IMSA: Mowlem to contest full season for BAR 1 PC team

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Sports car stalwart Johnny Mowlem will contest his first full season in North America since 2005 with the BAR1 Motorsports TUDOR United SportsCar Championship team.

The 45-year-old Briton will drive one of the team's Prototype Challenge ORECA-Chevrolet FLM09s together with Tom Papadopoulos, with whom he partnered in the final two rounds of last year's series. The deal marks Mowlem's first full North American campaign since he raced with the ACEMCO Saleen team in the 2005 American Le Mans Series.

"Racing in America is always a lot of fun – for the sheer enjoyment of competing, you can't beat it," said Mowlem. "It is going to be brilliant to go back there for a full season."

Team boss Brian Alder said that having Mowlem back "gives us some much-needed continuity from 2014" and that he believed that "Tom and Johnny can be a threat for the championship."

Teammates for Mowlem and Papadopoulos for the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona on Jan. 24-25 have yet to be announced. IMSA veteran Tommy Drissi, a PC regular since 2011, and Alder, who races in IMSA Lites, will take part in the official pre-season test at Daytona this weekend and are potentials for the race.

Four drivers, including 2013 World Endurance Championship LMP2 title winner Martin Plowman, are listed in BAR1's second PC entry for the "Roar Before the 24" test, although none are confirmed for the race. Eight PC entries are on the entry for the test, including reigning class champions Colin Braun and Jon Bennett from CORE Autosport. They will be joined by James Gue in the four North American Endurance Cup TUDOR Championship rounds, while Mark Wilkins will be the fourth driver for Daytona.

Originally on Autosport.com