BAR1 Set for Return to PC in 2014

Photo: John Dagys

Despite last week’s announcement from IMSA, which has reduced the Prototype Challenge calendar to 10 rounds, including a new standalone race at Kansas Speedway, BAR1 Motorsports remains fully committed to the spec prototype ranks for next year’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Speaking with Sportscar365, team owner Brian Alder confirmed that plans are in place to again field two Oreca FLM09s in 2014, while also expanding to IMSA Prototype Lites full-time, with between two and three cars.

“We’re talking with three or four parties that would want to rent an entire [PC] car for the year,” Alder said. “We haven’t made any commitments yet. For sure, we’re hoping to continue on with Chris [Cumming] and Kyle [Marcelli] next year. That’s our number one priority. From there, we’re looking to have a second car locked in by the end of November.”

With back-to-back class victories at Circuit of The Americas and Virginia International Raceway, BAR1 is one of the hottest teams in the PC ranks right now and remains in the championship hunt entering this weekend’s American Le Mans Series-ending Petit Le Mans.

Pro-Am driver Chris Cumming sits 11 points behind in the driver’s title race, while the Ohio-based squad is only 7 points out of the lead in the team’s championship, which tied by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and CORE autosport.

“We’ve really hit our stride in the second half of the season,” Alder said. “There was one hiccup in Baltimore but we’ve bounded back from that. A lot of other teams may have taken that as the end of their championship hopes but we never gave up. We kept showing up, and were stronger than ever at the next two events.”

Cumming and co-driver Kyle Marcelli will be rejoined by sports car racing veteran Stefan Johansson for Road Atlanta, making for one of the strongest driver lineups in the class.

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