Van der Zande, Schultis Return to Starworks in PC

Photo: John Dagys

Starworks Motorsport will return to the Prototype Challenge class with its Martini-sponsored Oreca FLM09, with Renger van der Zande and Mirco Schultis confirmed for a championship attack in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Team owner Peter Baron confirmed the news to Sportscar365 on Monday.

Although van der Zande, Schultis and Alex Popow claimed class victory in last year’s season-ending Petit Le Mans, the return of Schultis was initially in question as the German driver had initially called time on his career in the professional ranks.

However, Schultis reversed the decision after competing in November’s HSR race at Daytona, and a recent rules change for PC cars, including a power increase and revised ride height.

“The opportunity to drive one more full season was here and was very tempting,” Schultis told GT-Eins.de. “In addition, the rules change has again made our cars faster than the GTE cars, which we had clashed with several times last year.”

Mike Hedlund, meanwhile, will join the duo for the four-round Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup, with Baron expecting to finalize the remainder of the lineup for Daytona in the coming days.

The team is expected to only field a single PC entry this year following a two-car effort in 2014. Silver-rated pilot Martin Fuentes, who had funded Starworks’ No. 7 car last year, has moved to Pirelli World Challenge with Scuderia Corsa.

Baron, however, has confirmed a Riley-BMW DP for Daytona, which is also expected to run in Martini colors, and could potentially expand into a full-season effort.

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