Two days of pre-season testing starts at Daytona International Speedway today with 28 cars due to take to the track, a selection of full season IMSA entrants and NAEC and/ or Daytona only contenders
Prototype Class: 5 Cars
5: Action Express Racing – Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi, Filipe Albuquerque – Cadillac Dallara DPi
10: Wayne Taylor Racing – Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor, Max Angelelli – Cadillac Dallara DPi
31: Action Express Racing – Dane Cameron, Eric Curran, Seb Morris, Mike Conway – Cadillac Dallara DPi
55: Mazda Motorpsorts – Tristan Nunez, Jonathan Bomarito, Spencer Pigot, Joel Miller, Tom Long Mazda,Riley DPi
90: Visit Florida Racing – Marc Goossens, Renger Van Der Zande – Riley Multimatic Gibson Mk 30
It’s all change in 2017 for IMSA’s Prototype class, gone are the Daytona Prototypes and the previous generation of LMP2 cars. Instead the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona will see the world premiere for the new world order for LMP2 with the Gibson engined chassis in the hands of a number of teams, but only a single car due for this important pre-season test, the public debut of the Riley Multimatic Mk 30 of Visit Florida Racing.
Ranged against the Gibson cars for the season are the (currently) IMSA-only DPi, factory backed efforts. The Daytona Prototype International concept sees the same base P2 chassis mated with factory power and bespoke bodywork, and on the evidence seen so far IMSA has something (finally!) to cheer about in their premier class.
The Daytona Test sees all three full season Dallara chassied V8 Cadillac engined cars, two from Action Express and a single car from Wayne Taylor Racing ranged against a single Riley Mazda, supported by Speedsource.
The timing sheets will be examined very carefully indeed this time around with the new cars expected to be rather faster than their predecessors. It is though very early days yet!
GTLM: 8 Cars
3: Corvette Racing – Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen – Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
4: Corvette Racing – Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner – Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
25: BMW Team RLL – John Edwards, Bruno Spengler, Martin Tomczyk – BMW M6 GTLM
62: Risi Competizione – Toni Vilander – Ferrari 488 GTE
66: Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – Dirk Mueller. Joey Hand – Ford GT
67: Ford Chip Ganassi Racing – Ryan Briscoe, Richard Westbrook, Scott Dixon – Ford GT
911: Porsche GT Team – Patrick Pilet – Porsche 911 RSR
912: Porsche GT Team – Michael Christensen, Laurens Vanthoor – Porsche 911 RSR
Eight GTLM cars appear for the test with representation from each of the factory backed efforts on parade.
Both cars from Corvette, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing and Porsche are on the entry with the Porsche effort the first public appearance of the new for 2017 mid-rear engined 911 RSR, and for Laurens Vanthoor in Porsche colours.
For BMW Team RLL Martin Tomczyk makes his first appearance as a full season BMW GT driver after 16 years in the DTM!
GT Daytona: 15 cars
9: Stevenson Motorsports – Matt Bell, Lawson Ascenbach – Audi R8 LMS GT3
11: GRT Grasser Racing Team – Rolf Ineichen, Christian Engelhart, Mirko Bortolotti, Ezequiel Perez Companc – Lamborghini Huracan GT3
15: 3GT Racing – Scott Pruett, Sage Kram, Robert Alon, Jack Hawksworth – Lexus RCF GT3
21: Konrad Motorsport – Franz Konrad, Dennis Trebing, Lance Willsey – Lamborghini Huracan GT3
27: Dream Racing – Lawrence DeGeorge, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli, Raffaele Giammaria – Lamborghini Huracan GT3
29: Montaplast by Land Motorsport – Christopher Mies, Connor De Phillippi – Audi R8 LMS GT3
33: Riley Motorsport/ Team AMG – Ben Keating, Jeron Bleekemolen – Mercedes AMG GT3
46: EBIMotors – Fabio Babini, Emanuele Busnelli – Lamborghini Huracan GT3
50: Riley Motorsport/ Weathertech Racing – Mercedes AMG GT3
54: CORE Autosport – Jon Bennett, Colin Braun – Porsche 911 GT3 R
59: Manthey Racing – Nils Reimer, Reinhold Renger, Harald Proczyk – Porsche 911 GT3 R
63: Scuderia Corsa – Christina Nielsen, Alessandro Balzan – Ferrari 488 GT3
75: SunEnergy1 Racing – Boris Said, Tristan Vautier, Kenny Habul – Mercedes AMG GT3
86: Michael Shank Racing – Jeff Segal, Oswaldo Negri Jr, Tom Dyer – Acura NSX GT3
93: Michael Shank Racing – Andy Lally, Katherine Legge, Mark Wilkins – Acura NSX GT3
2017 looks set to produce a bumper crop of high quality GTD entries for the full IMSA season, and once again Daytona this year has attracted a gaggle of one-off guest entries from Europe.
Amongst the full season teams there are new Lexus and Acura efforts, and the Mercedes AMG GT3 makes its IMSA debut too.
From the 2016 crop Stevenson’s Audi, Lamborghini’s from Konrad and Dream Racing and the 2016 Championship winning Ferrari all return.
One of the pair of 3GT Lexus RC F GT3s is due to test, together with both of the Michael Shank racing-run Acura NSX GT3s and all three AMG GT3s with a car apiece for Team AMG, Weathertech (both run by Riley Motorsport) and Sun Energy1.
Core Autosport make their shift to GTD with the Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The test sees a quartet of Daytona one-offs, an Audi from Montaplast by Land Motorsport with an eye-catching driver line-up, a gentleman crewed Porsche from the crack Manthey Racing team and a Lamborghini apiece from GRT Grasser Racing Team and EBImotors
