‘Made In Detroit’ Dodge Viper Leads GT Daytona Field For Chevrolet Sports Car Classic

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will have a “hometown hero” in the GT Daytona (GTD) class in Saturday’s Chevrolet Sports Car Classic presented by the Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers, when a Dodge Viper GT3-R takes to the streets of the Motor City only a few miles from the factory where it was originally assembled.

Ben Keating – the world’s No. 1 Viper dealer – joins Jeroen Bleekemolen in the No. 33 Riley Motorsports ViperExchange.com/Gas Monkey Garage Dodge Viper GT3-R for the 100-minute race (FS1, live, Saturday, June 4 at 12:30 p.m. ET) at the 2.35-mile Raceway at Belle Isle Park.

“The people that are building those cars are all based right there at Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit, which is pretty exciting,” said Keating, who will join Bleekemolen and Prototype driver Marc Goossens immediately following the race to head to France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans test. “Along with that, we have all of the Dodge faithful, who all feel a connection to sports car racing. We are literally out there racing the production engine, the production frame, a real production-based sports car. It would be impossible to get much more Detroit than the Dodge Viper.”

The Dodge Viper is joined by five other manufacturers on the GTD entry list, with all of the competing models making their debut in the Motor City.

Alex Job Racing looks to make it two in a row in both Detroit and the WeatherTech Championship with the No. 23 Team Seattle/Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R shared by Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas. The team also fields the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche for Cooper MacNeil and Leh Keen, who finished fourth at Detroit in 2015. Also entering Porsches are Park Place Motorsports with the No. 73 for Patrick Lindsey and Joerg Bergmeister, and Black Swan Racing with the No. 540 for Timothy Pappas and Nicky Catsburg.

Sebring winners Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen, drivers of the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3, take a six-point lead in the GTD standings over Farnbacher and Riberas (95-89) into the event. Nielsen finished second in the 2015 race at Belle Isle, driving an Aston Martin.

New to GTD for 2016 is Lamborghini, which makes its Belle Isle racing debut with four Huracán GT3s fielded by Paul Miller Racing (Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow in the No. 48 Castrol/Universal Industrial Sales Huracán GT3); Change Racing (two cars, including the No. 16 Pertamina/Monster Energy entry for Corey Lewis and Spencer Pumpelly and drivers to be announced in the No. 11); and Dream Racing, with the No. 27 for Lawrence DeGeorge and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli.

Stevenson Motorsports races a pair of Audi R8 LMS GT3s, the No. 6 for Robin Liddell and Andrew Davis, and the No. 9 for Lawson Aschenbach and Matt Bell. Magnus Racing will have the No. 44 Audi Tire Center/Auric Solar Audi for John Potter and Andy Lally.

Completing the GTD entry are a pair of new BMW M6 GT3s. Turner Motorsport will have the No. 96 aFe Power/Spectra Resources/United Steel/Valspar Paint BMW for Bret Curtis and Jens Klingmann, while Michael Marsal and Markus Palttala co-drive the No. 97 Alvarez & Marsal/IHG Rewards Club BMW.

Practice sessions for the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic will be held at 8:05 a.m. ET and 12:55 p.m. ET on Friday, June 3, followed by qualifying at 5:05 p.m. ET.

Contact:

nsiebens@imsa.com

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