By alley - Sep 15, 2016, 6:18 PM ET

IMSA: Baron developing 2017 P2 plans

Starworks Motorsport team owner Peter Baron was the first to commit to purchasing a WEC-spec 2017 LMP2 chassis to use in IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. News of his intent to buy a Riley Mk 30 powered by a Gibson V8 engine broke during the 12 Hours of Sebring, and despite six months having passed since that event, he says the search continues for funded drivers to pilot the prototype.

"I haven't checked with Bill Riley on a delivery date and haven't been pushing for it because we don't have anybody willing to pay for it to go on track and do any testing with it yet," Baron told RACER. "It's a topic just sitting there right now waiting for answers."

"Hopefully, after COTA, it will start to pick up a little bit of activity," Baron said. "People are wait-and-see, and since nobody has seen them turning laps yet, they are a little bit leery on who is going to be fast, everybody is saying they are making X downforce and X drag, and everything is pillow talk at this point. It's a little sketchy.

"For me, it is nothing to worry yet. I have had programs come together in the beginning of January, so I think it is going to be one of those years for a [Prototype] program. People are going to definitely be waiting and see what comes out and who does what. Guys writing a check for $3 million to race a Prototype, they are in no hurry to fork that over right now."

With a successful PC team to run in the meantime, Baron says he will focus on completing the current championship before worrying about receiving the Riley and heading to Daytona for testing.

"Once we get through Petit [Le Mans], we will do what we can to get the car and get it to the November test dates," he said. "Worst case, we'll go to the December test days and try and drum up some interest there."

Outside of his 2017 P2 plans, Baron says interest in the PC class, which will return for its final season in the WeatherTech Championship next year, has been very encouraging.

"We upgraded three cars to the current specs so the plan is to at least race two of them," he added. "Actually, we have a fair amount of interest in the PC stuff. We have lots of new people coming on board. We will have some new faces in the cars at Petit, and I think the PC stuff is going to be good next season."

Moving Starworks into GT racing is also a growing interest for Baron.

"We are getting random phone calls from all sorts of different people right now saying, some people are just assuming PC is going away, so they are saying 'are you interested in doing this or that?'" he said. "We could be all over God's green earth next year, just by the randomness of inquiries we have had for programs.

"I will tell you what is on my bucket list: I really want to do the international GT series racing. Like the Nürburgring, Spa, Bathurst. I wouldn't be surprised if something like that develops. The GT3 class is something that makes sense. You could run it in Pirelli World Challenge, you could run it in GT Daytona, you can run it in any other series around the world at any given time. It's one of those things that maybe now is the time to do something like that as well."