IMSA Race CTSCC 2017

[Bcarr6]

Please delete if this is a repeat but I can't find one.

So, GS looks like it might be on the mend for '17.

The new Mustang will surely run, I imagine we will see a herd of Caymans, and three Mclarens announced in the last few days!

Started putting a tracker together:

CTSCC 2017

GS Class

C360 Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - Matt Plumb / Paul Holton

C360 Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - Nico Rondet / Matthew Keegan

Volt Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - Alan Brynjolfssen / Chris Hall

Volt Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - TBA / TBA (maybe, they bought two cars)

Automatic Racing - Aston Martin Vantage GT4 - TBA / TBA

Automatic Racing - Aston Martin Vantage GT4 - TBA / TBA

Muelner Motorsports - Porsche Cayman Clubsports GT4 - TBA / TBA

Muelner Motorsports - Porsche Cayman Clubsports GT4 - TBA / TBA



ST Class

C360 Racing - Audi S3 - Roy Block / Pierre Kleinubing

C360 Racing - Audi S3 - TBA / TBA

Bimmerworld - BMW 328i - James Clay / Tyler Cooke

Bimmerworld - BMW 328i - Ari Balogh / Greg Leifooghe

[Bcarr6]

TRG back with an Aston Martin vantage GT4 for Craig Lyons and Kris Wilson

Getting interesting!


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[Matt]

CTSCC field will be good this year.

[wdave0]

Originally Posted by Matt

CTSCC field will be good this year.

Hope so, for a while it was looking like becoming a flock of Caymen in both classes.

[Nick Woodbury]

We have our first Confirmed ST Caymans for the 2017 season (at least, according to the list above).

http://sportscar365.com/imsa/ctscc/b...-in-st-return/

[Bcarr6]

The article also confirms the return of Bodymotions GT4 Cayman.

Updated entry list, looking fun so far!!

CTSCC 2017

GS Class

C360 Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - Matt Plumb / Paul Holton

C360 Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - Nico Rondet / Matthew Keegan

Volt Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - Alan Brynjolfssen / Chris Hall

Volt Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - TBA / TBA

Automatic Racing - Aston Martin Vantage GT4 - TBA / TBA

Automatic Racing - Aston Martin Vantage GT4 - TBA / TBA

Muelner Motorsports - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - TBA / TBA

Muelner Motorsports - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - TBA / TBA

TRG - Aston Martin Vantage - Craig Lyons / Kris Wilson

Bodymotion Racing - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Trent Hindman / Cameron Cassels


ST Class

C360 Racing - Audi S3 - Roy Block / Pierre Kleinubing

C360 Racing - Audi S3 - TBA / TBA

Bimmerworld - BMW 328i - James Clay / Tyler Cooke

Bimmerworld - BMW 328i - Ari Balogh / Greg Leifooghe

Bodymotion Racing - Porsche Cayman ST - Drake Kemper / Devin Jones





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[Bcarr6]

Add TeamTGM to that, back with their Cayman GT4.

Guy Cosmo, Ted Giovanis with Hugh Plumb for the new enduros


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[Bcarr6]

Entry list is out for the Roar, not many ST cars but gives us a brilliant view of the GS Class. 19 cars!!!

8 Caymans, 6 Mclarens, 4 Astons, and a Mustang... epic

Here's my tracker so far (not the roar entry list):

CTSCC 2017

GS Class

C360 Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - Matt Plumb / Paul Holton

C360 Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - Nico Rondet / Matthew Keegan

Volt Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - Alan Brynjolfssen / Chris Hall

Volt Racing - McLaren 570s GT4 - TBA / TBA

Automatic Racing - Aston Martin Vantage GT4 - Charles Espenlaub / TBA

Automatic Racing - Aston Martin Vantage GT4 - Ramin Abdolvahabi / Max Bladon

Muelner Motorsports - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Cameron Lawrence / TBA

Muelner Motorsports - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - TBA / TBA

TRG - Aston Martin Vantage GT4 - Craig Lyons / Kris Wilson

TRG - Aston Martin Vantage GT4 - Gregory Milzcik / Brandon Davis

Bodymotion Racing - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Trent Hindman / Cameron Cassels

TeamTGM - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Guy Cosmo / Ted Giovanis / (Hugh Plumb - Enduros)

TeamTGM - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - TBA / TBA

GMG Racing - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Clark Toppe / TBA

Multimatic Motorsports - Ford Mustang GT4 - Jade Buford / TBA

RS1 - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Dylan Murcott / Dillon Machavern

BGB Motorsports - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - James Cox / John Tecce

MIA/Plaff McLaren - McLaren 570s GT4 - TBA

MIA/Plaff McLaren - McLaren 570s GT4 - TBA



ST Class

C360 Racing - Audi S3 - Roy Block / Pierre Kleinubing

C360 Racing - Audi S3 - TBA / TBA

Bimmerworld - BMW 328i - James Clay / Tyler Cooke

Bimmerworld - BMW 328i - Ari Balogh / Greg Leifooghe

Bodymotion Racing - Porsche Cayman ST - Drake Kemper / Devin Jones



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[Bcarr6]

CTSCC is the gift that keeps on giving today, Daytona is going to be so good, 21 GS cars so far!


