The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama enters its 11th season with two certainties – great racing and a new champion to be crowned in the premier Platinum Cup class.
Competition in one of the largest and most competitive of Porsche’s 20 single-make Cup Challenge series in the world starts March 18-20 at Sebring International Raceway as part of the prestigious Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida race week. The championship produces intense, exciting racing for semi-professional and aspiring professional drivers in the world’s most produced and iconic race car, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
Racing is divided into two classes – Platinum Cup, featuring the 2014 and 2015 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, which is based on the current seventh, and current, generation of the street car, and Gold Cup, which is comprised of the previous iteration (model years 2010-2013) of the race car. A Masters Championship also is conducted in Platinum and Gold classes. Each class is awarded with its own podium at the end of every race and individual champion at the end of every season. Points are awarded by finish in class.
The multi-class structure of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)-sanctioned series teaches drivers essential skills for an eventual career in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship or professional GT races worldwide.
A new crop of stars is poised to compete for the Platinum Cup championship, as five of the top six drivers from the thrilling 2014 season have graduated to other series, including 2014 Sebring double winner Angel Benitez Jr.
The top returning driver is reigning Platinum Cup Masters (drivers age 45 and older) champion Kasey Kuhlman, who finished fifth overall in the standings last season, including three overall podium finishes. The talented Kuhlman, from Cincinnati, returns for another season with series stalwart Wright Motorsports.
Wright Motorsports also could have another title contender in its five-car stable. Elliott Skeer, from Carlsbad, California, will make his series debut with the team. Skeer is the recipient of a scholarship from IMSA, and supported by Porsche and Yokohama, that is awarded annually to a driver without prior Porsche GT3 Cup experience and is designed to attract and recognize new talent that desires to race in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama.
Long Island native Skeer is a multiple race winner in entry-level single-make North American sports car competition. He finished second in Mazda MX-5 Cup championship in 2013 with five victories and nine podium finishes. Skeer recorded one victory and five podium finishes in MX-5 Cup in 2012, earning a factory ride after winning the MX-5 Cup Shootout in 2011, his first year in racing after competing in karting since age 6. He also has competed in Porsche Club of America, with multiple podium finishes.
Skeer was one of five talented drivers invited to participate in the third annual Porsche Young Driver Academy last October at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama. He excelled under the eye of Porsche factory drivers and officials from Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA) and Porsche Cars North America (PCNA).
Wright also fields Platinum Cup entries for series veterans Michael Schein and Santiago Creel and Masters competitors John Goetz.
Reigning Platinum Cup Team Champions Kelly Moss Motorsports – which fields nine cars in the series – returns with young star Jesse Lazare replacing 2014 Platinum Cup champion Colin Thompson as the team’s top driver. Lazare, 17, from Montreal, debuted in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama last season and scored a dominant victory on home soil at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park en route to seventh in the overall standings.
Platinum Masters competitor Jay Patel also moves to Kelly Moss, joining fellow team veterans Dan Weyland, Bill Peluchiwski and Frank Selldorff in the team’s five-car Platinum Masters lineup. The powerhouse Kelly Moss team, based in Madison, Wisconsin, also will field Gold Cup cars in the Masters class for the returning father-and-son tandem of Wayne and David Ducote, team veteran Paul Barnhart Jr. and series newcomer James Leslie.
New, young faces will emerge through the series this season besides Skeer, perhaps all the way to the top step of the podium for race victories and a championship.
Two-time IMSA championship-winning team Fall-Line Motorsports is fielding a Platinum Cup car for young star Andrew Longe.
Longe, 19, from Naples, Florida, will enter his third season with Fall-Line by climbing to the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama. Longe, who aspires to become a professional driver, has experience in IMSA and SCCA competition at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Road Atlanta, Road America, Circuit of the Americas and VIRginia International Raceway – all venues on the 2015 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama schedule.
