Pirelli World Challenge Champion Udell Moves Into Top Class for 2017 - Speedway Digest

Alec Udell has an engineer’s mind and the Clemson University junior is using it to take himself, step-by-step, to the peak of professional sports car racing. Having won the 2016 GT Cup class of the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC), the native of The Woodlands, Texas will move up to the GTA class in the Sprint championship and the top class, GT, of PWC SprintX season in 2017. The youngest driver to ever start a World Challenge race [age 15 at St. Petersburg, Florida in 2011], will pilot a Porsche 911 GT3 R in both championship efforts.

Santa Ana, California’s GMG Racing will enter Udell in the No. 17 Euroworld Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R for 50-minute sprint races of North America’s premier sprint format GT race series. The GTA category is comprised of the same GT3-spec cars as the GT class but is restricted to drivers who do not make their fulltime living driving racecars. As an engineering student at one of the country’s premier universities, Udell remains listed as an “amateur”. The rear-engined Porsche will be liveried in the familiar GMG blue and white with support from the country’s only certified composite repair facility, Euroworld Motorsports (www.euroworldmotorsports.com). Euroworld, based in Houston, is one of Texas’s leading exotic car repair and preparation shop.

In addition to the five-race weekends – 10 events – that comprise the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge “Sprint” season, Udell will also participate in the five-weekend, 10-race, SprintX Championship – Pro-Am class – as well. The 15-time PWC race winner will join GTA veteran and two-time 2015 SprintX race winner Preston Calvert (Potomac, Maryland) in the GMG prepared Calvert Dynamics Porsche 911 GT3 R. It will be the first time Udell has challenged for the SprintX title. The 21 year-old made one SprintX start with GMG at the 2016 season-finale finishing in sixth-place in both 60-minute races. Calvert won both SprintX races at Utah Motorsports Campus in 2016.

GMG Racing will prepare, enter and maintain Udell’s No. 17 for the full “Sprint” season. The James Sofronas (Villa Park, California)-owned operation, one of the country’s most acclaimed race and road preparation facilities for German sports and GT machines, will oversee the weekend duties for the Calvert Dynamics machine. The SprintX Porsche 911 GT3 R will be entered and prepared by Phoenix Promotions in cooperation with GMG under the Calvert Dynamics banner.

The 2017 PWC season gets underway March 10-12 with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida. The first SprintX race will be April 28-30 at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, Virginia. Champions will be crowned for SprintX at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas on September 3, the Sprint Champion at Sonoma Raceway in California on September 17.

Author
Recent Posts

Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
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.