37 Cars on Initial Daytona CTSC Entry List

While the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge entry list for the BMW Performance 200 is indeed bigger than the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test, as expected, it hasn’t grown near the same level it did last year (30 at Roar to 56 for the race).

An initial listing for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway has only 37 cars, split between 9 GS and 28 ST cars. More could be possible following the initial entry, released Wednesday. This year’s Roar test had 26 cars.

ENTRY LIST: BMW Performance 200

GS features at least three of the new Porsche Cayman GT4s, two Clubsports (Muehlner Motorsport America) plus the GT4-R campaigned by DeMan Motorsport. Bodymotion Racing’s Cayman GT4 Clubsport, which tested at the Roar, is not currently listed.

Other cars in class include 2015 series holdovers Rum Bum Racing (Porsche 997) and Multimatic Motorsports (Ford Shelby GT350R-C), Compass360 Racing’s Ford Shelby GT350R-C, two of the previous generation Ford Mustang Boss 302Rs and a Rebel Rock Racing Porsche 997.

The ST class is Porsche Cayman-dominated, as there are 10 Caymans from six teams (Rebel Rock, Rennsport One, Next Level European, Bodymotion Racing, Murillo Racing and Strategic Wealth Racing).

Mazda maintains a healthy presence with what should be five MX-5s, including three from Freedom Autosport and one including defending ST class champions Stevan McAleer and Chad McCumbee. Those two switch from CJ Wilson Racing, which moves into GS with its new Cayman GT4 Clubsport, and remain in the Mazda family.

Honda has four cars with the pair of HART Honda Civic Sis, the CRG-I Do Borrow entry and the LRT Racing car all set to compete.

There are three BMW 328is, one from Murillo Racing and the two previously announced Bimmerworld entries. The new BMW 228i is expected to debut at Sebring for JDC Motorsports, in the hands of Stephen Simpson and open wheel convert Michael Johnson.

MINI also has three cars, while Compass360’s two Audi S3s and a new Mercedes-Benz C300 entered by Schmidt Motorsports complete the 28-car grid.

Of note, CJ Wilson Racing’s No. 35 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, Automatic Racing’s No. 99 Aston Martin Vantage (GS) and DeMan Motorsport’s No. 11 Porsche Cayman (ST) are listed on the pit stall list, but not the entry list.

Bodymotion’s GS car and Team TGM’s new Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport which was also announced, are also not listed for this race.

The GS field has 25 cars in last year’s race and teams such as Stevenson Motorsports, Doran Racing, Mantella Autosport, Fall-Line Motorsports and Tim Bell Racing, which all fielded two cars, are among the teams not entered this year.

In ST, there are fewer absences year-on-year, but teams such as Burton Racing and Team Sahlen are among those notable teams who raced last year in this event but are currently not scheduled to compete.

There’s only a slight falloff in ST from 31 cars to 28, compared to the more drastic reduction from 25 cars to 9 in GS.