Winter testing scheduled for Sebring

The American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón will be in “preview mode” next week as a significant group of teams participate in the annual Winter Test at Sebring International Raceway. The Feb. 7-8 test comes a little more than a month out from the season-opening 61st Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh from Florida.

There are plenty of noteworthy additions to take in. Muscle Milk Pickett Racing will continue testing its 2013-spec Honda Performance Development ARX-03c in advance its goal of a successful defense of the ALMS’ P1 championship.

In GT, three manufacturers and five teams will go through the paces. Team Falken Tire is back with a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, as is Paul Miller Racing. The latter, though, adds Michelin tires and Porsche factory driver Marco Holzer to its arsenal.

Risi Competizione returns to the ALMS with its familiar No. 62 Ferrari F458 GT, as does Extreme Speed Motorsports with its Tequila Patrón-liveried Ferraris. SRT Motorsports continues preparing for its first full season in ALMS with a pair of SRT Viper GTS-R entries.

Four Prototype Challenge cars will participate in the test – two from BAR 1 Motorsports (including one that features former Le Mans winner Stefan Johansson) and single entries from Performance Tech – with star rookie Tristan Nunez – and defending class champion CORE autosport.

In GT Challenge, JDX Racing and defending class champion Alex Job Racing are back with Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entries. A new face to the class – but certainly not the Series – is Flying Lizard Motorsports with its first-year entry into GTC.

In addition to the two-day ALMS test, IMSA’s three development championships – Cooper Tire Prototype Lites powered by Mazda, IMSA GT3 Challenge by Yokohama and Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin are on-track Tuesday and Wednesday. Cooper Tires USF2000 powered by Mazda will be present as well.

ALMS