Alec Udell To Make First European Race Laps In Monza
April 9, 2019 | Monza, Italy | Alec Udell will make personal history this weekend at one of the world’s most historic race tracks: Monza. The resident of The Woodlands, Texas will turn his first race laps in the crucible of European GT racing at Italy’s Autodromo Nazionale Monza as he enters his first race in the SRO GT4 European Series, April 12 – 14. The track has been the scene of many of Europe’s greatest racing moments and now Udell will have his chance to add to his already impressive resume and the lore of the iconic Italian race complex. These will be the first race laps the 23-year-old will turn outside of North America. Udell will share the No. 25 MDM Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 with teammate Simon Knap of The Netherlands in the two-race weekend for road car-based race machines.
To this point in his career, Udell has been unable to challenge racers at their home European tracks due to a focus on his education. With a Mechanical Engineering diploma from Clemson University now hanging on his wall, Udell, who began racing at the age of five in karts, looks to turn those tables and face down the best European GT drivers at the famous circuits they know best.
Never one to back down, the 2016 SRO Blancpain GT World Challenge America GT Cup Champion will contest the six-race schedule as the first American to attempt the full GT4 European Series season. Five of the tracks are completely new to Udell including this weekend’s round at Monza. He has only limited laps on the sixth track, Zandvoort in The Netherlands, as a result of his first test laps with MDM in March.
The Monza track is completely unknown to Udell who will be making his first trip to Italy. It will not be his only unknown. While he is learning the 3.6-mile, 11-turn track he will simultaneously be learning the BMW M4 GT4 race car, of which his only experience to-date is the tryout test with MDM. He will also be facing the unique challenge of learning how the veteran team from The Netherlands and teammate Knap operate. Lastly, Udell will have to learn how the 36 other entries in the tightly competitive GT4 class contest a race.
The 2019 GT4 European Series campaign for Udell will commence on Thursday, April 11 when he will have his first laps at Monza in four, 50-minute test sessions. Official practice will begin on Friday with a pair of one-hour sessions at 11:40 a.m. local Central European Time/5:40 a.m. ET and 3:30 p.m./9:30 a.m. A 50-minute qualifying session will take place starting at 10:35 a.m. CEST/4:35 a.m. ET. Race 1 will see the green flag at 3:15 p.m./9:15 a.m. later that same day. Sunday’s Race 2 will start at 12:10 p.m./6:10 a.m. on Sunday, April 14.
Live streaming of the event can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/gt4europeanseries .
Alec Udell | “I am looking forward to the challenge that the SRO GT4 European series brings for me. There are a lot of new tracks, which is something as a driver doing this for 10 years I haven’t experienced in a while, as well as the added factor of a car I’ve spent little time in. That is where an experienced team like MDM is going to help lessen my learning curve. To me, I’ve always dreamed of racing in Europe so it’s a dream come true. I believe my racing in the SRO GT America series has prepared me well to compete in the sister series in Europe and I can’t wait to get on track and show what we’re capable of.”
2019 SRO GT4 European Series Calendar |
April 12 – 14 Monza, Italy
May 4 – 5 Brand Hatch, England
May 31 – June 2 Paul Ricard, France
June 28 – 30 Misano, Italy
July 12 – 14 Zandvoort, The Netherlands
August 30 – September 1 Nürburgring (Germany
about Alec Udell |
Alec Udell is a 23-year-old from The Woodlands, Texas. He began his racing career in karting at age five, 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 the Pirelli World Challenge’s youngest ever, at the time, competitor at age 15. He has 17 career Blancpain GT World Challenge America – formerly known as Pirelli World Challenge – class wins and is the 2016 GT Cup Champion. In 2019, Udell will focus on becoming the first American champion of the SRO GT4 European championship with MDM Motorsport while making regular starts in the SRO GT4 America and IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University, is a driving coach and lead instructor of the Motorsports Development Group.
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