Peter Baron’s Starworks Motorsport team will run Dinan BMW V8s in its Daytona Prototypes for the balance of the Rolex Series season, beginning with the race this week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Starworks’ move raises the total number of BMW-powered Daytona Prototypes at Indianapolis to six; Ganassi Racing and Team Sahlen will each run a pair of Riley-BMWs at the Brickyard.
Starworks ran BMW engines from 2008 through 2010, switching to Ford power in 2011. It won the three-race North American Endurance Championship in 2012.
John Dagys of speedtv.com reports that the #8 Starworks car driven by Brendon Hartley and Scott Mayer will run the Dinan S62 V8, while the #2 prototype driven by Ryan Dalziel and Alex Popow will run the new S65 engine that will be used for the first time in both of the Ganassi Riley-BMWs at Indianapolis. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas will drive the #01 Ganassi prototype, while Joey Hand and Tony Kanaan will share #02.
Grand-Am published the specs for the S65 last week. It will run at 4.5 liters, and will be limited to 8200 rpm. It will run an OEM intake manifold base with Dinan aftermarket trumpets. The S62 engine, which will be run for now by Team Sahlen and one of the Starworks cars, is a 5.0 liter V8 restricted to 7000 rpm. It is the engine that has powered the Ganassi team and its drivers Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas to three consecutive Rolex Series championships.
BMW NA Motorsports Manager Gordon McDonnell said, “We are excited to welcome Starworks Motorsport back to the BMW Power family. Our discussions with Peter Baron and Alex Popow over the last weeks were extremely positive allowing us to make this partnership happen quickly. Starworks is having an excellent season to-date and I’m positive that we can help them continue. Dinan Motorsports played an enormous role in getting the engines built in time for Indianapolis and I want to thank Steve and his team for making this happen in such a short amount of time.”
The three-hour Rolex Series Brickyard Grand Prix at Indianapolis takes the green flag at 5:30 PM eastern time on Friday, July 26. It will be preceded by a 2 ½-hour Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race that will start at 2:00 PM. Speed TV coverage of the Rolex Series race, delayed by two hours, begins at 7:30 PM eastern time.—Brian S. Morgan
