Alec Udell Takes a Hit But Immediately Back Into the Battle

May 16, 2017 | Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada | Alec Udell took a hard hit at the most recent round of the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) SprintX Championship but it isn’t easy to keep a Texan down. After two weeks of rest to his body and a rebuild of the No. 77 Calvert Dynamics Porsche 911 GT3 R, the resident of The Woodlands, Texas is ready to do battle without missing a single round of the 2017 GT-X Pro-Am Championship. The 21-year old joins co-driver/car owner Preston Calvert (Potomac, Maryland) for Rounds 3 and 4 of the SprintX season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) on Saturday, May 20 and Sunday May 21. The two 60-minute races are the feature events at the Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada-area track during its Victoria Day Speedfest weekend.

While Udell returned to Clemson University to take the final exams of his junior year at the prestigious mechanical engineering school, Calvert transported the No. 77 from VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) – location of Rounds 1 and 2 of the SprintX season – to Phoenix Performance in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Phoenix, a veteran racing shop and prep-facility for Calvert Dynamics, took the heavily damaged machine and “re-tubbed” the car in accordance with Porsche Motorsport and Pirelli World Challenge regulations. The engine and transmission were sent to Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA) in Carson, California for damage check and rebuild. The car was completed in time to travel to Canada and the legendary CTMP track, once known as Mosport, north of Toronto.

CTMP has been good to Udell. He won Race 1 in the GT Cup class and finished second to Canadian Chris Green in Race 2 last season. The podiums on the 2.548-mile, ten-turn road course helped set Udell on track to win the GT Cup Championship with 12 race victories. The season was so successful he took the championship an event weekend early and turned his eye towards the GT class to ready himself for the 2017 PWC Sprint and SprintX title chases. He opened 2017 with twin victories in the first two GTA class races at St. Petersburg, Florida in the No. 17 Euroworld Motorsports/GMG Porsche 911 GT3 R. That success moved him up to the all-pro category of GT for the remainder of the Sprint season, which resumes on June 23-25 at Road America. The next event weekend for SprintX comes on May 26-27 at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

Udell and Calvert will have their first opportunity to test the rebuilt car on CTMP during a Promoter Test Day. SprintX will have two, 45-minute sessions on Thursday, May 18. Official practice will begin with a 50-minute session on Friday morning at 11:50 a.m. ET. Qualifying will run from 4:55 until 5:30 p.m. that afternoon. Race 1 will begin with the drop of the green flag at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday, May 20. Each driver will run approximately half the race with Calvert, as the “Am” driver starting the race based on his qualifying time of the day before. Udell will close the race and attempt to set the car’s fastest race lap, which sets the grid for Race 2. The second race, Round 4 of the championship, will start on Sunday, May 21 at 3:40 p.m. Udell will take the green flag before handing the car over to Calvert who will take the checkered flag. The 60-minute races can be seen live at www.world-challenge.com and on the CBS Sports Network at 6:30 p.m. ET, Sunday, May 28.

Alec Udell |

about CTMP| “I owe a huge ‘thank you’ to all the crew at Phoenix Performance, Porsche Motorsport North America and Global Motorsports Group. They worked tirelessly to get the Preston Dynamics’ car back together for Preston and I to compete in at CTMP. I believe we got the car in a great spot setup-wise thanks to the collaboration of Stefan [Pfeiffer] and Neville [Agass] at VIR so I'm excited for Preston and myself to get back in and show what we're capable of!"

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.

About Euroworld Motorsports |

2017 is the third season Udell partners with Euroworld Motorsports (www.euroworldmotorsports.com). Euroworld is the country’s only certified automotive carbon fiber repair facility. Based in Houston, they are one of Texas’s leading European auto repair and performance facility.

More information on the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge can be found at www.world-challenge.com .

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