Optimum, Zelus Boost COTA Entry to 16 Cars

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

A total of 16 cars are set for next weekend’s Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS round at Circuit of The Americas, with the series debut of two new entries boosting the overall car count. 

The April 30 – May 2 event at the home of the U.S. Formula 1 Grand Prix will see the championship debut of the McLaren 720S GT3 for Optimum Motorsport as well as Zelus Motorsports’ Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, which steps up from GT America powered by AWS competition for the first time.

Seven GT3 manufacturers are now represented as a result of the Optimum-run inception racing McLaren entry for Ollie Millroy and Brendan Iribe.

Jason Harward and Madison Snow, meanwhile, will drive the No. 88 Zelus Lamborghini, which like the McLaren, is set to compete for Pro-Am class honors.

The entry list, released Friday by SRO America, again sees a four-car Pro class headlined by the pair of K-PAX Racing Lamborghinis, which swept the season-opening weekend at Sonoma Raceway last month.

They will be joined by Turner Motorsport’s BMW M6 GT3 and the Rolex 24 at Daytona class-winning Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 squad.

Eleven Pro-Am entries are slated to do battle, headlined by the three-car DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo effort, TR3 Racing and Rearden Racing’s Lamborghinis, Acura NSX GT3 Evos for both Compass Racing and Racers Edge Motorsports, as well as a Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by Wright Motorsports.

The lone Am class entry will again be the No. 61 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 for Jean-Claude Saada and Conrad Grunewald.

Aside from the two additional entries, there are no driver changes since the Sonoma rounds.

As was the case in California, the event at COTA will be held behind closed doors due to COVID-19. 

Qualifying and both 90-minute races will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel, in addition to audio simulcasts on Sirius XM Radio Channel 382 (992 on the web/app).

CBS Sports Network’s highlights and live racing package premieres Sun., May 2 at 2 pm ET, with an encore presentation at 10 p.m. ET that evening. 

26 Entries for GT America Rounds

GT America has also seen an increased field of 26 cars for COTA next weekend, including the first GT2 car slated to take part in the new-for-2021 series.

A total of 17 cars took part in the kickoff races at Sonoma, which features Bronze single-driver races of 40 minutes in length.

TPC Racing’s Scott Schmidt is entered in the GT2 class at COTA with a Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo GT2.

The Lamborghini in GT2 configuration made its global debut in last weekend’s GT2 European Series round at Monza.

Other additions for the Austin GT America event include James Sofronas in a GMG Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, a Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R for Andy Wilzoch and the expected debut of CJ Moses in a DXDT-run Mercedes.

The pair of races are set for Saturday at 5:45 p.m. ET and on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. ET and will both be streamed live on SRO’s GT World YouTube page.

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