Sportscar Championships — Endurance Cup & WEC Titles

• Four classes, four championships

  The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship isn’t one title — each of its classes (GTP, LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD) maintains its own championship for drivers, teams and manufacturers. The 2026 season runs eleven rounds, from the Rolex 24 in January to Petit Le Mans in October.

• The Michelin Endurance Cup

  Layered on top is the Michelin Endurance Cup — a separate championship contested over the five longest races: the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, the SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America, and Petit Le Mans. It rewards endurance specifically, so a team can win the MEC without winning the overall WeatherTech title.

• Points awarded through the race, not just at the finish

  The Endurance Cup’s twist is that points are scored at intervals during each race, not only at the flag. Daytona awards points every six hours, Sebring every four, and Petit Le Mans at the four-, eight- and ten-hour marks — so leading at three in the morning is worth something on its own.

• A championship with an older name

  The Endurance Cup began in 2014, the first season of the unified series, as the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. It took its current name when Michelin became title sponsor — so older results refer to the same idea under a different banner.

• Titles per class, three ways

  The FIA World Endurance Championship awards separate Drivers’, Teams’ and Manufacturers’ titles, contested within each class. The modern WEC has two classes — Hypercar at the top and LMGT3 for production-based GT3 cars (LMP2 was dropped from the WEC after 2024).

• Le Mans counts double

  Not every WEC round is worth the same. A win at a standard six-hour race pays 25 points; the longer 8- and 10-hour races pay roughly one-and-a-half times that; and the 24 Hours of Le Mans pays double — 50 points for a win. It’s why a single bad Le Mans can decide a championship, and why the entry effort there dwarfs every other round.

• A global, eight-round season

  The 2026 WEC runs eight rounds across four continents — Imola, Spa, Le Mans, São Paulo, the Lone Star Le Mans at COTA, Fuji, Qatar and Bahrain. The compact calendar and the double-points Le Mans make every round heavy with championship weight.

Championships FAQ

More sportscar guides

• Multi-Class Racing ExplainedWhy a car can finish 30th overall and still win — GTP, LMP2, GTD and the per-class result
• LMDh vs LMHThe two top-class rulebooks that race together at Le Mans — and what actually differs
• Balance of PerformanceWhy one manufacturer gets ballast and another gets power — how BoP equalises the field
• FIA Driver CategoriesPlatinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze — and why a class can require an amateur in the car
• Petit Le Mans hubThe IMSA finale — where titles are settled