IMSA will be hosting an open test at Daytona on November 17-18. Want to see the schedule and regulations for the test? They’re posted on the IMSA website in the competitor’s section here. Want to see the preliminary cars entered and the inspection schedule? That’s posted on the IMSA website here. Check back for updates before the test gets underway.
The prototype class has some of the usual suspects, but some have new driver line-ups. Action Express has two cars and VisitFlorida (Flis) has one car. The Mazda program will have one car entered along with the Delta Wing. Michael Shank will bring a Ligier with a new chassis. The PC class shows 5 entries – two from BAR1, and one each from Starworks, Core and JDC.
Perhaps the most interest revolves around the GT cars. Factory entries with brand new GT3 models will be represented from Audi and Mercedes. Customer teams have not yet taken delivery of their models. Similarly, a Lamborghini GT3 will be present, although teams haven’t received their cars either. Ganassi will have two new Ford GT examples, Riley will have a Viper, TRG will have an Aston Martin, and Turner will have a new M6 GT3. Dragonspeed is bringing two Mercedes SLS cars in hopes of being able to run them at the Rolex 24, even though manufacturer “support” fees haven’t been resolved with IMSA yet. There is a single Porsche 997GT3 from Autometrics Motorsports. In GLTM, Corvette will have two cars and BMW will have a brand new M6.
Ferrari’s new 488 cars are being tested in Italy and haven’t been delivered to customers yet. Porsche has only started making deliveries of the new 991GT3R. There will be more Audis and Lamborghinis on the Rolex 24 grid, so teams are just getting to know the factory cars at this point rather than running their own mounts. It seems unlikely that we’ll see a Mercedes AMG GT3 at Daytona, but the fact that Mercedes is bringing a factory car to Daytona is a good sign – perhaps only for the longer term, but a good sign.
A summary story has been posted on Sportscar365 as well. Stay tuned for more…
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