After a triumphant season in the American TransAm race series, Audi entered for the GTO class of the IMSA series in 1989. The IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) championship was one of the three most important race series in the USA and Canada. Audi sent two teams to the starting line, with Hans-Joachim Stuck/Walter Röhrl and Hurley Haywood/Scott Goodyear as the drivers. Of the total of 15 events, Audi contested only 13, but won no fewer than seven of them.
Stuck and Audi would have won the driver’and manufacturer’s titles had it not been for the fact that Audi did not enter for the Daytona and Sebring long-distance races at the beginning of the season.