Sunday’s four-hour Michelin IMSA SportsCar Encore features a plethora of accomplished competitors as revealed on the entry list announced today, with previous championship winners in all classes.
The LMP3 class, which will have 10 entries at the Encore battling for the overall victory, includes the reigning IMSA Prototype Challenge championship team, Forty7 Motorsports, fielding the No. 47 Norma M30.
The No. 47 entry’s driving trio includes IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship star Tristan Nunez, who drove the No. 77 Mazda DPi to a victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2019, along with 2019 IMSA Prototype Challenge (IPC) Bronze Cup co-champions Joel Janco and Jonatan Jorge. Nunez also won the IPC championship back in 2012.
The GT3 class will see the reunion of 2018 WeatherTech Championship GT Daytona (GTD) co-champions Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3. It will be the first race for Sellers and Snow together since the 2018 season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in which they wrapped up their championship season with a third-place result.
The GT4 class includes the 2019 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) championship-winning CarBahn with Peregrine Racing team fielding the No. 93 Audi R8 for co-drivers Sameer Gandhi, Mark Siegel and Tom Dyer.
A revised weekend schedule has slightly moved up the start of the four-hour race, which now begins at 12:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 10. The race will be streamed live on IMSA.tv with commentary provided by IMSA Radio.
The full entry list is available here.
Other notable entries are as follows:
- A month after closing out the 2019 WeatherTech Championship season with a stirring, last-lap victory in the GTD class at Motul Petit Le Mans, Turner Motorsport and driver Robby Foley will be back in action at the Encore. This time, Foley is sharing the No. 96 BMW M4 GT4 with co-driver Vin Barletta.
- ANSA Motorsports, which scored the overall victory in the inaugural Michelin IMSA SportsCar Encore in 2018, is returning in the LMP3 class with the No. 2 Ligier JS P3 to be shared by 2018 IMSA Prototype Challenge MPC class champion Jon Brownson, Tim George and Neil Alberico, who finished third in the 2019 IPC LMP3 season standings and won the season-opening race at Daytona.
- The same lineup that finished second overall in last year’s Encore is returning intact for 2019. James McGuire, Matt Bell and Kay van Berlo will once again share the No. 26 K2R Motorsports Ligier JS P3.
- No. 54 Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R owner/driver Tim Pappas is returning to competition for the first time since he was injured in a crash at February’s Bathurst 1000 in Australia. Pappas will co-drive with past Michelin Pilot Challenge champion, Spencer Pumpelly, and another veteran of Michelin Pilot Challenge competition, Marc Miller.
- Speaking of successful Michelin Pilot Challenge racers, the GT4 class also includes the No. 35 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Jim Cox and Dylan Murry. Cox and Murry teamed with WeatherTech Championship veteran Jeroen Bleekemolen to win a thrilling, four-hour race at Watkins Glen International this past June.
- The No. 35 is one of two entries from the Riley team competing at the Encore. The other is the No. 74 Mercedes-AMG GT3, which will be shared by Gar Robinson and Lawson Aschenbach. Robinson and Aschenbach are joining the Riley team for the full 2020 WeatherTech Championship season after competing in the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup rounds in 2019 with Lone Star Racing.
- There are a few more champions in this year’s Encore field. One is Cameron Cassels, who won the 2019 Jim Trueman Award and the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup in the LMP2 class and will be co-driving the No. 75 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P3 with Max Hanratty in the LMP3 class on Sunday. Another is 2018 Lamborghini Super Trofeo AM World Champion Ryan Hardwick, who is joining the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R driver lineup alongside Jan Heylen and Max Root. Hardwick was sidelined for the second half of the WeatherTech Championship season with a knee injury in July suffered in an on-track incident at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.