TUSC, CTSC Teams Set for Sebring Winter Test

IMSA returns to action at Sebring International Raceway on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 20-21, with two full days of testing for both the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.

The testing will be in preparation for the next event on the IMSA calendar, the 62nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida on Saturday, March 15.

The weekend includes the second round of the Continental Tire Challenge on Friday, along with the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda, and Lamborghini Super Trofeo.

The winning cars from the Prototype (P) and GT Le Mans (GTLM) classes from the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona are among the early entries for the test.

Action Express Racing entered the No. 5 Corvette DP for Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais, while Nick Tandy, Richard Lietz and Patrick Pilet will return to the No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR.

Rolex 24 runner-up Wayne Taylor Racing entered the No. 10 Corvette DP for Max Angelelli and brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor, while the fourth-place finishing Spirit of Daytona Corvette DP will be tested by Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante.

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates will test one car, the No. 01 Telcel/Target Ford EcoBoost/Riley for Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Scott Dixon.

Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, coming off a fifth-place finish at the Rolex 24, will test the No. 6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing Nissan/ORECA with 2012-13 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón P1 champions Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr.

OAK Racing, sixth-place P finisher in the Rolex 24, will have the No. 42 Nissan/Morgan for Gustavo Yacaman, Olivier Pla and Ho-Pin Tung.

Extreme Speed Motorsports will bring two cars, the No. 1 HPD ARX-03b for Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel, and the similar No. 2 for Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek.

Porsche Motorsports North America and Corvette Racing each entered two cars at the test in GTLM.

Joining the Daytona-winning No. 911 will be the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Long, Jorg Bergmeister and Michael Christensen. Corvette Racing will bring both the No. 3 Corvette C7.R of Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, and the No. 4 of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner.

Team Falken Tire will test the No. 17 Porsche 911 RSR in preparation for its TUDOR Championship debut. Driving will be Wolf Henzler, Bryan Sellers and Marco Holzer.

Also testing from the GTLM division are single entries for BMW, Ferrari and SRT. Andy Priaulx and Dirk Werner will share the No. 56 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE; Nic Jonsson will test the No. 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F458 Italia; and Marc Goossens, Jonathan Bomarito and Jeroen Bleekemolen will drive the No. 93 SRT Viper GTS-R.

GTD entries include the No. 44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America of John Potter and Andy Lally, and the No. 33 Riley Motorsports SRT Viper GT3-R of brothers Jeroen and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Goossens.

8Star Motorsports is the lone PC entry with drivers Enzo Potolicchio and Tom Kimber-Smith.

The Daytona-winning teams from both Grand Sport (GS) and Street Tuner (ST) filed early entries for the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge testing. Fall-Line Motorsports – which finished 1-2 in the opener – entered the No. 46 and No. 48 BMW M3s with drivers to be named. In ST, Daytona winners Jeff Mosing and Eric Foss lead Murillo Racing’s two-car entry in the No. 56 Mosing Motorcars BMW 328i.

Other teams entering the test are Stevenson Motorsports with a pair of Chevrolet Camaro Z/28s – the No. 6 for Robin Liddell and Bob Michaelian, and the No. 9 for Matt Bell. The new CRG-I Do Borrow team will test the No. 44 Cruise America/Thor Motorcoach Honda Civic Si for Sarah Cattaneo and Owen Trinkler.

Both series will have a pair of sessions on each day. The Continental Tire Challenge will test from 8-9:15 a.m. and 1-2 p.m. on both days, while the TUDOR Championship testing runs from 9:30 a.m.-noon and 2:45-5 p.m.

Competitors in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin, Cooper Tires Prototype Lites Powered by Mazda, and Lamborghini Super Trofeo will test on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 24-25.

The testing will be open to the public at $10 per day.

– See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/entries-filing-sebring-testing#sthash.7OTXFhDG.dpuf