A smaller than usual number of cars are listed for the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge’s Roar Before the Rolex 24, with just 21 cars listed between GS and ST for the preseason test at Daytona International Speedway.
While that may be cause for concern, there was a similarly small Roar entry list in 2015 (30 cars) and the field almost doubled to 56 cars for the BMW Performance 200 itself.
ENTRY LIST: CTSC Roar Before the Rolex 24
The reduced car count this year, particularly in GS where only seven cars are listed, owes to a number of factors.
A high number of teams are yet to confirm their plans for the 2016 Continental Tire Challenge season (Fall-Line Motorsports for example), others have departed (Stevenson Motorsports, Nissan) and others who have announced either haven’t taken delivery of their new cars, or taken delivery but are opting not to test at Daytona.
As it is, the GS list includes three of the new Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsports from Bodymotion Racing, Muehlner Motorsports America and DeMan Motorsport, respectively.
Others include Rum Bum Racing with the older Porsche 997, one Multimatic Motorsports Ford Shelby GT350R-C and the previous generation Ford Mustang Boss 302R from Racers Edge Motorsports.
Compass360 Racing is set to debut its new Ford Shelby GT350R-C in GS along with its two Audi S3s, the latter of which are among the 14 ST class cars.
There are seven of the ST-spec Porsche Cayman in class, making for half the entry for the test.
MINI, Audi, Honda and BMW are also represented in ST. The MINIs premiered at Sebring, so this marks the MINI JCW team’s first Roar appearance with two cars.
Mazda, which didn’t test at last year’s Roar, is again absent from this year’s entry list.
Further team and car announcements are expected prior to the season opener later this month.