Need a Daytona Prototype, a Prototype Challenge or a Prototype Lites car for TUDOR United SportsCar? Love bright orange? 8 Star Motorsports is short on funding this season and just put a ton of their IMSA-legal toys up for sale. Their crunch is your gain, amigo.
Enzo Potolicchio's 8 Star Motorsports team was conspicuously absent from this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona. They're one of the quicker teams who finished second in the Prototype Challenge class last year, so where are they? Turns out, Formula One isn't the only series whose growing budgets are pressuring teams to look elsewhere.
"We couldn't find the funding for the event and I didn't want to show up with a five-driver lineup," explained team owner Potolicchio to Motorsport.com.
We all know how complicated that can get.
Potolicchio continued:
I'm a racing team and if I knew I wasn't going to have a chance at winning like we're used to, then why would I go? The PC class is now suffering a little bit and the budget just isn't there.
With the merger, IMSA has done a good job but the budgets are too high and that's hurt all the classes. I think that's why they lost a lot of people including us ... Even some GTD teams are struggling and people are looking at other options.
8 Star Motorsports recently shifted back to open-wheel racing, fielding cars in Indy Lights this year with the eventual goal of moving up to IndyCar. They also hope to enter the Blancpain series in Europe.
The team says that they're not done with IMSA's United SportsCar series per se, but rather, they just couldn't get a team together for Daytona. Potolicchio says he'd rather stay home than field a car full of pay drivers who don't stand a chance to win.
In the meantime, there's a bunch of cars around the shop going unused, and 8 Star Motorsports has them up for sale. Won't you help a cash-strapped team afford the two-pro, two-amateur team PC team they need to win? You can feel as if you've done a good deed every time you go out and turn stupid fast prototype race car laps.
Here's what they have for sale:
IMSA Prototype Lites Elan DPO2 - $117,900
For the price of one of the nicer houses on "Fixer Upper," you could go race Prototype Lites! This one has 71 miles on its Mazda MZR 2.0-liter engine and comes with chassis notes and spares galore.
IMSA Prototype Lites Elan DPO2 - $117,900
They actually have two of these for sale. This one has 114 miles on its engine, plus two race wins at Mosport and the fastest lap at Road Atlanta.
Prototype Challenge Oreca FLM 09 - $264,900
This is the car to have for IMSA's and the ACO's spec prototype PC class. This one scored two race wins and claimed pole position twice. Like the Lites cars, this comes with chassis notes and spares.
Corvette Daytona Prototype - $339,000
Why mess around with the lower classes if you're ready to hop into TUSC's P2 class? Here's a Corvette Daytona Prototype built by Pratt & Miller. It has less than 5 hours on a new engine, and the team is "open to partial creative deals."
Oh, and if you're not interested in an orange prototype car from 8 Star, the same seller has this bright green Dodge Challenger SRT ex-Grand Am car for sale, too.
Bright paint makes you faster: fact.
[H/T Hooniverse]