Lucas Catania, from Cazenovia, New York, also will debut in the Platinum Cup of the series this season with longtime championship stalwart NGT Motorsport. Catania, 21, has shifted his emphasis from hockey and lacrosse – he was a member of high school state champion teams in both – to auto racing as he also has balanced a stringent course load as a biochemistry major at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.
Catania finished fourth in the MX-5 Cup championship in 2014 as a teammate to his father, Joe Catania, a spinal physician. Joe Catania will race a Gold Cup Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car as a teammate to his son at Miami-area team NGT, which also will field a Gold Cup car for series veteran and 2014 Masters podium finisher Mark Llano, from Wellington, Florida.
Texas-based Moorespeed will return for its second season in the championship with new driver Will Hardeman from Austin, Texas, a podium finisher in HSR Porsche competition. The team won a Platinum Cup race with Lazare behind the wheel last season in its series debut and continues to be managed by 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans overall winner Price Cobb.
Sebastian Landy will make his Gold Cup debut for the Atlanta Motorsports Group.
Landy, 19, from Falls Church, Virginia, could challenge top returning Gold Cup drivers Michael Levitas of TPC Racing and Jeff Mosing of TOPP Racing. Landy finished third in the MX-5 Cup championship last season, with two victories.
Levitas and Mosing were involved in a stirring three-way battle with Patrick-Otto Madsen for the Gold Cup championship in 2014. Madsen prevailed by 23 points over Levitas, with Mosing right behind in third. The race was even tighter between good-natured rivals Mosing and Levitas in the Gold Cup Masters championship, with Levitas winning by one point, 236-235.
Two standouts from the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada championship will head south to race at Sebring. Two-time reigning Platinum Masters champion Marco Cirone will race in a Mark Motors Racing entry in Platinum Cup, while 2011 Gold Cup champion Shaun McKaigue will compete in a Fiorano Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in the Gold Masters class.
All drivers in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama compete in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car based on the street version of the current Porsche 911. The 3.8-liter power unit featured in the 911 GT3 Cup car produces 460 horsepower and a maximum engine speed of 8,500 rpm. The 911 GT3 Cup also includes a Porsche six-speed sequential gearbox with a mechanical slip differential, with an electropneumatic paddle shift system creating faster, more efficient gear changes.
The engines and transmissions of all the cars in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama are prepared and sealed by Porsche Motorsports North America, creating a level playing field on which driving talent and team setup skill prevail.
IMSA sanctions an eight-venue, 16-round schedule for the 2015 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama. The series will run 12 of its 16 rounds during TUDOR Championship events, including the season opener during the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida.
All events consist of two 45-minute sprint races.
Tight competition on great circuits in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama has launched many drivers and teams to success in higher levels of professional sports car racing over the last decade. Among those talented drivers are 2012 Platinum Cup champion Sean Johnston, a full-time competitor in 2013-14 in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, 2013 Platinum Cup champion Madison Snow, who completed a successful first GT Daytona season in the TUDOR Championship in 2014, and SportsCar Challenge standout Ashley Freiberg.
Schedule
Practice: 9:30-10 a.m. (ET) and 2:25-3:05 p.m., Wednesday, March 18
Qualifying: 8:35-8:55 a.m. Thursday, March 19
Round 1 (45 minutes): 3:50-4:35 p.m. Thursday, March 19
Round 2 (45 minutes): 11:10-11:55 a.m. Friday, March 20
Race Coverage
Live streaming: Both races at www.imsa.com
Live timing: All on-track sessions at scoring.imsa.com
TV: Delayed television coverage will be provided on major network affiliates in numerous U.S. markets by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The schedule will be announced soon, and the broadcast will be available on YouTube after it airs on television.
Twitter: Live text commentary from all sessions at @IMSALive
For more information about Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, visit www.gt3cupchallengeusa.com, follow hashtag #GT3USA @IMSA on Twitter or IMSA on Facebook.
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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