Lone Star Anticipating More GTD Races After Series Return

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Lome Star Racing is anticipating more IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races following its return appearance to the GTD class earlier this month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway according to team manager and technical director AJ Petersen.

The Texas-based squad, which fielded its IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge driver pairing Scott Andrews and Anton Dias Perera at the recent Battle on the Bricks in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, could be on the GTD grid in a larger capacity next year.

While having ruled out a run in next month’s Motul Petit Le Mans, Petersen said various options are at play for the future, with the team understood to be waiting on a 2024 entry confirmation from IMSA.

“We’re anticipating more WeatherTech races,” Petersen told Sportscar365. “We want to do more races and this [was] the first step. We’re not confirmed, we’re trying, but we’re working to that direction.

“I don’t want to say anything until I know we’re going to do it but we’ve requested, we’re trying. We’ll see what they determine. But this is part of our step, I think.”

Petersen said their GS class program with a Mercedes-AMG GT4 this year has proven to be valuable learning experience that puts them prepared to return to top-series competition.

Lone Star was last present in the WeatherTech Championship in 2016 with a partial season program with a Dodge Viper GT3-R.

“It’s been tremendous,” Petersen said of the team’s GS experience. “A lot of the processes are similar between Pilot Challenge and WeatherTech. We’re not coming into it cold like we did in 2016.

“Just building the team. From Daytona until now, our team is so good and everyone works really well together. We just need more racing to keep it all together and keep it rolling.”

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