Alec Udell – Closes PWC Season with Top-Ten at Sonoma
September 19, 2017 | Sonoma, California | Alec Udell closed his first professional season in the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) with a top-ten performance in the final round of the Sprint Championship at Sonoma Raceway. Rounds 9 and 10 of the GT season, run September 16 and 17, saw the resident of The Woodlands, Texas overcome adversity in Race 1 to take a top-ten overall finish in Race 2 driving the No. 17 Euroworld Motorsports by GMG Porsche 911 GT3 R at the track set in the hills of California “Wine Country”.
The Clemson University senior qualified for Saturday’s 50-minute race in the eighth-position. However, the No. 17 was not officially classified in the season’s ninth-race when an incident damaged the steering arm on the Porsche. The Clemson blue and orange Porsche was retired from the race.
The GMG team made full repairs on the rear-engined machine for Sunday’s midday final event. As the grid for the second race is set based on the best lap time turned in Race 1, and with no time entered, Udell was forced to start 18th. The starting position did not temper Udell’s desire to perform. With the green flag, the mechanical engineering major began to attack the 2.385-mile, 12-turn track with the precision that has branded his career. He was able to cut through the field making-up nine positions to finish ninth overall to close his first season in the GT class of the PWC. The performance earned Udell the “Hard Charger Award” for the race. That added to his tally of the award, which recognizes the most positions gained in a race. As a result, the 21-year-old was acknowledged at Sunday’s season-end awards banquet as the season’s “Hard Charger”. In total, Udell scored two GTA class wins and a GT Pro class podium in 2017.
While Sonoma was the end to Udell’s PWC season, the young Texan has one more significant GT3 race remaining on his 2017 calendar. Udell will team with Porsche factory driver Wolf Henzler (Germany) in the Euroworld Motorsports machine in an eight-hour race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on October 15. The race is the North American round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) and will be held at the Monterey, California track. It is a fitting location for Udell to race his first endurance-style event in the 911 GT3 R as it was the first place he raced the car in PWC a year-ago. GMG, who will enter the car in the Pro class, announced the effort on September 14.
Alec Udell |
about Sonoma| “Sonoma was a challenging weekend for the Euroworld Porsche. We showed great pace in the practices but had some contact Saturday that we couldn't come back from. The guys at GMG worked extremely hard to get the car all dialed in for Sunday's race, which went a lot better. All in all, it wasn't the weekend I had hoped for to close out a strong season. Luckily, we've got one more race left at Laguna Seca in three weeks. I'm looking forward to showing what we've got in an endurance effort.”
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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