USCC 2014 Entry List & Schedule ONLY

[Canada ALMS fan]

Tracy Krohn certainly isn't messing around with his drivers for the 24.
http://sportscar365.com/imsa/tusc/kr...driver-lineup/
That is quite the lineup he has hired.

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by Simmi

They've also sprinkled lots of young Porsche-affiliated drivers among the entries too. Plenty of SuperCup talent in there so the teams can't say Porsche haven't helped them out.

You guys are aware that the teams pay for every driver, correct? Porsche doesn't "loan" you drivers. You pay for them. None of the SuperCup or Carrera Cup drivers get paid or placed by Porsche (except the official Porsche Juniors).

You can ask Porsche to recommend a good driver and they might introduce you to one of the Carrera or Porsche Cup drivers.. but that's where it ends. You still hire and pay the driver independently of Porsche.

-mike

[Rodger Davies]

Thanks Mike, you clarify a lot of things for us on here. Do you hire the works drivers independently or by approaching the factory? I'm fully aware that they don't cone free (or cheap!), but the spread of them seems fairly even most years at Daytona so I figured that there was a degree of involvement from their management in the arrangements. Very interesting if that's not the case; I assume in that case that the Liebs and Holzers of the world have a few offers then.

Ta

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

Thanks Mike, you clarify a lot of things for us on here. Do you hire the works drivers independently or by approaching the factory? I'm fully aware that they don't cone free (or cheap!), but the spread of them seems fairly even most years at Daytona so I figured that there was a degree of involvement from their management in the arrangements. Very interesting if that's not the case; I assume in that case that the Liebs and Holzers of the world have a few offers then.

Ta

The factory drivers are told where to drive by Porsche for the big races (where Porsche competes). If Porsche isn't in the series or class the drivers are free to drive for whoever they want as long as it's approved by their Porsche boss first.

-mike

[TheMightyM]

The season and Daytona entry situation is coming better focus now. While there were 80 entries requests submitted to IMSA, that doesn’t mean that there’s actually money available to fund that many cars.

What we’ve learned recently, by class:

GTLM: The class with the fewest question marks. The 12 entries (10 full season, 2 NAEC) are so far doing what they said they’d do.

GTD: There still may be some attrition after Sebring or Laguna Seca, but so far GTD has been surprisingly stable. Konrad Racing, which was the odd-man out for an entry (first GTD alternate), teamed out with Dempsey Racing, which had an entry but was looking for driver dollars, resolving that issue.

The mysterious TBA entry, which is thought to be a Nissan GT-R GT3, has withdrawn from Daytona, so an alternate will get in. That seems to be the #556 Level 5 car (NAEC campaign with Terry Borcheller and Mike LaMarra?) and/or the #65 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari (the Via Italia racing mob that raced with Scuderia Corsa last year at Daytona as well). Both are on the entry list for the Roar.

P: The 17 cars with confirmed entries are looking solid as of now.

The situation with the alternates is less obvious — if Starworks or 8Star had a deal lined up, they almost certainly would have gotten a confirmed entry. 8Star Motorsports looks unlike, with Gustavo Yacaman, who was thought to have been part of the solution to getting the car onto the grid, now being associated with OAK.

Then there’s this from John Dagys:

With Project Libra’s plans unclear and the 8Star Motorsports Corvette DP unlikely to race, it leaves Starworks Motorsport’s Riley DP as the only potentially race-ready effort on the reserve list. If it materializes, look for Peter Baron’s DP to be powered by an engine package not currently seen in DP.

The question though is where does the money come from, even presuming they could get an entry. And does the answer (to money and/or entry) come at the expense of one of Starworks PC cars?

PC: Six or eight weeks ago, this was the hot class. Now it seems as if this is the class with more cars available than money to actual race them. Level 5 has two confirmed entries but is short of driver dollars. Where does Sean Rayhall switching from 8Star to BAR1 leave 8Star? And what’s the current status of the two alternates, Pickett and JDC/Miller? Are they still capable of stepping in, if not at Daytona then at Sebring? (JDC/Miller was planning to start at Sebring in any case.)

[FstrthnU]

At least for PC, 8Star has still confirmed Enzo Potolicchio for the full season and Tom Kimber-Smith for the endurance races. Pickett seems to have tabled the possible PC program but JDC/Miller is staying on the reserve list.

[TheMightyM]

Originally Posted by FstrthnU

At least for PC, 8Star has still confirmed Enzo Potolicchio for the full season and Tom Kimber-Smith for the endurance races. Pickett seems to have tabled the possible PC program but JDC/Miller is staying on the reserve list.

