Alec Udell Is Pirelli World Challenge Hard Charger at Road America
June 27, 2017 | Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin | Alec Udell has been known as a “hard charger” since breaking into the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) at 15 years-old. Now 21, the resident of The Woodlands, Texas has only grown more competitive with age. A rising senior at Clemson University, Udell proved his tenacity yet again at Road America in Rounds 4 and 5 of the GT Sprint Championship season in North America’s premier sprint format GT racing series. Each race on the Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin-area track, Udell piloted the No. 17 Euroworld Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R prepared by GMG from 11th on the grid to a seventh-place finish. In each 50-minute race, the native-Texan earned the prestigious PWC “Hard Charger of the Race Award” for most positions gained.
Knowing the closeness of the competition in the GT3-spec class, Udell made the most of his starts in both races on the 4.048-mile, 11-turn natural terrain racecourse. Each day he made significant jumps at the drop of the green flag coming up the hill on Road America’s long front-straightaway and into Turn One. In Race 1 on Saturday, he took on a pair of McLaren supercars in his Porsche 911 GT3 R with defending PWC GT Drivers Championship-winner Alvaro Parente in one and veteran race winner Bryan Sellers in a second McLaren. Each time the 2016 PWC GT Cup class champion was able to earn the position. He would continue the fight for sixth-place but would bring home seventh, a gain of four spots from his qualifying position, at the checkered flag.
Sunday’s race would hold the same starting position – based on his best race lap turned on Saturday – and would be awarded again with seventh-place at the conclusion of the 50-minutes. It was his hard charging start that again gave him the four-position jump and the PWC honor. However, it was a busier and more caution-strewn race on Sunday. Udell would be embroiled in multiple fights for position including one three-wide battle, again with veterans and factory drives, which proved his talent and determination.
The weekend continues the mechanical engineering major’s string of successful solo PWC performances. He opened the season with two wins in the GTA class at the St. Petersburg Grand Prix in Florida. When he was moved-up to the full professional GT class for Round Three in Long Beach, California, Udell remained up to the task finishing seventh overall.
The two-event weekend was the first time the PWC has run the single-driver format Sprint Championship since Long Beach in April. Udell has shared the Calvert Dynamics Porsche 911 GT3 R with Preston Calvert (Potomac, Maryland) at VIRginia International Raceway, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and Lime Rock Park. Udell will have one more Sprint race weekend – Rounds 6 and 7 of 10 – before returning to the Calvert Porsche for the 60-minute, two-driver format races with Calvert in August at the Utah Motorsports Campus outside of Salt Lake City.
Alec Udell |
about the Road America weekend| “Road America was a good weekend for us. Nev, Stefan and the GMG crew made progress on the car every session out on track, which is all I can ask for. We also had Frank from Euroworld Motorsports join us for the event. I've got a great team behind me thanks to James at GMG and Frank From Euroworld, I'm happy to have shown well for them. The Pro Division is as challenging as it has ever been and I'm pushing myself to be at the top of my game. I can't wait to get back behind the wheel again at Mid-Ohio."
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.
06272017