SRO America Entry Lists For NOLA Motorsports Park Round Published

Entry lists for SRO Motorsports Group America’s return to NOLA Motorsports Park have been published ahead of this weekend’s races.

Picked as a short-notice substitute venue last season, the circuit based near New Orleans in the town of Avondale, Louisiana welcomed over 7,000 spectators for last year’s festival of racing. It was the first professional motor racing event held at the venue in nearly seven years.

Four out of five SRO America series will take the trip to NOLA, including Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS.

SRO America’s flagship series has 17 entries lined up for the New Orleans round. Missing from the Sonoma Raceway meeting is GMG Racing’s #14 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

There is only one driver change amongst the teams that are on the GT World Challenge America entry list: Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse-Clot will make his first start in the series, taking over from Ross Gunn in the #007 The Racers Group Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 alongside Derek DeBoer.

Pro class championship leaders Ashton Harrison and Mario Farnbacher won Pro-Am in Race 2 at NOLA last season, and Racers Edge Motorsports will aim to return to winning form after their #93 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 crashed out in qualifying for the IMSA Grand Prix of Long Beach and was unable to start the race. Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer took an overall sweep in GT4 America here last year – their #28 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) dominated Race 1 at Sonoma last month and is poised for another strong run.

Meanwhile, Sonoma Race 2 overall winners George Kurtz and Colin Braun are also among the favourites in their #04 CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG GT3. Kurtz and Braun won the Pro-Am class in Race 1 at NOLA, and they currently lead the Pro-Am championship standings over Charlie Luck and Jan Heylen in the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 992.

The 17-car field features five cars in Pro, 11 cars in Pro-Am, and the sole Am car of Anthony Bartone and Andy Pilgrim in the #43 RealTime Racing Mercedes.

FGTWCA PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST >>

Regarding Balance of Performance, the Mercedes-AMG GT3s have received a significant increase in minimum weight of 15 kilogrammes, and the BMW M4 GT3s have received an increase in horsepower through additional boost pressure.

The 41-car GT4 America entry list is headlined by some new faces on the grid, and some local heroes representing the New Orleans area.

NOLASPORT, whose racing shop is on the premises at the circuit, have their three-car outfit ready to go – led by the Pro-Am class #47 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Matt Travis and Jason Hart. David Peterman and Lee Carpentier in the #52, and Juan Pablo Martinez and Nelson Calle in the #83, represent NOLASPORT in the Am class.

Louisiana basketball standout, turned businessman, turned GT4 America race winner Ross Chouest is here alongside Canadian co-driver Aaron Povoledo in their #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4. Chouest and Povoledo lead the Pro-Am championship by six points over NOLASPORT’s Hart and Travis.

Reigning IMSA GTD Champion, Roman de Angelis, will partner Gray Newell in the Heart of Racing Team #24 Aston Martin. This comes after Heart of Racing Team took over the FIA World Endurance Championship entry vacated by the retiring Paul Dalla Lana. Ian James will assume the role of designated Bronze driver in WEC this weekend at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

Harry Gottsacker steps into STR38 Motorsports’ #88 BMW M4 GT4, alongside Chandler Hull, who will be doing “double-duty” in both GT4 America and GT World Challenge. And Will Owen, a two-time European Le Mans Series LMP2 championship runner-up with United Autosports, has been tapped to drive with Rob Ferriol in the #95 OGH/Valkyrie Velocity Porsche.

NOLA will mark the first appearance of the season for Krügspeed’s #72 Toyota GR Supra GT4 – Anthony Geraci and Jaden Lander reprise their roles in the Am class line-up that won their class at Road America last August.

It’ll also mark the SRO America debut for Extreme Velocity Motorsports, entering the #99 Porsche in the Am category for Matt Joffe and Grant Maiman. Joffe is also set to race in GT America in the same car.

In the Silver class, the #34 Conquest Racing/JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT4 (Jesse Webb/Michai Stephens) leads the championship after two class wins in two races at Sonoma. The #20 Carrus Callas Raceteam Toyota (Nicholas Shanny/Terry Borcheller) leads the Am championship after their stunning overall victory in Sonoma Race 2.

Also of note is a line-up that remains unchanged: Archangel Motorsports have Todd Coleman in its #69 Aston Martin as expected. Billy Johnson Jnr will continue as his co-driver, even after the 36-year-old driver was charged with misdemeanour-level ‘criminal obstruction of breathing’ and harassment stemming from a domestic dispute on 8 February. Johnson was arraigned in Onondaga, New York on 6 April and has pled not guilty to both charges.

Johnson’s lawyer, David Hammond, issued a statement to the Syracuse-area newspaper The Post-Standard which reads: “My client adamantly denies these allegations. We look forward to the truth coming out in the very near future.”

GT4A PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST >>

BoP changes include significant weight decreases for the Aston Martin Vantage GT4s and Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVOs, significant weight increases for the Mercedes-AMG GT4s, minor weight decreases for the Nissan Z GT4s and the sole McLaren Artura GT4, and a minor weight increase for the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4s.

GT America powered by AWS will make its first trip to NOLA this weekend – it wasn’t part of last year’s inaugural meeting.

Among the 22-car provisional entry list (which is usually subject to some changes before the start of the weekend), Johnny O’Connell will make his first start of the year aboard SKI Autosport’s #56 Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.

GTAM PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST >>

The weekend begins with an official test day on Thursday, and all series will run their usual formats – Practices on Friday, Qualifying on Saturday morning, and races on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Images © SRO Motorsports America