Pirelli World Challenge Champion Udell Moves Into Top Class for 2017

by Thomas Moore

February 21, 2017 : 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.

Alec Udell :

about 2017 : “I'm very excited for the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge racing season. Moving up classes always comes with a learning phase; I'm ready for the challenge of GTA. The competition in PWC GT is second to none, with several factory backed programs and factory drivers; I have certainly got my work cut out for me. The sprint format makes it somewhat of an all out battle from green to checkered, considering how well the Pirelli P-Zeros hold up throughout the race. I've been training a lot in the off season to be prepared for the physical and mental fatigue experienced throughout the races, I can't wait to get back in the car. I'm aiming for a podium in GT-A and overall podium in GT. I know it will be a tough fight, but I believe I'm capable.”

about SprintX : “I'm very happy to say I'm partnered with a great friend and consistent and strong driver, Preston Calvert for SprintX. We have been running against each other for two years in the GT Cup category and I'm excited to build on the successes he had in the Sprint-X series last year! It's a bit of a different dynamic with trading the car off, but a very cool one. For each driver it's an all out sprint for their 30-minutes, but you've got to be smart and keep the car clean to pass off to your co-driver. Bridging the gap between a full endurance race and a sprint race, I think it's a wonderful platform.”

James Sofronas :

“I couldn’t be happier to see Alec develop in to the next level of competition. Alec has been a shining star of our development program since he first entered the championship, and elevating up to the GT ranks is going to be a great next step.”

Preston Calvert : “The Calvert Dynamics team had some hard-won success last year in the first season of the SprintX race format of Pirelli World Challenge. Those first two professional race wins at Utah Motorsports Campus were the highlight of my brief racing career so far, and have encouraged me to continue racing in the SprintX format with Pirelli World Challenge. Alec Udell approached me about running the full SprintX series for 2017, and it seems like a great fit. He is a very fast, cerebral young race driver, who was very generous with his performance data and advice to me when we were competitors together in the GT Cup class. I hope to continue to improve my own ability to drive the Porsche 911 GT3 R, and with luck, Alec and I will be able to have some success in the Pro-Am category of SprintX.”

About Alec Udell :

Alec Udell is a junior studying engineering at Clemson University. The 21 year-old from The Woodlands, Texas began his racing career in karting at age five. He went on to win the Rotax National Points Championship in 2008 and represented his country as part of Team USA in Egypt in the World Championships in 2009. By 2011, he made history by becoming, at the time, the Pirelli World Challenge’s youngest ever competitor at age 15. He has 15 career Pirelli World Challenge GT Cup class wins entering the season and is the 2016 PWC GT Cup Champion.

Bio and Images Available Upon Request

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