Covering sports car racing is a challenge because of the various regulations, classes, requirements for drivers and other extenuating circumstances. But, because of the variety offered, particularly compared to single-spec stock car and open-wheel series, I dig my sports car fix.
However, sometimes, you can easily get confused.
I don’t think it was the intent of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship to make things even more confusing than they already are with the intricacies of putting together series and ideologies (GRAND-AM Rolex Series and American Le Mans Series) about as far apart as the divide in Washington.
But today’s press release with schedule updates and announcing tentative car capacities has made its best effort to make things more convoluted.
Kansas Speedway has been added as a 13th race weekend for the TUDOR Championship, which is something of a surprise. It will hold a PC class race on June 7. Earlier Friday, the track itself released details of Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, IMSA Cooper Tire Prototype Lites and IMSA Porsche GT3 Challenge races there to be held that day, but said nothing of a TUDOR Championship race.
The PC class will, if I’m reading the press release correctly, run “doubleheader sprint races” at both Kansas June 7 and Virginia International Raceway August 24, “alongside” Prototype Lites. That would be unprecedented if the PC class ORECA FLM09 chassis race alongside the Panoz DP02s, which run in Prototype Lites.
Where PC gets shafted is that it loses the Detroit and Mosport rounds it was already promised, and announced with the rest of the 2014 schedule at the Circuit of the Americas weekend in Austin in September.
IMSA series officials have said repeatedly throughout this process that there was “one chance to get the schedule right,” and so after what was a very good, by most accounts, full schedule release at COTA, we now have a Friday afternoon where the schedule’s been changed. Go figure.
The above copy doesn’t even get into the tentative car count capacity, projected for each race. IMSA officials have outlined the below numbers as tentative caps in the four classes, and rather than repeat them in words, I’ll just list them below.
| Date | Location |
Class |
Car Cap |
Class |
Car Cap |
| Jan. 25-26 | Daytona |
P PC |
19 10 |
GTLM GTD |
12 19 |
| Mar. 15 | Sebring |
P PC |
20 10 |
GTLM GTD |
14 19 |
| Apr. 12 | Long Beach |
P |
20 |
GTLM |
16 |
| May 4 | Monterey |
P |
20 |
GTLM |
12 |
| May 4 | Monterey |
PC |
10 |
GTD |
19 |
| May 31 | Detroit |
P |
20 |
GTD |
21 |
| Jun. 1 | LM24 |
Test Day |
|||
| Jun. 7 | Kansas |
PC |
10 |
||
| Jun. 14-15 | LM24 |
LM24 |
|||
| Jun. 29 | Watkins Glen |
P PC |
19 10 |
GTLM GTD |
12 19 |
| Jul. 13 | Mosport |
P |
19 |
GTLM GTD |
12 19 |
| Jul. 25 | Indianapolis |
P PC |
20 10 |
GTLM GTD |
14 19 |
| Aug. 10 | Rd. America |
P PC |
19 10 |
GTLM GTD |
12 19 |
| Aug. 24 | VIR |
PC |
10 |
||
| Aug. 24 | VIR |
GTLM |
19 |
GTD |
19 |
| Sept. 20 | COTA |
P PC |
19 10 |
GTLM GTD |
12 19 |
| Oct. 4 | Petit |
P PC |
19 10 |
GTLM GTD |
12 19 |
Not to be outdone, the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge schedule has also been announced. It will follow the TUDOR Championship to most events, with the standalones at Lime Rock Park May 24 (the Saturday before the Indianapolis 500) and also, with the PC race at Kansas June 7.
Complicating matters further is that next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans will directly conflict with two parts of the TUDOR Championship calendar. The test day is June 1 and scrutineering, technical inspection, begins June 7.
So, that’s where we stand at the close of business this Friday afternoon.
2014 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Schedule Date Venue Jan 24 Daytona International Speedway Mar 14 Sebring International Raceway May 3 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca May 24 Lime Rock Park Jun 7 Kansas Speedway Jun 28 Watkins Glen International Jul 12 Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Jul 25 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Aug 9 Road America Aug 23 Virginia International Raceway Sep 20 Circuit of The Americas Oct 3 Road Atlanta