1997 SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge

The 1997 SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge season was the eighth running of the Sports Car Club of America's World Challenge series. The 1997 season is notable in that it began a thirteen-year era of the touring car class being contested primarily between BMW, Mazda, and Acura. This would change in 2010 with the adoption of an entirely new format. 1997 would also see the end of combined classes, with separate races for each group. This would also last until the 2010 season. After several years of having at least three groups, the series was reduced to only two, a format unseen since the series' inaugural season. This would go unchanged for thirteen years, after which the series would change to three and later four groups. After only mild success for three seasons, the Saturn brand would get its final wins this season as another blow to General Motors in the series.