CJ Wilson Racing - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Damien Faulkner / Russell Ward

CJ Wilson Racing - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Marc Miller / Till Bechtolsheimer


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[Nick Woodbury]

I understand that the Roar has not even come around yet, but that 9 car entry so far in ST for the Roar has me a little concerned. Hopefully it picks up dramatically come the end of January.

http://www.imsa.com/sites/default/fi...tentrylist.pdf

[broadrun96]

Sadly as I've read in a few articles ST cars might become harder and harder to create and run with all the work and especially electronic swapping to be done before they race. Almost makes buying a turn-key chassis a class higher the only cost-effective option. Especially if there's only a year before turn-key TCR cars start showing up. Guessing at least C360 will switch to an Audi A3 car for 2018. Would Mini build a TCR, and could we see Mazda build up a Mazda3?

Although it does seem like some teams are still at it, are JDC-Miller building a 228 themselves? Bimmerworld used to get their cars from the factory with race tweaks started if I remember correctly from an article a few years back, still get those cars or a full in house build? Haven't followed them as much lately, James used to have the team hauler parked in my apartment complex in college so they were my local team.

[Bcarr6]

And another duo of Caymans to GS, GMG have confirmed two cars for Daytona, plans beyond that are TBC

GMG Racing - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Elias Sabo / Matt Halliday / James Sofronas

GMG Racing - Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - Alec Udell / Andy Lee / Carte Yeung


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[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Sadly as I've read in a few articles ST cars might become harder and harder to create and run with all the work and especially electronic swapping to be done before they race. Almost makes buying a turn-key chassis a class higher the only cost-effective option. Especially if there's only a year before turn-key TCR cars start showing up. Guessing at least C360 will switch to an Audi A3 car for 2018. Would Mini build a TCR, and could we see Mazda build up a Mazda3?

Although it does seem like some teams are still at it, are JDC-Miller building a 228 themselves? Bimmerworld used to get their cars from the factory with race tweaks started if I remember correctly from an article a few years back, still get those cars or a full in house build? Haven't followed them as much lately, James used to have the team hauler parked in my apartment complex in college so they were my local team.

Repeat after me: TCR can't be a replacement for ST... They are as fast or faster than the GT4s bound to take over GS.

The only option I see for ST (other than muddling on with what's available right now) is to talk a sufficient number of factories or high level prep-shops into supplying turnkey solutions built to a bespoke rule set. (Ideally one that allows easy cross-over to SCCA and/or NASA competition - I really don't see much of a point in aligning with Europe for ST since the cars sold there in the hot hatch/small sportscar segment are largely not available for the US market.)

[Lanky Turtle]

In the past not many ST cars have run the Roar test. I don't think it's really a good indicator of the actual race entries.

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Repeat after me: TCR can't be a replacement for ST... They are as fast or faster than the GT4s bound to take over GS.

The only option I see for ST (other than muddling on with what's available right now) is to talk a sufficient number of factories or high level prep-shops into supplying turnkey solutions built to a bespoke rule set. (Ideally one that allows easy cross-over to SCCA and/or NASA competition - I really don't see much of a point in aligning with Europe for ST since the cars sold there in the hot hatch/small sportscar segment are largely not available for the US market.)

TCR is as fast as GT4? The fastest TCR car at the Sepang 12 Hours was still 2 seconds off the slowest GT4 car in qualifying. I'll have to look around more, but I think there's still a pretty decent gap there.

[Speed-King]

TCRs do 2:33s at Spa... fastest I found for GT4 at Spa - across the last three years - was 2:36... so unless GT4 got rained out each time, the TCRs are at the very least in the same ball park.

And that still leaves the problem with very few current TCR-cars fitting the US market. Some (Seat, Opel, and I think the Alfa) aren't available at all and others (Civic) only in a different bodystyle than what's available in the US. So any US-TCR class would very much have to start from scratch, getting US-manufacturers and tuners on board to build bespoke cars. And if you go through all that, you might just as well do it with a ruleset that actually fits your requirements.

