Octane Press IMSA 1990 1999: The Turbulent Years of American Sports Car Racing: 2 (Imsa History)

The International Motorsports Association (IMSA), developed from nothing into the biggest and most successful sports car racing sanctioning authority in the world in just under twenty years. Documented first in IMSA 1969–1989: The Inside Story of How John Bishop Built the World’s Greatest Sports Car Racing Series, this new volume covers the turbulent 1990s and all that changed in that time. IMSA 1990–1999: The Turbulent Years of American Sports Car Racing covers the next decade of constant change in ownership, sponsorship, racing car design, and virtually everything else that was envisioned and created by founder John Bishop. Despite the turmoil and ownership changes, the organization flourished, brought in new corporate sponsorships, created an entirely new category of top-tier prototype sports cars that eventually became accepted worldwide, and most importantly survived, though in a completely different configuration from what it once was. So strong were its integrity and strength of staff that initially, despite what many in the industry thought, the organization grew and created value to many as it went through four different ownership and management changes in six years. Throughout all that, IMSA racing remained influential and strong, competition was good, and opportunity was high for numerous brands, companies, and competitors to showcase their products and abilities on a world motorsports stage. The authors and main contributors, Mark Raffauf, Martin Raffauf, and George Silbermann share their personal experiences and comments from being there through all of it, along with the experiences of many individuals with different perspectives who also made their way through it all. This is the behind-the-scenes story of all that happened in the decade of change that sowed the seeds for two diversely different organizations, both of which would carry the IMSA legacy into the next century.