The long-awaited and expected news that Mercedes-AMG will run in next year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship became official on Wednesday, with at least two teams and three cars set to run next year.
Riley Motorsports, which had campaigned the Dodge Viper program through its GTS-R (American Le Mans Series GT and IMSA GT Le Mans) and GT3-R (IMSA GT Daytona) days, will run a two-car effort in GTD.
The longtime pairing of Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen are in the No. 33 AMG-Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, and the WeatherTech Racing-backed pairing of Cooper MacNeil and Gunnar Jeannette in the team’s No. 50 Mercedes. These two have tested at Daytona International Speedway this weekend.
“It’s really an honor to be aligned with AMG,” said AMG-Team Riley Motorsports Team Owner and Director Bill Riley. “The car looks so fast even standing still, and I can’t wait to start running it in anger. I was thinking the other day how many times a Mercedes-Benz has raced at Daytona and I can’t remember once. When I look at it that way, it’s pretty significant to be involved. There’s a lot of new teams in IMSA for 2017 but we are very anxious for the challenges.”
How do you like our new ride @IMSA 2017? Having fun with it at Daytona! pic.twitter.com/2iIGhDIPou
— Jeroen Bleekemolen (@jbleekemolen) November 9, 2016
WeatherTech Racing will campaign the No. 50 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the @IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD Class for the 2017 season! pic.twitter.com/Sekuk9MNA3
— WeatherTech Racing (@RaceWeatherTech) November 9, 2016
A third program, Kenny Habul’s SunEnergy1 Racing, has also been announced with a third car for IMSA. Additional customer programs would figure to run in the Pirelli World Challenge series.
Mercedes-AMG will be on-site at each race throughout the 2017 race calendar to provide comprehensive technical assistance for all Mercedes-AMG GT3 Customer Sports Teams, which run the naturally-aspirated, 6.3-liter V8 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in 2017.
The debut of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 race car for the US market is accompanied by further development of the AMG Customer Sports Program. The focal point of this program is a specifically established technology and logistics center in Mooresville, North Carolina, which ensures a fast and reliable supply of parts and service for all teams in racing in North America. For direct assistance on-site, Mercedes-AMG will send its own service and parts transporter to all IMSA and PWC races.
“Our aspiration for expanding the AMG Customer Sports Program in the US is to provide the same level of comprehensive support that we have provided to teams in Europe for several years. This requires a close collaboration with the teams in terms of know-how and race track expertise, which we are now ideally positioned for. We are very excited for a thrilling and hopefully successful season,” Jochen Bitzer, Director of AMG Customer Sports Program, said in a release.