[jjvincent]

Having done a few TCR races, I'll say this, everyone in ST will have a wake up call when the class goes all TCR in 2018. If you think ST is expensive, just wait for TCR. That $200 fender that got banged up will cost $1000. When you take an offroad excursion and pretty much do minimal damage, you'll be replacing a $2K splitter and $1.5K front nose. That $400 you spend each race sticking on new rotors for your FWD car (every third race for a RWD car) that cost $200 each, will now be $500. All of those suspension parts you could buy at any dealer when you needed them, will now be custom race parts only available through the motorsports department. When you put a "motorsport" sticker on anything, it goes up a minimum of 3X in cost.

Initial cost is reasonable, it's the operating cost that will get you.

The selection of cars will work for the US:

Opel - Buick Verano. GM could rebadge it and let one factory team run it. GM pretty much got out of customer support when it comes to sportscar racing in the US.
Audi - Already going to race in PWC and customer support
VW - An Audi but I suspect VW has more things to worry about than providing customer support of a racing program.
Seat - Pretty much a VW/Audi so I don;t see it running here.
Subaru - I don't see that happening at all in the US.
Alfa - Unless they sell it here. Plus, FCA's US sales are in the dumper, so they got bigger problems.
Honda - They can get away with just making it look sort of US spec. Plus they have a customer support base in the US.
Mazda - I guess we'll have to see where that goes.
Ford - Rumored to be building a Focus.
BMW - IMSA and PWC wont turn them away with all of the M235iR's BMW is selling. They can make it work even though it's not a TCR car. I think that would be the car of choice due to it's relatively cheap cost of operation and up front cost. It's $89K plus the engine and transmission are overkill. It has the street automatic 8 speed with a torque converter. So far they are going really long between rebuilds.
Porsche - They will all buy BMW's because not many people in the US like running FWD racecars.

[Speed-King]

Having done a few TCR races

Who did you work with in TCR if you don't mind me asking, JJ?

[nasportscar]

VW, Subaru, Audi could all run PWC this season. At least one of those cars will I'm guessing. Honda's 2018 car will be global, so I recon it'll show up. Kia will have a car and a relationship w/ the Series and I just betcha Mazda will have a TCR spec car in the very near future. Alfa's Giulia could run in PWC, but who knows if we'll ever see one.

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by nasportscar

VW, Subaru, Audi could all run PWC this season. At least one of those cars will I'm guessing. Honda's 2018 car will be global, so I recon it'll show up. Kia will have a car and a relationship w/ the Series and I just betcha Mazda will have a TCR spec car in the very near future. Alfa's Giulia could run in PWC, but who knows if we'll ever see one.

Gotta little off topic there, my bad. And scratch the Alfa, got the models mixed up

[Bcarr6]

The Ford Focus is also a worldwide model correct?

Granted, it's the laughing stock of TCR currently but that's because it's very very privateer. Bit of development and it'd be able to run well.

I think TCR can work in CTSCC, there is certainly enough TCR models of cars sold in the US market.

Ford Focus, Audi RS3, VW Golf, Honda, Kia...

TCR is also very new, a lot of the current spec cars are privateer built.

The Audi is very much factory built and as TCR progresses that'll become the trend, so I wouldn't be surprised to see GM, Ford, Mazda, Toyota and Honda have more input into the class


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[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

TCR is also very new, a lot of the current spec cars are privateer built.

The Audi is very much factory built and as TCR progresses that'll become the trend, so I wouldn't be surprised to see GM, Ford, Mazda, Toyota and Honda have more input into the class


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Just like when GT3 started

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

I think TCR can work in CTSCC, there is certainly enough TCR models of cars sold in the US market.

Ford Focus, Audi RS3, VW Golf, Honda, Kia...

The Kia is a Europe-only model, they don't sell the Ceed in the US and as you said, the Focus is a bit of a joke. So that leaves the Audi, the VW and a yet-to-be-developed-2017-Civic.

But be that as it may, it doesn't really address the two other problems TCR would have as an ST replacement, that is cost (as outlined by JJ above) and speed. I don't say they shouldn't bring in TCR, but if it costs as much as a GS-car and is as fast as a GS-car, maybe it should be run in a class with the GS-cars, rather than in a supposedly "secondary" class.

[Coach Ep]

Alfas are available in the US now I believe, recently I've seen a local dealership and they sponsor a college halftime report show (basketball if I'm correct).

Their 4C coupe certainly looks like a nice GT4 prospect.

[Speed-King]

Meanwhile at Daytona:



Looks like the Astons are getting a full-size rear wing.