Eversley, Merzon Join Starworks PC for Petit Le Mans

Starworks Motorsport will expand to include Ryan Eversley and Adam Merzon alongside Martin Fuentes for Petit Le Mans in the No. 7 Oreca FLM09, and provide Peter Baron’s team an excellent shot at the Prototype Challenge class victory in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season finale.

Eversley and Merzon tested at Palm Beach International Raceway a couple weeks ago in preparation for the potential opportunity.

For Merzon, it’s an opportunity to return to a top-level prototype seat as he has prior experience in both GRAND-AM and the American Le Mans Series.

Merzon recently has been racing in the NARRA Radical SR8 series, so the PC car is a natural progression. He owns Case-it, a three-ring binder company, which will be featured on the car.

“I met Ryan earlier this year when Anthony Lazzaro recommended him as a coach for my wife Lisa who also races in the Radical series,” Merzon said. “We hit it off right away and he’s been coaching the Merzons ever since. In fact he came up to Monticello to coach us a few weeks ago and he stayed at our house and actually babysat our kids, so it’s been a fun working relationship already.

“It’s been a few years since I raced in a pro series, but after our test with Starworks we’re really excited to run Petit Le Mans and bring Case-it into the TUDOR series!”

Eversley will make his PC race debut at Petit Le Mans, fresh off a win in this past weekend’s Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge ST race at Circuit of the Americas.

“To say I’m excited is an understatement! Firstly, I have to thank Adam and Lisa for the opportunity,” Eversley told Sportscar365. “I didn’t realize I could trade babysitting out for an LMPC ride but when they offered, I couldn’t turn it down! All kidding aside, I’ve had a really fun year coaching them and we’ve become fast friends.

“Getting to race for a team like Starworks is a real honor and getting to race at my home track again in a prototype is something I’ve been chomping at the bit to do. You don’t usually take a kid out of ST cars to drive prototypes, but I think I earned Peter’s respect at our test a few weeks ago and can’t wait to get started at Petit.”

Baron and Eversley had interacted on social media, and the opportunity grew from there.

“Oddly enough it came through Twitter. Ryan and I have been more active on Twitter and had some common interests,” Baron said. “We started chatting how to try and get him in a car. We basically came up with an opportunity with Adam Merzon, who is a good Silver to put in the car.

“Ryan tested with us at Moroso two or three weeks ago and it went well. He’s coming off a win at COTA last weekend and did a great job in the rain. The good thing is that Ryan has had some PC experience and for sure he’s a guy that needs a chance in a P car.”