PWC: Panoz to field works GTS entry

Panoz returns to GT racing in 2017 as Team Panoz Racing, kicking off its first season with Pirelli World Challenge. Led by motorsports veteran Tom Milner, Team Panoz Racing will field a two-car, full-season entry racing the new Panoz Avezzano sports car in the GTS class.

Ian James has been named the first of two team drivers. James will campaign the No. 50 Panoz Avezzano, starting with the St. Petersburg season opener in March.

"After a few years of taking a step back from racing, I'm excited to be back and especially with my good friend Don Panoz and his team," said Milner. "Very happy to have Ian join us and we plan on giving the competition a hard time!"

Hailing from England but now living in Arizona, James (pictured) is one of only a handful of race drivers who has won races in the Prototype, GT, Grand Sport and Sport touring classes. James also has a Panoz history, having driven for Tom Milner and PTG Inc. when it fielded the Panoz Esperante in 2009 and the Panoz Abruzzi in 2010 and 2011. Milner, as previously announced, is managing Panoz's GT race program and development of the Panoz Avezzano racecar.

"I am very excited to be back behind the wheel of a Panoz racecar and entering the exciting World Challenge series," said James. "The GTS platform is the wave of the future and I expect the new Avezzano to be a contender."

Team Panoz Racing expect to announce its second driver, who will race Panoz Avezzano #51, in the near future.

The Panoz group has been developing the Avezzano racecar while ramping up production of the Panoz Avezzano street car (pictured, top), Panoz's first new sports car since the Esperante. The all-carbon fiber racecar features a wide-body configuration with clear-coated carbon fiber splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser and GT racecar style side exhausts.

The new Avezzano features the next-generation of the Panoz-designed extruded aluminum chassis; a completely new rear suspension design; and an upgraded suspension, brake and wheel package. Powering the Avezzano is a standard 6.2-liter, 450-plus horsepower Panoz/Èlan aluminum block V8 mated to a heavy duty, close ratio six-speed manual transmission. Avezzano street car production is underway, with first customer cars expected this summer.