But Enzo Potolicchio effectively is 8Star and Tom Kimber-Smith is getting a check, not writing one. Does 8Star need a driver with some funding to race the entire season?

As for Pickett, the PC program was aimed at Nissan Academy drivers. Pickett still has the car, and they’re now openly in a partnership now with Nissan. And they are AFAIK still the top PC alternate. If an entry becomes available, do they (can they) still take it? I don’t know, but there clearly was funding associated with the original entry request. Whether the budget has flowed elsewhere is a different question.

As for JDC/Miller, I wonder if they end up doing a Dempsey/Konrad sort of deal with Level 5.

At this stage, there seem to be no remaining full-season GT alternates. So if any full-season cars drop out, replacement entries will have to come from the P or PC reserve list. I suspect the PC situation will become a lot clearer by the Daytona 24.

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

PC: Six or eight weeks ago, this was the hot class. Now it seems as if this is the class with more cars available than money to actual race them. Level 5 has two confirmed entries but is short of driver dollars. Where does Sean Rayhall switching from 8Star to BAR1 leave 8Star? And what’s the current status of the two alternates, Pickett and JDC/Miller? Are they still capable of stepping in, if not at Daytona then at Sebring? (JDC/Miller was planning to start at Sebring in any case.)

That's because the moment they mentioned the (relatively small) class grid cap, every single person trying to put a program that wasn't signed yet went a different route.

-mike

[KA]

Originally Posted by morningview66

Looks like Porsche heard me, Makoweicki in at NGT, Henzler at Magnus. Some LMP1 guys Lieb at Dempsey and Bernhard at Park Place. No Romain Dumas.

And i would expect Jani, Webber and Hartley to be discounted, as good as they are, they have little to no GT experience AFAIK.

Hartley's sportscar career has been 100% LMP or DP so far AFAIK, but Jani has a bit of prior GT experience in Matech's Ford GT in Ratel's World GT1 series a couple of years back, and although he's not been near a GT car recently, Webber did plenty of GT mileage (and a few airmiles) with the Mercedes GT1 squad back in 1998/9.

I'd be the first to admit the late 90's GT1 cars are a very different animal to a GTD 911 though....

Given what Mike said about teams hiring the factory drivers, rather than being given them, then maybe the price tag for hiring Webber in particular might not put him top of the list for the GTD teams? I also wonder if Porsche LMP testing commitments might be an issue?

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by KA

Hartley's sportscar career has been 100% LMP or DP so far AFAIK

He has done a couple of GT3 races, but the only one that comes to mind off the bat is last year's Bathurst 12h for United Autosports in an Audi.

[chernaudi]

As far as Porsche goes, they have their hands in so many cookie jars right now because of various GT series efforts that they support, as well as the new LMP1 program. Audi have the R8 GT3 program, which though well-established now, is a relative newcomer compared to Porsche.

Audi also have the benefit of customers who are supported by Audi Sport, but who's drivers aren't offically part of Audi Sport, and even at that, with the LMP1 program and DTM efforts, they often have too many drivers and too few seats to fill. Even with Allan McNish retiring from driving for Audi, I'd bet that Audi will be spoiled for choice to fill that one vacant seat--which means too few seats, and too many drivers. And that's also even with Marc Gene being allowed by Audi to spend more time at Scudiera Ferrari, due to his F1 test duties, because of in-season testing returning this year.

Audi have drivers to spare, who are associated with but not offically part of Audi Sport, and the racing season hasn't started. Porsche have drivers all over the map because Porsche's tentacles have spread wide and far, successfully and profitably, for years and years it seems now.

However, several Porsche drivers are out of luck, because half of their current LMP1 line up have little to no GT car experience, and I'd bet that some of them wouldn't volunteer for such duty based on that, so both sides may well be the wiser there.

But as Mike pointed out, even if Audi or Porsche offer a driver, the team still has to pay to "rent" them for the race. Be it Audi or Porsche asking a driver to do a race for them, or being allowed to freelance under permission from Audi or Porsche (or whoever), these guys are still paid professionals, and that means payment from the team as well as their bosses.

As for Starworks, I wonder what the "unseen" engine combo is, be it one entirely new (such as a HPD or Nissan engine, both of which qualify as DP engines) or one not seen since last season, as in the Ford 5.0 Cammer V8 or one of the Dinan BMW engines? I'd bet that Barron probably has quite the choice of engines to pick from as long as it fits DP/LMP2 rules and can be shoe-horned into the back of a DP and mate to the Xtrac gearbox that Riley DPs use.

[Rodger Davies]

Pretty sure it's HPD if it comes to anything.

