A total of 23 GT3 cars are set for this weekend’s Pirelli World Challenge round on the streets of Long Beach, split between GT and GTA class competitors.
ENTRY LIST: Long Beach
The second round of the Sprint season will see a single 50-minute race on Sunday, with a stacked field set to do battle for overall honors.
Fifteen GT class cars are entered, led by St. Pete winners Alvaro Parente and Patrick Long, with the K-PAX Racing driver looking for back-to-back wins in So Cal.
The reigning PWC GT champion inherited the win at Long Beach last year following a post-race overboost penalty for the No. 3 Cadillac ATS-V.R of Johnny O’Connell, who along with Michael Cooper will be looking for redemption.
Pierre Kaffer is set for his second weekend with Magnus Racing, along with Alex Riberas in the No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 car, which also showed promise in the opening weekend.
The pair of Acura NSX GT3s for Ryan Eversley and Peter Kox will be racing in the backdrop of Honda Performance Development’s headquarters, with
Bryan Sellers and Ryan Dalziel, meanwhile, are set to be the only two drivers pulling double-duty between the PWC round and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.
Sellers will be in two different GT3 cars, while Dalziel will swap between his CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Tequila Patron ESM Nissan Onroak DPi during the weekend.
The GT field also sees the return of St. Pete revelation Daniel Mancinelli, in the TR3 Racing Ferrari, with a to-be-announced driver and car for DIME Racing, which could make its season debut.
With Alec Udell listed in GT, the GTA class sees an eight-car field, with all of teams and drivers from St. Pete returning.
It includes Wright Motorsports’ Michael Schein, Mike Hedlund of K-PAX Racing and the No. 14 GMG Racing Porsche of James Sofronas, who along with Tim Pappas, are expected to be in the mix for top class honors.
GT Cup cars are not in action this weekend but will return for the next round at Virginia International Raceway, in SprintX guise.
Track action gets underway on Friday, with qualifying on Saturday and the 50-minute race set for Sunday at 10 a.m. PT.