by Chris Jameson / RaceCanada
date: August 7, 2014
IMSA heads to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin this weekend to celebrate a bit of an anniversary at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn Road America – the longest circuit on the calendar. Last August was the first event that saw both the Rolex Sports Car Series and ALMS competing at the same track on the same weekend - a precursor if you will of the new TUDOR United Sports Car Championship series set start at the beginning of 2014. While the two series competed on separate days last year, you got a sense of what the future paddock might look like.
This year heralds their return for the Continental Tire Road Race Show Case and will feature the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship (with a record fifty-two entries), the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (fifty-four entries), Cooper Tire Prototype Lites and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama. It is certainly going to be a jam-packed weekend and with just four races to go on the schedule (including Road America), there will a quest for points in some very close championship battles in every series.
NOTES:
In Prototype, Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook are riding a streak of four consecutive podium finishes – including a victory at Watkins Glen – to third in the championship standings, 11 points behind the leaders (238).
In GTLM, Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer won the recent Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis to give the team its first TUDOR Championship victory. The breakthrough triumph followed a pair of double-podium finishes for SRT Motorsports at Watkins Glen International and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The pair now sit second in the championship just 13 points back.
In GTD, the duo of Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler continue to lead the championship driving the AIM Autosport #555 Ferrari 458 Italia
In Continental Tire, Remo Ruscitti and Adam Isman sit seventh after taking their maiden victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and would be higher if not for a last lap gasp for fuel at Indianapolis. They were leading the race going into the final lap when the car bobbled and Ruscitti coasted to the line painfully watching four cars stream past him and they would finish fifth. Had they won, it is likely they would now be sitting fifth.
News from Compass 360 Racing has Katherine Legge joining James Vance (Stouffville, ON) in the #74 Expos Systems Honda Civic Si. Legge, who also drives the Delta Wing prototype in the TUDOR series, is stepping in to replace Jon Miller who has moved over to the Rebel Rock Porsche Cayman
This weekend also sees the return of the Mantella Autosports Aston Martin Vantage with Mark Wilkins (Palgrave, ON) and Anthony Mantella (Toronto, ON). The pair has missed two races after they discovered issues with both the main and spare engines during the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park event and they had to miss Indianapolis while waiting for replacemenst & repairs from Aston Martin
In Cooper Tire Prototype Lites, Vancouver's Mikhail Goikhberg has a solid fifty-three point lead with six races left in that series. So far this season Goikhberg has five wins in eight races with two second place finishes. He has only failed to score points on one race when he suffered a DNF at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
In Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, Jesse Lazare (Montreal, QC) is the lone Canadian competing in the US-based series. He is currently seventh in the championship with six races to go.
Following are the complete weekend schedule, broadcast times, Canadian entries and timing & scoring links.
Note that the TUDOR Championship qualifying and Continental Tire race will be streamed live over the internet.
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) – 13 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) - 19 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 – 54 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
Bob Michaelian, Seal Beach, CA
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
Ktherine Legge, UK
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
Adam Isman, Vancouver, BC
Cooper Lites L1 = 20 L2 = 2 TOTAL = 22
10 Mikhail Goikhberg, North Vancouver, Canada JDC Motorsports JDC Motorsports Elan DP-02
31 Michal Chlumecky, Windsor, Canada (M) Eurosport Racing Contractglaziers.com Elan DP-02
GT3 Cup Platinum = 20 Gold = 10 TOTAL = 30 (M) = Masters Class
31 Jesse Lazare, Montreal, Canada Door Doctor/Moorespeed garage
Broadcast Schedule
TUDOR UNITED SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
The Race: Continental Tire Road Race Showcase
The Place: Road America
The Date: Sunday, Aug. 10
The Time: 2:15 p.m. (ET)
The Track: 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course
The Race Length: Two hours, 45 minutes
Qualifying (IMSA.com) - Saturday: 5:20 p.m. (ET)
Race (FOX Sports 1) - Sunday: 6:30 p.m. (ET) - SDD
CONTINENTAL TIRE SPORTSCAR CHALLENGE
The Race: Continental Tire Road Race Showcase
The Place: Road America
The Date: Saturday, Aug. 9
The Time: 1:15 p.m. (ET)
The Track: 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course
The Race Length: Two hours, 30 minutes
Race (IMSA.com) - Saturday, 1:15 p.m. (ET) - LIVE
Race (FOX Sports 1) - Aug. 17, noon (ET)
EVENT SCHEDULE
8 Aug
Practice 1 - Continental Tire Challenge 9:40 AM - 10:25 AM ET
Practice 1 - Prototype Lites 10:40 AM - 11:10 AM ET
Practice 1 - Porsche GT3 Cup USA 11:25 AM - 11:55 AM ET
Practice 2 - Continental Tire Challenge 12:50 PM - 1:35 PM ET
Practice 2 - Prototype Lites 2:15 PM - 2:55 PM ET
Practice 2 - Porsche GT3 Cup USA 3:10 PM - 3:50 PM ET
Qualifying - Continental Tire Challenge (ST) 4:05 PM - 4:20 PM ET
Qualifying - Continental Tire Challenge (GS) 4:35 PM - 4:50 PM ET
Qualifying - Prototype Lites 5:05 PM - 5:25 PM ET
Practice 1 - TUDOR Championship 5:40 PM - 6:40 PM ET
9 Aug
Qualifying - Porsche GT3 Cup USA 9:00 AM - 9:20 AM ET
Practice 2 - TUDOR Championship 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM ET
Race 1 - Prototype Lites 11:40 AM ET (30 minutes)
Race - Continental Tire Challenge 1:15 PM ET (2 hours 30 minutes)
Practice 3 - TUDOR Championship 4:10 PM - 5:10 PM ET
Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (GTD) 5:20 PM - 5:35 PM ET
Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (GTLM) 5:40 PM - 5:55 PM ET
Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (PC) 6:05 PM - 6:20 PM ET
Qualifying - TUDOR Championship (P) 6:25 PM - 6:40 PM ET
Race 1 - Porsche GT3 Cup USA 7:05 PM ET (45 minutes)
10 Aug
Race 2 - Prototype Lites 9:05 AM ET (45 minutes)
Race 2 - Porsche GT3 Cup USA 10:50 AM ET (45 minutes)
Race - TUDOR Championship 2:15 PM ET (2 hours 45 minutes)
Race 3 - GT3 Cup USA 6:00 PM ET (45 minutes)