Compass Racing awaits new McLaren 720 GT3

Compass Racing had only one car at Tuesday’s Michelin test at Daytona International Speedway, but team owner Karl Thomson would have liked to have the new McLaren 720S GT3 in addition to the GT4 that will return to the rebranded Michelin Pilot Challenge.

“I would have loved to have brought the new car, but we don’t expect to have it delivered until mid-February,” Thomson said of the car that will compete in the new IMSA Sprint Cup component of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD category. “In fact, the car isn’t even made yet. We were the first team to publicly commit to the new car – worldwide – and that’s kind of cool.”

Once the GTD car arrives, Thomson plans an aggressive testing schedule with drivers Paul Holton and Matt Plumb prior to the opening Sprint Cup round at Mid-Ohio on May 5.

“GT Daytona is really competitive,” Thomson said. “All the cars are good; they’ve got great driver lineups, along with very deep engineering departments. We want to make sure we are competitive right off the bat.”

In the meantime, Compass Racing is testing one of the two McLaren 570S GT4s at Daytona that will run in the Michelin Pilot Challenge.

“McLaren has provided an update kit that includes 22 items to address many of the reliability issues we’ve been working on for the last 12 months,” Thomson said. “We hope to announce our driver lineup in the very near future.”