Hurley Haywood at Dempsey for Daytona. Here's hoping he's still got some of 'it' left!

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

Hurley Haywood at Dempsey for Daytona. Here's hoping he's still got some of 'it' left!

Only as a consultant to the team though, not as a driver.

[Rodger Davies]

Oops, that's what I get for skimming news stories!

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Marshall pruett has mentioned in his roar article that the mystery dp engine is believed to be a honda mdx based 3.5 L twin turbo engine that May not come together in time for the Rolex.i wonder how different it will be from the p2 engine and how much more power it will make.

[tjh8402]

Originally Posted by Lagunaseca_4life

Marshall pruett has mentioned in his roar article that the mystery dp engine is believed to be a honda mdx based 3.5 L twin turbo engine that May not come together in time for the Rolex.i wonder how different it will be from the p2 engine and how much more power it will make.

If it's 3.5L it's a good deal bigger. the P2 engine is only 2.8 liters, although acccording to HPD, it's based on the 3.5 production V-6. I can't find bore/stroke for the race engine (called HR28TT), so not sure if it's debored or destroked to get the displacement down. Maybe/hopefully they get some more torque out of the bigger engine, even if restrictors and ECU's keep the hp the same?

[chernaudi]

Honda did have a short lived 4.0 class V6 that was intended for DP use, and probably derived from the same V6 that the LMP2 engine came from. Not sure how much all three engines share tech wise, though.

All could be deriviatives of the Honda J-series V6 engine, which are still in production in the J35/J37 of 3.5-3.7 liter V6s.

[Christian Mogami]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Honda did have a short lived 4.0 class V6 that was intended for DP use, and probably derived from the same V6 that the LMP2 engine came from. Not sure how much all three engines share tech wise, though.

All could be deriviatives of the Honda J-series V6 engine, which are still in production in the J35/J37 of 3.5-3.7 liter V6s.

The Comptech Honda 3.9L V6 was a C-series from the NSXv1.

And I wonder about using a J-series at 3.5L because the J-series has 98mm bore centers so that means 89-90mm bore max and that would make a very long stroke engine(93mm).Also the J-series was never design to be a performance engine,just to be a people mover(van and sedan engine),so it has very small bearings(can't handle sustained high revs or boost) and SOHC heads.That's why the P2 engine is 2.8L instead of the ACO/FIA legal 3.2L to get the stroke shorter.

Honda has a new production 3.5L 90 degree DOHC V6 twin turbo in the works for the new NSX and it is pretty much a street legal race engine(very compact and light with no external pulleys or belt).

[Nick Woodbury]

I am not sure if this has been asked of already, but what has become of that Action Express/Delta ADR partnership that was set to display a new form of bodywork for the second of the team's two Corvette DPs? Judging from the Roar photos and recently released video, the body work is almost exactly the same as last years car.

Perhaps it wasn't slated to debut until Sebring or later?

Could someone fill me in on this?

[chernaudi]

Recent news was that AX/ADR wouldn't have the bodywork race ready until probably Sebring.

[Rodger Davies]

I think I read somewhere that it was still being planned but not expected for Daytona as it would be too late to have it homologated anyway.

[TheMightyM]

A TUSC bit of information from John Dagys’ article on Muscle Milk Pickett Racing on racing at Le Mans:

Despite not gaining a full-season entry, Pickett said he wouldn’t rule out running the PC car later in the TUDOR Championship season, with a potential for another program to come online as well.

[KA]

Despite not gaining a full-season entry, Pickett said he wouldn’t rule out running the PC car later in the TUDOR Championship season, with a potential for another program to come online as well

I'm sure we've speculated about this before, with Pickett's status as an official 'Nissan Partner Team' is anyone thinking of a GTD programme with that mysterious GTR that was seen testing at Silverstone a while back....?

Either that, or they're trying to figure out a way of fitting the ZEOD- RC into the Prototype class after Le Mans...

[TheMightyM]

Originally Posted by KA

I'm sure we've speculated about this before, with Pickett's status as an official 'Nissan Partner Team' is anyone thinking of a GTD programme with that mysterious GTR that was seen testing at Silverstone a while back....?

Yes. There is a (still) TBA season-long GTD on the IMSA entry list, which is believed to be the Nissan GT-R GT3. Also, someone asked John Dagys on Twitter why Muscle Milk was only the first alternate in PC; Dagys replied that they had conformed entries in other classes.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

Porsche told me last year there wasn't going to be any factory drivers in the GTD class and they were hoping the other manufactures would follow suit and keep the factory drivers in the GTLM class. Of course, some don't have GTLM cars (Audi) so I don't know how that was ever going to work.

By joining GTLM?