All-Star exhibition series that pitted stars from all corners of racing into equal racecars. IROC fielded 12 cars for four or five races per year, with some races having less than 12 starters as drivers would drop out of the series due to other commitments or injury.
There was usually a fair mix of drivers; although there was a NASCAR lean in the final few seasons, there was always an open wheel presence and usually dirt and sports car stars.
Active Formula 1 drivers, most notably James Hunt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jody Scheckter and Mario Andretti, drove in the early years before that series became too demanding schedule-wise.
There were three eras of IROC vehicle after the first season in 1974 was contested with Porsche Carreras. Seasons two to 13 were all Chevrolet Camaros, then a five-season gap with Dodge Daytonas and Avengers before IROC exclusively contested Pontiac Trans Ams in its final 11 seasons. Cars were tested and tuned by NASCAR independent legend Dave Marcis to ensure both viability and balance. The series ended in 2006.
In the press release announcing the IROC rebirth, Evernham stated he was looking at possibly contesting a race in 2024. He later expanded on this in an interview with Racing America, saying the new owners were “in the early stages” of planning a race.
He also made it clear he is on the hunt for old IROC cars currently, seeing if they are in workable condition.
In all likelihood, another scenario that Evernham mentioned in the interview — the idea of building new cars identical to the old ones — would be the longterm viable scenario for IROC after this year.
It is extremely interesting that Kauffman is involved in this project. Still the listed chairman of the Race Teams Alliance, Kauffman has a fair amount of influence on NASCAR.
In November 2022, Sports Business Journal reported the RTA was exploring a way to do outside exhibition races. The idea would be to create a new revenue stream through a series outside of NASCAR, which would run in the offseason.
IROC may have no involvement in that theoretical series, which was never announced nor officially followed up on by the RTA.
But Kauffman’s involvement in…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …