Pirelli World Challenge Championships kicks off in Austin, Texas
Plenty of Canadian entries with a shot at Victory
by: RaceCanada / CJ
March 5, 2015
The North American racing season for sports cars is about to kick into high gear. This weekend will see the opening rounds of the Pirelli World Challenge Championships at Circuit of The Americas (CoTA) in Austin, Texas. The first of two World Challenge events this month, the Nissan Grand Prix of Texas presented by Motul at CoTA will feature all seven classes with two races each for GT, GTA, GT Cup and GS with three races for TC, TCA and TCB classes. They are joined this weekend by the Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy series making for a very packed schedule that gets underway with official practice on Friday morning (6th)
The big news from World Challenge is the amazing number of entries across all classes. There are one hundred and sixteen (116) cars entered as follows: GT: 19; GTA: 21; GT Cup: 10; GTS: 20; TC: 18; TCA: 12; TCB: 16. Very impressive numbers.
The 2015 World Challenge season sees the return of some familiar Canadians with Mark Wilkins (Palgrave, ON) back in the Kinetic Motorsports/Kia Racing #38 Kia Optima. A race winner in both 2013 and 2014 – and a championship contender last season, Wilkins is looking to take the GTS title this year. R. Ferri Motorsports (Toronto, ON) is also back. Race winners last year, in 2015 they will have Olivier Beretta at the wheel of the #61 Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia. Max Riddle (Vancouver, BC) returns behind the wheel of the TRG-AMR #009 Aston Martin Vantage GT4
New to the GT/GTA field this year is AIM Autosport (Woodbridge, ON) who have made the move over to World Challenge running the on-track program for Nissan Motorsports in partnership with Always Evolving. The team will run a pair of Nissan GT-R GT3s for James Davidson (#33 GT) and Bryan Heitkotter (#05 GTA). This championship winning team will be a definite force to reckon with in 2015.
In the junior classes, perennial race winners and TC class champions in 2014 Compass 360 Racing is back with two Honda Civic Si race cars carrying the Racing4Reasearch.org colours. This season sees an expanded effort from Racing.ca fielding a trio of MINI Coopers for Andrei Kisel (North Vancouver, BC), Glenn Nixon (Mission, BC) and Wei Lu (Richmond, BC). P.J. Groenke is back with his own team and is also racing a MINI Cooper this season.
They are joined by Samantha Tan (Gormley, ON) in a Kinetic Motorsports Kia Forte Koup and Patrick Seguin (Ottawa, ON) in a Branden Petersen Racing Honda Civic Si.
Canadian entries with class and car numbers are shown below.
Action got underway today with some testing (5th) but the official schedule begins at 8:00 AM CT on Friday (6th). The complete on-track schedule follows the entry list.
RaceCanada will be following live timing and scoring and posting relevant updates as available. The races will also be available via live streaming.
World Challenge Timing & Scoring: http://www.world-challenge.com/liverace/index.html
World Challenge Live Streaming: http://www.world-challengetv.com/
Canadian Entries
GT 33 JD Davison - AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R-GT3 AE/ReplayXD/NISSAN NISMO GT-R GT3 (AIM Autosport)
GT 61 Olivier Beretta - R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia Ferrari of Ontario/Toronto/Alberta
GTA 05 Bryan Heitkotter - AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R-GT 3 Nissan GT Academy GT-R (AIM Autosport)
GTS 38 Mark Wilkins, Toronto, ON Kinetic Motorsports / Kia Racing Kia Optima Kia Motors America
GTS 07 Max Riddle (R), Vancouver, BC TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT4
TCA 38 Samantha Tan (R) Gormley, ON Kinetic Motorsports Kia Forte Koup TBA
TCA 49 Patrick Seguin, Ottawa, ON Branden Peterson Racing Honda Civic Si Let's Hug It Out
TCA 71 Paul Holton - FL Compass360 Racing Honda Civic Si Children's Tumor Foundation/Honda Performance Development/Racing4Research.org
TCA 72 Emilee Tominovich - Compass360 Racing Honda Civic Si Children's Tumor Foundation/Honda Performance Development/Racing4Research.org
TCB 8 P.J. Groenke, Toronto P.J. Groenke Racing MINI Cooper Verax.ca/Tundra/Mulligan Gold/Clairhaven Ltd/Martinrea International Inc/Pelto Agri Investments/Warp Speed Computers Inc.
TCB 57 Andrei Kisel, North Vancouver, BC Racing.ca MINI Cooper Racing.ca/LaptopScreen.com
TCB 58 Glenn Nixon, Mission, BC Racing.ca MINI Cooper Racing.ca/LaptopScreen.com/Nixon Prosports
TCB 59 Wei Lu (R), Richmond, BC Racing.ca MINI Cooper Racing.ca/Nixon Prosports/LaptopScreen.com/Miniusa.com
On Track Schedule - All times are Central Time zone (CT)
Friday, March 6, 2015
8:00 AM - 8:40 AM PWC - TC - TCA - TCB Practice
8:55 AM - 9:25 AM Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA Practice
9:40 AM - 10:20 AM PWC - GTS Practice
10:35 AM - 11:15 AM PWC - GT - GTA - GT Cup Class Practice
12:25 PM - 1:05 PM PWC - TC - TCA - TCB Practice
1:20 PM - 1:50 PM Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA Practice
2:05 PM - 2:45 PM PWC - GTS Class Practice
3:00 PM - 3:40 PM PWC - GT - GTA - GT Cup Practice
3:55 PM - 4:25 PM Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA Practice
Saturday,March 7, 2015
8:00 AM 8:30 AM PWC - GTS Qualifying
8:45 AM - 9:15 AM Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA Qualifying
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM PWC - GT - GTA - GT Cup Qualifying
10:30 AM - 11:20 AM PWC - TC - TCA - TCB Qualifying/Race #1
12:20 PM - 1:30 PM Race # 1 PWC GTS
1:45 PM - 2:30 PM Race # 1 Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA
2:45 PM - 4:00 PM Race # 1 PWC GT - GTA - GT Cup
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM Race # 2 PWC TC - TCA - TCB
Sunday, March 8, 2015
9:45 AM - 10:05 AM Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA Qualifying
10:20 AM - 11:35 PM Race # 2 PWC GTS
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Pirelli World Challenge - Driver Autograph Session
12:25 PM - 1:10 PM Race # 2 Pirelli GT3 Cup Trophy USA
1:25 PM 2:55 PM Race # 2 PWC GT - GTA - GT Cup & March to the Grid
3:10 PM - 4:10 PM Race # 3 PWC TC - TCA - TCB