Three-time Daytona International Speedway winners Rum Bum Racing return with their proven car for Friday’s BMW Performance 200, taking on a number of new challengers in the opening round of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.
Brothers Matt and Hugh Plumb will co-drive last year’s race-winning No. 13 Rum Bum Studios/Billfish Porsche 911, taking on challengers from Ford and Aston Martin, along with Porsche’s newest contender in the class, the Cayman GT4 Clubsport.
“We’ve got four years of development under the hood, and we hope to capitalize on that,” said Plumb, who won at Daytona in 2010, 2011 and 2015. “We feel we have our car the best it’s ever been. The Cayman GT4 is fast right out of the box, but have yet to be tested on the reliability front – although reliability is a Porsche trademark – and Ford showed its strength with the new Shelby last year and is going to come back strong. That’s going to make winning again at Daytona even more difficult.”
Danny Burkett led the class during the recent Roar Before the Rolex 24, driving the No. 33 CJ Wilson Racing One Capital Management Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport he shares with Marc Miller. Muehlner Motorsports America also will be making its Continental Tire Challenge debut with the No. 21 Clubsport driven by Bob Doyle and an as-yet-unnamed co-driver.
Ford is represented by a pair of Shelby GT350R-Cs – making their Daytona debut – in addition to a pair of Ford Mustang Boss 302Rs.
Multimatic Motorsport returns with the No. 15 Ford Performance Shelby with 2015 Daytona TOTAL Pole Award winner Scott Maxwell and Billy Johnson. They will be joined by the first Shelby customer team, with fellow Toronto-based Compass360 Racing fielding the No. 76 AERO Advanced Paint Technology/Children’s Tumor Foundation/Spyder Active Sports GT350R-C for drivers Pierre Kleinubing and Paul Holton.
Racers Edge Motorsports returns with a pair of the proven Ford Mustang Boss 302Rs. Chris Beaufait joins Paddy McClughan in the No. 16 Sunoco Mustang, while Daytona Beach drivers Michael Lira and Cameron Maugeri share the No. 57 Lira Motorsports/Ford Performance Mustang.
Automatic Motorsports will field the No. 99 Invisible Glass Aston Martin Vantage for Rob Ecklin Jr. and 2015 Rolex 24 At Daytona GT Daytona (GTD) class winner Al Carter.
Three 2015 Champions Have New Rides In 29-Car Street Tuner Class
Defending Street Tuner (ST) champions Stevan McAleer and Chad McCumbee return with a new team, joining a three-car Freedom Autosport entry. McAleer and McCumbee scored five top-five finishes in taking the 2015 crown in a CJ Wilson Racing Mazda. With their former team turning its attention to GS this season, the pair stayed with Mazda and will co-drive the No. 25 SemperFiFund.org Mazda MX-5.
The No. 26 SemperFiFund.org Mazda of Andrew Carbonell and Liam Dwyer – which finished second in the 2015 team points – returns with its lineup intact, while Britt Casey Jr. and Danny Bender will share the team’s No. 27 Mazda MX-5. Other Mazda teams include Alara Racing with Christian Szymczak and 2015 Daytona pole winner Justin Piscitell, and A.J. Riley and Jameson Riley in the No. 66 Riley Racing Mazda MX-5.
RS1 is the defending Daytona ST winner, with Spencer Pumpelly returning to the No. 17 Legistics/Cobra Golf/Sabelt Porsche Cayman. He has a new co-driver for 2016, Nick Galante.
“Last year, our team entered the professional ranks for the first time, and came away with a victory – and nearly a top-two – at Daytona,” said Pumpelly, who went on to win four races in 2015. “We learned a lot of lessons last season, and I imagine we’ll be ever stronger at every race this year. I’m looking to co-driving with Nick Galante, who has a lot of GS experience in our series.”
RS1 also fields the No. 18 Super Seats/Sonic Tools/Sabelt Cayman for Remo Ruscitti and Aaron Song, and the No. 19 Zero Lag Communications/Intervision Cayman for Greg Strelzoff and Connor Bloum.
In addition to driving an Audi for Stevenson Motorsports in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class, 2015 GS champion Robin Liddell will join Rebel Rock Racing in the ST class, sharing the No. 7 Borla Porsche Cayman with 2015 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama champion and past IMSA Scholarship winner Elliott Skeer. Team owner Jim Jonsin joins Michael Mathe in the team’s No. 8 Cayman.
Other Porsche Cayman teams in ST include Next Level European, with the No. 38 Cayman for Dan Rogers and Seth Thomas, plus the No. 83 Red Line Oil entry for Greg Liefooghe and Ari Balogh; Goldcrest Motorsports, partnering with Matthew Dicken and Corey Lewis in the No. 36 Strategic Wealth Racing entry while debuting the No. 22 Chris Wright Racing entry co-driven by Wright and Andy Lee; and Bodymotion Racing, with Jason Rabe and Devin Jones in the No. 31 Delaware Investments/Veristor Porsche.
Former Daytona winner Murillo Racing has the No. 56 Mosing Motor Cars Cayman for Eric Foss and Jeff Mosing, plus the No. 65 Mosing Motor Cars BMW 328i driven by Tim Probert and Brent Mosing. Also in the BMW camp is BimmerWorld Racing, with the No. 81 BMW 328i for Jerry Kaufman and Kyle Tilley, plus the No. 84 OPTIMA Batteries entry with James Clay and Tyler Cooke.
The top-of-the-line MINI John Cooper Works team makes its Daytona debut with a three-car entry. Mark Pombo and Ethan Low are in the No. 37 MINI USA MINI JCW, with Dr. Ramin Abdulvahabi and James Vance in the No. 52 car and Mat Pombo and Derek Jones in the No. 73.
Also making its Daytona debut is the Audi S3, with Compass360 Racing entering a pair of AERO Advanced Paint/Children’s Tumor Foundation/Spyder Active entries for drivers Jim McGuire, Nico Rondet, Roy Block and Kyle Gimple. Schmidt Motorsports joins the series with Max Schmidt in the No. 5 Mercedes-Benz C-300, the second time a Mercedes will race at Daytona. Honda will be represented by three teams.
Honda of America Manufacturing has a pair of Honda Civic Sis for Kevin Boehm, Steve Eich, Chad Gilsinger and Michael Valiante; Sarah Cattaneo and Owen Trinkler drive the CRG-I Do Borrow/A&C Properties entry; and Dominican Republic brothers Juan Carlos and Jorge Leroux return in the Roux Helmets Civic.
Continental Tire Challenge qualifying will be held on Thursday at 2:10 p.m.ET, with the two-hour, 30-minute race taking the green flag on Friday at 1:45 p.m. The race will be streamed live on IMSA.tv.
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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