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40 Cars on Daytona CTSC Entry List

40 cars entered for CTSC season-opener at Daytona…

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Forty cars across two classes are set to contest the season-opening round of the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge in a newly expanded four-hour enduro at Daytona.

This comes on the heals of a busy Roar Before the 24 which saw 31 cars, 21 in GS and 11 in ST, undertake three days of testing.

ENTRY LIST: CTSC Daytona

The GS class, bolstered by the acceptance of SRO GT4-homologated cars for 2017, has seen tremendous year-on-year growth to 20 entries after just nine cars were entered for the Daytona round last year.

Four manufacturers combine to make up the 20-car GS field: Porsche (10), McLaren (6), Aston Martin (3), and Ford (1).

Of the Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport cars entered, three are of the full SRO GT4-homologated Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR variety: the No. 4 Team TGM entry for Ted Giovanis, Guy Cosmo, and Hugh Plumb, the No. 28 RS1 car driven by Dillon Machavern and Dylan Murcott, and the No. 38 BGB Motorsports machine with drivers James Cox, John Tecce, and David Murry.

The remaining Porsches in the field are understood to be the IMSA variant of the car, which has been grandfathered into the 2017 Continental Tire Challenge rules package.

Six brand-new McLaren 570S GT4 cars are entered, made up of two cars each from from Automatic Racing/VOLT Racing, MIA/Pfaff McLaren/Garaga, and C360R.

The latter team, formerly known as Compass360 Racing, has a two-car lineup featuring Paul Horton and series stalwart Matt Plumb in the No. 76 and Matthew Keegan alongside Nico Rondet in the No. 77.

The driving lineup for the Multimatic Motorsports-run No. 15 Ford Mustang GT4, the fastest car at the Roar test, has been trimmed to include just Scott Maxwell and Jade Buford.

This comes after Dean Martin and Cameron Maugeri were entered in addition to Maxwell and Buford for the test earlier this month.

The No. 71 TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT4, which posted the second-fastest GS lap in the Roar test, is the lone omission in the class from the Daytona race entry list of the cars that took part in pre-season testing.

It is understood that drivers Gregory Milzcik and Brandon Davis did not intend to compete in the Continental Tire Challenge opener and were testing in preparation for other racing endeavors.

In the ST ranks, the 20-car field is made up of cars from six different manufacturers: Porsche (9), Mazda (3), MINI (3), BMW (3), Nissan (1), and Audi (1).

Several new entries have materialized following the Roar after just nine cars appeared for testing earlier this month.

It includes an additional Porsche Cayman from RS1, which will be driven by 2016 Continental Tire Challenge ST co-champions Spencer Pumpelly and Nick Galante.

Also new to the entry list are three Porsche Caymans from Rebel Rock Racing with Shane Lewis in the No. 6 and Dion von Moltke in the No. 8 listed as the only confirmed drivers for those cars, while Kris Wright and Leh Keen are slotted into the No. 22 entry.

Freedom Autsosport returns to the championship with three Mazda MX-5s. 2015 class champions Stevan McAleer and Chad McCumbee are listed in the No. 25 car while Andrew Carbonell and Liam Dwyer are set in the No. 26. Illinois-native Britt Casey Jr. is listed without a co-driver in the No. 27.

Other additions to the ST field include an additional MINI JCW for Mike LaMarra and James Vance, Murillo Racing’s No. 43 entry, the return of the CRG-I Do Borrow pairing of Sarah Cattaneo and Owen Trinkler in a Nissan Altima, and an additional BMW 328i from BimmerWorld Racing.

The 20 ST entries for the 2017 edition of the BMW Endurance Challenge is down slightly from the 25 cars that were entered in 2016.

The race is set for Friday, Jan. 27 and will stream live at IMSA.com, with a telecast scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 11 at 11:30 a.m. ET on FS1.

Ryan Myrehn is an Indianapolis-based broadcaster and reporter. In addition to his work covering primarily domestic sports car racing for Sportscar365, he is the lead announcer for SRO America's TV coverage as well as a pit reporter for IndyCar Radio. Myrehn, a graduate of DePauw University, is also the host of Sportscar365's “Double Stint” Podcast.

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