Expanded 21-Car Entry for Long Beach

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

An expanded grid of 21 cars are set for next weekend’s third and fourth rounds of GT America powered by AWS, with several SRO America stalwart drivers set to make cameo appearances on the streets of Long Beach.

Released on Friday, the entry list consists of 13 cars in the top SRO3 class for GT3 machinery, the return of the GT2 class with two cars, along with six GT4 entries for the pair of single driver 40-minute sprint races.

GT World Challenge America powered by AWS competitors Jason Bell, Gray Newell, Jason Daskalos, Blake McDonald and Jeff Burton have helped boost the SRO3 class with their participation.

Bell and Newell will be in Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos run by RacersEdge and Heart of Racing Team, respectively, while Daskalos will return to the series after stepping up to GTWC America in his CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

McDonald will pilot his DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R while Burton in the sister Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG.

James Sofronas, meanwhile, is set for his first GT America start of the season in his No. 14 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, while GMG will field a third entry, alongside Sonoma Race 2 winner Kyle Washington, for Patrick Mulcahy in a Type 991.2 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Other contenders in SRO3 include George Kurtz in his CrowdStrike by Riley Mercedes-AMG, which won the opening race at Sonoma, the Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Justin Rothberg, Elias Sabo’s Flying Lizard Motorsports’ BMW, Mirco Schultis’ Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R and the Chouest Povoldeo Racing Corvette of Ross Chouest.

CJ Moses is set to take his GMG Audi R8 LMS GT2 back on track, in a class that will also feature a MLT Motorsports-entered Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 for Adrian Kunzle.

GT4 features six entries, including a Random Vandals Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO for team owner Paul Sparta as a wildcard entry.

Ricco Shlaimoun is set to drive the No. 7 ACI Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport in place of team owner Curt Swearingin, with Sonoma class winners Anthony McIntosh and Max Hewitt in their Van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo and JTR Motorsports Engineering Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 entries, respectively.

The field is rounded out by Judson Holt in a Fast Track Racing BMW M4 GT4 and Robb Holland aboard his Rotek Racing Porsche,

Practice and qualifying is on tap for Fri. April 11, with Race 1 scheduled for a 5:20 p.m. PST start on Sat. April 12, with Race 2 at 11:20 a.m. on Sun. April 13. Both races will be streamed live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and on Twitch.