The TUDOR United Sports Car Championship and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series kicked off the second half of their racing season a couple of weeks ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and are now set to make their appearance in front of a different audience racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) as part of NASCAR's Brickyard 400 weekend. There is a long history of the GRAND-AM Rolex SportsCar series running on NASCAR weekends and exposing this type of racing to potential new fans who might enjoy racing on road courses. In the past the series ran at both Daytona and Watkins Glen putting on a great show. Back in 2012, the sportscars started running at IMS and this year, fans will be treated to much a much larger and diverse field with the first appearance of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. There are a total of forty-nine (49) entries with all four classes in competition at this event.
With the combined TUDOR Championship is making its first appearance at The Brickyard the series the playing field has been levelled with the series running the new road course configuration which debted during the IndyCar Grand Prix back in May. The GRAND-AM Rolex Series previously raced on a 2.534-mile layout but this weekend's competition will be on a 14-turn, 2.435-mile layout. Should be interesting to see how the DP and GTD teams adapt to the new layout which reduces the amount of time drivers will spend on the long banked (Turn One) section coming to the finish line.
Of course with NASCAR being the headliner this weekend, the TUDOR and Continental Tire events are on a compressed schedule which runs Thursday (24th) and Friday (25th). Pretty tight – but a lot better than what they ran during the July 4th events at Daytona where it was a one-day event. Load in, practice, qualifying, night race and then leave. It was pretty intense for everyone.
A complete schedule for both series follows below.
NOTES:
The list of entries could have some possible changes as we expect the one provided online is a partially amended copy from the CTMP entry list especially with respect to CTSCC.
CTSCC entry for the ST class Autometrics #04 entry shows Remo Ruscitti (Vancouver, BC) teamed with Corey Friedman. This was the pairing shown for CTMP, however Remo's regular team mate Adam Isman (Vancouver, BC) WAS in the car at that race. We will have to check timing and scoring during practice to confirm. The duo will be looking for a repeat of their race win at the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix
CTSCC entry for GS class Mantella Autosport of Anthony Mantella and Mark Wilkins: They are shown on the entry list but as of yet, we have not seen any official confirmation from the team or divers that they will be there. They had some engine issues to address during the CTMP race which need to be resolved
TUDOR Championship – while this news has no Canadian connection, it is interesting just the same. The Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates #01 Ford (EcoBoost) Riley will have reigning Indy Lights champions Sage Karam co-driving with Scott Pruett this weekend. Memo Rojas, Pruett's usual team mate, is dealing with some back issues and is stitting this one out to deal with his recovery. Karam has been in the car before having run with Pruett and Rojas in the Rolex 24 at Daytona this past January.
TUDOR Performance Tech Motorsports #38 PC entry will have a new co-driver for David Ostella this weekend. James French, 22, will share driving duties with Ostella in the Brickyard Grand Prix. French ran a partial schedule in the PC class in the American Le Mans Series from 2011-13. He primarily races in SCCA competition and also drives a 1997 Formula One car in vintage competition, including the SVRA event in early June at IMS.
TUDOR Championship RSR Motorsports #08 PC entry will have Chris Cumming (Vancouver, BC) teamed with Jack Hawksworth who currently drives in the Verizon IndyCar series
Timing & Scoring links
TUDOR: http://scoring.imsa.com/
Continental: http://scoring.imsa.com/sportscar-challenge/
Following is a list of Canadian entries (highlighted in yellow) for each series
Prototype (P) – 11 entries
90 Spirit of Daytona visitflorida.com and GoPro Corvette DP Chevrolet
Richard Westbrook / London, England
Michael Valiante / Burnaby, BC, Canada
Prototype Challenge (PC) - 10 entries
38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA FLM09 Chevrolet Continental IMSA E10
David Ostella / Toronto, Canada
James French / Sheboygan, WI
08 RSR Racing AutomaxUSA.com ORECA FLM09 Chevrolet Continental IMSA E10
Jack Hawksworth / Bradford, England
Chris Cumming / Vancouver, Canada
GT Le Mans (GTLM) - 10 entries
93 Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R Viper V10 Michelin IMSA
Jonathan Bomarito / Monterey, CA SRT Motorsports
Kuno Wittmer / Montreal, Quebec, Canada
GT Daytona (GTD) - 18 entries
555 AIM Autosport REVO/Robert Graham/Royal Purple/Motegi Ferrari 458 Italia Ferrari
Bill Sweedler / Wesport, CT
Townsend Bell / San Francisco, CA
Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge – 55 Entries
GS – 24 Entries
8 Mantella Autosport Powered by Spyder/ Gulf Lubricants Aston Martin
Anthony Mantella, Toronto, ON, Canada
Mark Wilkins, Palgrave, ON, Canada
15 Multimatic Motorsports Multimatic Motorsports/ Ford Racing Mustang Boss 302R
Jade Buford, Brentwood, TN
Scott Maxwell, Toronto, ON, Canada
41 Tower Motorsports Tower Events Nissan 370Z
John Farano, Toronto, ON, Canada
Dave Empringham, Toronto, ON, Canada
76 Compass360 Racing Touge Tuning/ Ligon Industries Subaru WRX STI
Ray Mason, Columbus, OH
Ryan Winchester, Mason City, IA
00 CKS Autosport Carego/ Golden Gate Maragine Camaro Z/28.R
Ashley McCalmont, Ancaster, ON, Canada
Mike Skeen, Charlotte, NC
08 Rebel Rock/MBPR Racing K&N/ The Sports Lab/ Vitargo/ The Garage/Jackson Transportation Systems/ All Ontario Recycling Porsche 997
Martin Barkey, Huntsville, ON, Canada
Kyle Marcelli, Barrie, ON, Canada
158 Multimatic Motorsports Multimatic Motorsports/ Ford Racing Mustang Boss 302R
Ian James, Phoenix, AZ
Billy Johnson, Mooresville, NC
ST – 31 Entries
74 Compass360 Racing Bionic Enviorments/ LoudBasstard/ Be The Match/ Expo Systems Honda Civic
James Vance, Stouffville, ON, Canada
Jon Miller, San Francisco, CA
75 Compass360 Racing Cure NF with Jack/ CTF/ HPD Honda Civic
Kyle Gimple, Minden, NV
Ryan Eversley, Lithonia, GA
93 Honda Racing HPD/ Honda of America Mfg. Honda Civic
Chad Gilsinger, Marysville, OH HART
Michael Valiante, Burnaby, BC, Canada
04 Autometrics Motorsports BBA Accounting/ DE Labs Porsche Cayman
Remo Ruscitti, Burnaby, BC, Canada
* Cory Friedman, Charleston, SC
On Track Schedule
Thursday, July 24
Practice 1 - Continental Tire Challenge - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM ET
Practice 1 - TUDOR Championship - 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM ET
Practice 2 - Continental Tire Challenge - 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM ET
Practice 2 - TUDOR Championship - 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM ET
Qualifying - Continental Tire Challenge (ST) - 3:00 PM - 3:15 PM ET
Qualifying - Continental Tire Challenge (GS) - 3:30 PM - 3:45 PM ET
Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (GTD) - 4:00 PM - 4:15 PM ET
Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (GTLM) - 4:20 PM - 4:35 PM ET
Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (PC) - 4:45 PM - 5:00 PM ET
Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (P) - 5:05 PM - 5:20 PM ET
Friday, July 25
Race - Continental Tire Challenge - 2:35 PM ET (2 hours 30 minutes)
Race - TUDOR Championship - 5:45 PM ET (2 hours 45 minutes)