Lone Star Confirms Four-Race Schedule, Debut at COTA

Photo: Lone Star Racing

Lone Star Racing has confirmed a four-race IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule, which will see the Texas-based team debut its Mercedes-AMG GT3 in next month’s round at Circuit of The Americas.

Dan Knox and Mike Skeen will pilot the GT Daytona class contender in the two-hour and 40-minute race at COTA on May 6 and are also confirmed for the rounds at Road America, Virginia International Raceway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

It is the same schedule the team had last year, when it ran a Dodge Viper GT3-R.

“This schedule worked for us last year and we are looking forward to visiting four of our favorite tracks again in 2017,” Knox said.

“We would love to do more races, who wouldn’t, but I also have many time commitments away from race track with family and business.

“It has been six months since we last raced so we are anxious to get things going very soon at COTA.”

Skeen partnered Knox at all four IMSA races last year and the duo also co-drove in the Pirelli World Challenge GT and SprintX events in Monterey.

“Last year we were knocking on the door of a top-five finish on a couple of occasions but never quite got the result due to a few different reasons,” Skeen said.

“The competition is as strong as ever, but I think we are capable of that performance again if we put everything together. Like always, execution is the name of the game.”

The team took delivery of its new Mercedes late last year and recently completed its first test with the car at COTA.

“Our COTA test went well, and it will be special for us to race in front of a home-state crowd in a couple of weeks,” said team manager AJ Petersen.

“There will be friends and family attending this event. It will be one of our most important races of the year.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John