IMSA founder John Bishop passed away yesterday (Thursday 6/5). sad news IMSA | TUDOR United SportsCar Championship | IMSA Co-Founder John Bishop Passes Away At Age Of 87
this is a true loss. the real visionary for professional sports car racing in this country. wow...I guess I figured he would always be around to rescue sports car racing in this country whenever it was needed. a real loss. r.i.p. john
Too bad. He really shaped racing in this country, in a good way. I was a BIG IMSA fan in those days. I rarely missed a race at Daytona, Sebring or Road Atlanta, and it was because of the way he developed the series so beautifully.
so true. france jr. said he was glad john was alive to see the unification of imsa and grand am. I would suggest that it would have been better if he would rest in peace without having seen it. at any rate I will always long for and remember the bishop days when imsa was really, really special. I will always remember john leaving only to return again...how exciting that was. I will always have an imsa sticker on the rear window of my Porsche 930...it is just so appropriate. again...sad day for road racers.
IMSA changed hands twice between Bishop and Evans, but otherwise yes...Evans was the beginning of the end until Don Panoz came along.
John Bishop's passing is huge loss to American sports car racing. And, were it not for Andy Evans, there would not have been an ALMS. BHW
I was quite fortunate to know John Bishop and race in IMSA during the early days. I distinctly recall several races at Daytona where John made it a point of walking around the paddock during every practice session to spend time chatting with and getting to personally know every single driver in the field. We all had an affection for John and his family. John was one of a kind in the racing world.
what a cruel irony that the weekend John Bishop passes, the only IMSA action is a Spec pro-am class paired with a feeder series in a race with no TV or internet coverage. kinda sums up where we are as a sport right now.
