French Set for Full Season Effort at Performance Tech

Photo: John Dagys

Performance Tech Motorsports has confirmed a full-season effort in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, in the final season of Prototype Challenge.

The Florida-based team will again enter its Oreca FLM09 for James French, with Mazda Road to Indy star Pato O’Ward and 20-year-old Kyle Masson both confirmed for the Rolex 24 at Daytona only.

O’Ward got his first laps in the spec prototype during last weekend’s Roar Before the 24, with the 17-year-old Mexican rising star posting the second quickest time in class, two-tenths behind French.

While O’Ward is currently confirmed for Daytona only, Masson is set to continue with the Brent O’Neill-led team in IMSA’s Prototype Challenge series full-time this year.

A previous report confirming O’Ward for the full season, indicated by a team representative, is untrue.

2016 Prototype Lites champion Clark Toppe, who was due to complete the lineup for the season-opener, has been ruled out after crashing the car at the Roar. A replacement driver has not yet been announced.

Performance Tech is the second PC team to commit to the full season, joining the Buddy Rice and Don Yount pairing in the No. 20 BAR1 Motorsports entry.

A total of five Oreca FLM09s are set for Daytona, including two-car efforts from both BAR1 and Starworks Motorsport.

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