Starworks Motorsport Returns to IMSA with Ryan Dalziel

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer

After some small uncertainty over his 2018 plans, Ryan Dalziel has a home in the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Starworks Motorsport in the GT Daytona class.

After Tequila Patron withdrew from Extreme Speed Motorsports and sponsoring the North American Endurance Cup, Dalziel’s 2019 plans were in doubt until a former boss sought him out.

“When my 2018 program was announced it was ending the first call I got was from Peter Baron at Starworks saying we should get the band back together,” said Dalziel in a team statement.

“I’ve enjoyed much of my racing success under the Starworks banner and I’ve put all my efforts in the past few months making this happen. Continuity is so important in racing, and surrounding yourself with people who truly believe in you.”

Baron will run Dalziel for the full season and Parker Chase will join Dalziel at least in the Michelin North American Endurance Cup races. No decision has yet been made on whether Chase will be a full-time driver.

“This program is a continuation from the 2018 championship winning effort with Parker,” said Dalziel.

“He and I sharing a car with Peter Baron steering the ship is a force to be reckoned with. Audi has been a big part of making this happen and I’m extremely grateful for their trust in us to represent them.”

The Starworks program will use the Audi R8 LMS that Dalziel and Chase used in the 2018 Pirelli World Challenge SprintX Pro/Am championship. The team will convert the car to 2019 specs with a revised transmission and a modified splitter.

“Despite not fielding a Starworks Motorsports entry ourselves, our team has still been very busy in both IMSA and Pirelli World Challenge,” said team owner Peter Baron.

“I have enjoyed success and working personally with the Audi Sport Customer Racing group and look forward to continuing to strengthen our relationship in America. Based on all the success we had with Parker Chase and Ryan Dalziel in Pirelli World Challenge in the Audi R8 LMS, we felt it was the right time to move and enter into the IMSA WeatherTech series full time.”