Scuderia Corsa Planning Expanded Pirelli WC Effort in 2015
The Los Angeles-based organization, which currently fields Ferraris in both the IMSA-sanctioned TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and Ferrari Challenge series, is poised to add at least one full-season 458 Italia GT3 to the roster in the growing sprint race GT championship.
Speaking to Sportscar365, team principal Giacomo Mattioli revealed they are in negotiations with three "serious parties" that have expressed interest competing in World Challenge, including Mike Hedlund, who scored a career-best fourth place finish at Sonoma last month.
"There's definitely a lot of interest in World Challenge," Mattioli told Sportscar365. "It's mainly due to the format of the championship, with it being sprint races and you don't have to share the car with anybody, and also the budget."
Current full-season budgets in World Challenge are nearly one-third of what's required to run the same car in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Daytona class, largely due to the significant increase in running time the endurance series presents.
Mattioli, however, has praised IMSA for its recent move towards embracing full FIA GT3-spec machinery in GTD, beginning in 2016, which will help close the gap and increase the likelihood of teams competing in both series with the same car.
"GT3 is the right platform," he said. "I'm glad to hear IMSA is moving in that direction too. I think that GT3, as a team owner, it's the ideal platform because it lets you compete in different championships worldwide.
"You can go race Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bathurst, the Nurburgring 24. It's a great platform that we're happy to fully embrace."