International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) officials today revealed a total of 40 production-based race cars from eight world-class manufacturers that will compete in the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes.
The GTLM category will include 12 entries from eight different teams. In GTD, 28 entries from 21 different teams were accepted. Manufacturers represented in both GTLM and GTD include Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Porsche and Chrysler’s Street & Racing Technology (SRT) brand. GTD also will include Audi and another manufacturer to be announced, while Chevrolet will be represented in GTLM with its brand-new Corvette C7.R.
Among the criteria used to select teams was full-time participation in either the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series or the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón in 2013. Those two series have merged to create the TUDOR Championship, which opens its inaugural season with the 52nd Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 25-26, 2014.
“We are flattered that so many teams stepped forward to enter the TUDOR Championship, and we expanded our capacity to accommodate as many teams as possible,” said IMSA CEO Ed Bennett. “The overwhelming response we received from teams wishing to participate provided further validation for the merger. We believe the teams we have selected will provide world-class competition and will be our calling card as we embark on an exciting new era of sports car racing in North America.”
The GTLM class will include a pair of entries from BMW Team RLL, two from Corvette Racing, one full-season Ferrari entry from Risi Competizione and a second Ferrari for selected rounds from Krohn Racing in conjunction with Risi, two factory-backed Porsche 911 RSRs from Porsche North America, one Porsche 911 RSR – which will make its season debut in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida in March – from Team Falken Tire, and a pair of SRT Viper GTS-Rs from SRT Motorsports. GTLM will also include a part-time entry from Aston Martin Racing. All submitted GTLM entries were accepted.
A pair of Aston Martins leads off the GTD entry from TRG-AMR North America. A total of five Audi R8 LMS machines will be fielded by GMG Racing (one entry), Flying Lizard Motorsports (two), Fall-Line Motorsports (one) and Paul Miller Racing (one). Long-time BMW competitors Turner Motorsport will field the lone BMW Z4 in the GTD category.
Six Ferrari 458 Italia entries were accepted; including two full-time entries from 2013 Rolex Series GT champions Scuderia Corsa. Level 5 Motorsports also will have one full-season Ferrari, while the Spirit of Race team will field a pair of part-time entries and SMP/ESM Racing will have one part-time entry wearing the prancing horse.
There will be a total of 12 Porsche 911 GT Americas in the GTD class. Teams fielding two GTD Porsches include Muehlner Motorsports America, Dempsey Racing and Park Place Motorsports, with single entries going to GB Autosport, Alex Job Racing, Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing, NGT Motorsport, Magnus Racing and Snow Racing. Riley Motorsports will field the lone SRT Viper GT3-R in the GTD class, with one team and race car to be announced shortly.
In the event space becomes available, Konrad Motorsport’s Porsche GT America is the first alternate in the GTD class. The second alternate is a second Ferrari 458 Italia from Level 5 Motorsports, followed by a third Ferrari from Scuderia Corsa and a second SMP/ESM Racing Ferrari.
View the entry list PDF here for a denotation of which cars are full season and which are only for the NAEC.
2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Accepted Entries
GT Le Mans (GTLM) – 12 Entries
Aston Martin Racing (1)
BMW Team RLL (2)
Porsche North America (2)
Corvette Racing (2)
Krohn Racing/Risi Competizione (1)
Risi Competizione (1)
SRT Motorsports (2)
Team Falken Tire (1)
GT Daytona (GTD) – 28 Entries
Alex Job Racing (1)
Dempsey Racing (2)
Fall-Line Motorsports (1)
Flying Lizard Motorsports (2)
GB Autosport (1)
GMG Racing (1)
Horton Autosport (2)
Level 5 Motorsports (1)
Magnus Racing (1)
Muehlner Motorsports America (2)
NGT Motorsport (1)
Paul Miller Racing (1)
Riley Motorsports (1)
Scuderia Corsa (2)
SMP/ESM Racing (1)
Snow Racing (1)
Spirit of Race (2)
Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing (1)
TRG-AMR North America (2)
Turner Motorsport (1)
TBA (1)
First Alternate – Konrad Motorsport
Second Alternate – Level 5 Motorsports
Third Alternate – Scuderia Corsa
Fourth Alternate – SMP/ESM Racing
La  anunció la lista de equipos inscritos al , el nuevo campeonato norteamericano de automóviles deportivos que se comenzará a disputar en 2014. Sus antecesores, la  y la , habían promediado en conjunto más de 60 automóviles en la temporada 2013. Pese a las dificultades que presentaron combinar las distintas clases, la lista de inscritos presenta 25  y 35  titulares, además de 9 unidades adicionales para el minitorneo de resistencia, que totalizan 69 habilitados para la primera fecha, las  que se disputará el 25 y 26 de enero en el .

En la clase principal de prototipos se anunciaron 13 inscritos titulares. Extreme Speed cuenta con dos HPD
para , , Johannes van Overbeek y Ed Brown. Mazda correrá oficialmente con dos Lola, con pilotos a definir.

Los múltiples campeones de la Grand-Am  y  seguirán corriendo con el equipo , ahora con un nuevo Riley-Ford. Como es habitual, Ganassi tendrá un segundo automóvil en Daytona para sus pilotos de Nascar e IndyCar. Michael Shank tendrá su propio Riley-Ford, que pilotarán Oswaldo Negri y John Pew.

Chevrolet participará en el certamen con cuatro Corvette DP titulares. El campeón defensor de la Grand-Am, , correrá junto a su hermano  en el equipo del padre de ambos, Wayne Taylor Racing, en tanto que su ex caompañero de butaca  se limitará a disputar las carreras de resistencia.  de Spirit of Daytona tandrá como nuevo compañero de butaca a Michael Valiante en otro Corvette DP.  y João Barbosa de Action Express seguirán con otra unidad del moño. Por último, Marsh Racing dispondrá de Boris Said y Eric Curran como pilotos.

Los tres inscritos restantes en la clase P son el equipo francés Oak, que correrá con un Morgan-Nissan, un , y Pickett con un prototipo a definir.

En la clase PC quedaron anotados 12 automóviles titulares. Rocketsports tendrá dos, uno de ellos para ,  tendrá uno para su equipo 8Star, e Isaac Tutumlu pilotará uno de las unidades de Starworks. La grilla la completan dos automóviles de Level 5 y Bar1, y uno de Core, Performance Tech y PR1/Mathiasen.

La clase GTLM cuenta con diez anotados a tiempo completo. Los  oficiales serán pilotados nuevamente por , ,  y .  seguirá con dos  oficiales, uno de ellos para , proveniente del DTM. Habrá dos  oficiales y dos , marca que regresa con equipo oficial luego de haber retirado el apoyo a Flying Lizard al finalizar 2012. Por último, Risi correrá con una .

En cuanto a la clase GTD, 12 de los 25 anotados son Porsche 911, pilotados entre otros por Leh Keen y Kuba Giermaziak. Habrá cuatro  para los equipos Flying Lizard, GMG, Fall-Line y Paul Miller, entre quienes correrán James Sofronas y Bryce Miller. Habrá una Ferrari 458 Italia de Level 5 para Townsend Bell y Bill Sweedler, y dos de Scuderia Corsa para el campeón de la Grand-Am Alessandro Balzan entre otros. Finalmente, habrá un SRT Viper para Riley, pilotado por Jeroen Bleekemolen, un BMW Z4 de Turner para Paul Dalla Lana, y dos  oficiales de TRG, uno de los cuales pilotará James Davison.