The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge is a racing series featuring grand touring and touring cars, and will be the support series for the upcoming Tudor United SportsCar Championship. In regards to the previous season, the only change will be the series name will change from "Continental Challenge" to "IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge."
Other than that, there will be no changes to rules or races. Races are two and a half hours in length, and the rules are very similar to the rules for TUSCC. Driver changes are required, pit stop rules are very similar, and there are two classes, Grand Sport and Street Tuner. A major distinguishing feature of the Continental Tire Challenge is the use of a "Showroom Stock" format, meaning that the cars featured have very little modification from their factory form. Here is a breakdown of the classes:
Grand Sport (GS)
The Grand Sport class features sports cars with larger displacement 6-cylinder and 8-cylinder engines and smaller, turbocharged and supercharged 4-cylinder engines. These engines produce between 350 and 405 HP, and are capable of speeds above 160 mph. Last year, this class featured the Porsche 911, Chevy Camaro GS.R, BMW M3, Nissan 370Z, Ford Mustang Boss 302R GT, and the Aston Martin Vantage. Currently, the following teams are signed up for the 2014 season:
Compass360 Racing – Subaru WRX STi
Fall-Line Motorsports – BMW M3
Racer's Edge Motorsports – Ford Mustang Boss 302R
Skullcandy Team Nissan – Nissan 370Z
Street Tuner (ST)
The Street Tuner class is limited to cars with four-cylinder, six- cylinder and rotary engines that produce between 170 and 240 HP and are capable of speeds up to 135 MPH. This class features many cars often seen on the road with the Mazda Miata, BMW 328i, BMW 128i, Honda Civic Si, VW GTI, MazdaSpeed3, Porsche Boxster, and Nissan Altima all represented last year. These are the teams that have signed up for 2014 so far: (Please note, this is not a comprehensive list. More entries are expected before the first official event of 2014 in early January)
BimmerWorld Racing – BMW 328i (F30), BMW 328i (E90) – 2 entries for each chassis
Compass360 Racing – Honda Civic Si
Irish Mike's Racing – Hyundai Genesis Coupe
Mitchum Motorsports – BMW 128i
Skullcandy Team Nissan – Altima Coupe
Please note: this is not a comprehensive list of teams. More entries are expected before the Roar before the Rolex 24 Test Session January 3-5.
Calendar
Jan 24 Daytona International Speedway
Mar 14 Sebring International Raceway
May 3 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
May 24 Lime Rock Park
Jun 7 Kansas Speedway
Jun 28 Watkins Glen International
Jul 12 Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
Jul 25 Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Aug 9 Road America
Aug 23 Virginia International Raceway
Sep 20 Circuit of The Americas
Oct 3 Road Atlanta
Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge 2014 Preview