Published on December 11th, 2013 | by Daniel Sherman Fernandez
0TUDOR UNITED SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP TO FEATURE 29 PROTOTYPES
The debut season of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship in 2014 will include 29 prototype race cars across the Prototype (P) and Prototype Challenge (PC) categories as International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) officials unveiled approved entries for all four TUDOR Championship classes.
The P class will include an intriguing mix of 17 race cars battling for overall victories. The class merges Daytona Prototype (DP) race cars, which previously competed in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series, with P2 and DeltaWing prototypes from the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón.
The PC class – which utilizes a spec ORECA FLM09 exclusively – will include a dozen entries in 2014. IMSA officials expanded the PC field by two entries after announcing a tentative cap of 10 entries from the class in October.
A field of 17 Prototypes is expected at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, with 12 P cars committed to competing in every TUDOR Championship round. The full-time entries include one DP car each from Action Express Racing, Wayne Taylor Racing, Marsh Racing, Michael Shank Racing, Spirit of Daytona Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Extreme Speed Motorsports and SpeedSource each will field a pair of LMP2 cars, with one DeltaWing entry and another entry to be announced shortly.
Part-time entries in the P class include second cars from Action Express Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing, as well as single entries from GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing and OAK Racing. The first alternate in the P category is the Corvette DP from 8Star Motorsports. A Starworks Motorsport Riley DP is the second alternate in the P class, with a Project Libra Radical listed as the third alternate.
The 12 PC entries accepted include two cars each from BAR1 Motorsports, RSR Racing, Level 5 Motorsports and Starworks Motorsport, and single entries from CORE autosport, 8Star Motorsports, PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports and Performance Tech Motorsports. Pickett Racing has the first alternate in the PC class, followed by JDC/Miller MotorSports.
Together with the GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) entries announced earlier, a total of 68 entries will open the season at the 52nd Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 25-26 2014. It will be the largest Rolex 24 field since 71 cars participated in the 2007 event.