Starworks working on 2nd car for 2017

The #8 Starworks entry at Daytona last January

Starworks Motorsport could expand into a two-car Prototype operation beginning with the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season at Long Beach, with Peter Baron working on fielding a second Riley Mk. 30 Gibson for the balance of the year.

Baron confirmed to Sportscar365 plans to debut its first car at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, which could feature both of its season-long driver lineups in the opening two rounds before splitting off into separate entries for the sprint races.

He's labeled the chances of a second LMP2 entry at 50 percent, while he works to finalize the driver lineups for both cars.

"We're making good progress on the P2 front," Baron told Sportscar365. "We've had some good conversations with people, some legit sponsor interest. I think there's going to be a way that we'll get the thing out there for Daytona.

"There's three pieces of the puzzle to make it work and I've got two of them in place. It's just getting this last one sorted. It could come any moment."

Newly crowned Prototype Challenge champion Renger van der Zande, who teamed with Alex Popow in the No. 8 Starworks entry, is in the frame to step up to the P class next year, with Baron in discussions with other pro drivers that would bring funding.

"I know we'll be able to compete for [overall] wins, no question," he said.

The Florida-based squad plans to take delivery of its first Riley-Gibson in December, with the target of making the IMSA-sanctioned test at Daytona on Dec. 13-14.

While plans are being put in place for a two-car PC effort, Baron said they'd scale back to only a single Oreca FLM09 if the second LMP2 entry materializes.

"The PC class is great. But racing for overall and the notoriety… with how sexy the new cars are, it's where you want to be," he said. "With the link to get back to Le Mans, it's a nice package.

"We've raced for overall victories since we started up until the merger. When the merger hit, we predicted it would be a mixed bag on what you'd have and what's the car to have.

"There was a three-year model of uncertainty. Now this is the first year of an integrated platform." John Dagys/Sportscar365