2018 Pirelli World Challenge Rounds 1 & 2: Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Mechanic Z · 25 Feb 2018, 19:35 (Ref:3803855)

Less than two weeks until the first Pirelli World Challenge race of the season on the streets of sunny St. Petersburg, Florida. PWC has yet to release an official entry list, but the caliber of drivers and teams taking part is again top-notch.
Callaway Corvette
Callaway Competition USA will be bringing two Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-Rs, with no less than 2013 ADAC GT Masters champion Daniel Keilwitz and reigning PWC Sprint-X champion Michael Cooper set to pilot the cars for the full season.

(Photo from https://twitter.com/CallawayCompUSA)
Bentley
2016 PWC champions K-PAX Racing have traded in their McLaren 650s GT3s on Bentley Continental GT3s for this season. Flying Lizard Motorsports continues to run the cars, and 2016 PWC champion and former McLaren factory ace Alvaro Parente returns to drive the #9 car. Rodrigo Baptista moves from GTS to take the wheel of the #3. A third car is possible.

(Photo from https://twitter.com/BentleyRacing)
Ferrari
R. Ferri Motorsports have announced their return after their 2017 season was shortened by crash damage. They have announced that 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour winner and Ferrari factory driver Toni Vilander will be behind the wheel of their #61 Ferrari 488 GT3. 2017 Standouts TR3 Racing and Daniel Mancinelli appear set to return, it is said that a second car is possible. 2016 GTA champion Martin Fuentes is also returning with a Ferrari 488 GT3 run by Squadra Corsa Garage Italia.

(Photo from PWC, Sportscar365)
Porsche
Alegra Motorsports has announced that they will enter their Porsche 911 GT3-R, with Porsche factory driver Michael Christensen slated to drive for the full season. Pfaff Motorsports will be bringing a Porsche for up-and-comer Scott Hargrove. It looks like other Porsches are possible, but yet to be confirmed.

(Photo from https://twitter.com/Pfaff_Auto)
Audi
2011 PWC champions Truspeed make their return to PWC with two Audi R8 LMS GT3s. Parker Chase has been announced in the #19, the other car is still TBA.

(Image from http://world-challenge.com)

It looks likely that the GT grid will include at least one Mercedes, a Lamborghini and one or two Aston Martins. Other cars are possible.

GTS
GTS looks like it will have huge fields this year, though full season numbers are difficult to estimate because of the addition of Sprint-X to the class. [/SIZE]
Around 30 cars seems to be a reasonable full season estimate, though St. Petersburg does feature an entry cap, which means numbers will probably be slightly lower for rounds 1 & 2.

Flying Lizard switches to Audi, with Mike Hedlund and Adam Merzon driving the R8 GT4s.
GMG and M1GT are also bringing R8 GT4s, with James Sofronas and Jason Bell announced, respectively.
Blackdog Speed Shop's full season remains unchanged with Lawson Aschenbach and Tony Gaples driving the Camaro GT4.Rs.
Ian James returns to Panoz's Avezzano, with a second car now added for Preston Calvert.
Longtime Trans Am team Robinson Racing switches to PWC this year with a pair of Mercedes GT4s for Gar Robinson and Shane Lewis.
KPR and Mark Klenin Return with their McLaren, Ian Lacy Racing will bring three Ginettas, PF Racing has three Mustangs, Racer's Edge at least one SIN, Pfaff a Porsche, Muhliner a Porsche or two, and it looks like there may be a few BMW GT4s as well.

(Photo from https://twitter.com/FlyingLizard_MS)

(Photo from Blackdog Speed Shop)

(Photo from https://panoz.com)

(Image from http://world-challenge.com)

Schedule

Entry List
No official streaming info yet, but here's last year's links:
Live Stream (PWC Site)

Live Stream (Motor Trend On Demand)

Live Timing and Scoring

Track Map

Weather (racecastweather.com)

Weather (National Weather Service)

Tickets

@WCRacing Twitter Account

nasportscar · 26 Feb 2018, 13:42 (Ref:3804040)

I think streaming info will be coming out this week

Mechanic Z · 1 Mar 2018, 01:42 (Ref:3804788)

Lots of testing going on this week.
Flying Lizard at VIR:
https://twitter.com/VIRNow/status/968857715865997312
https://twitter.com/mike_hedlund/sta...99795590041600
KPAX at Homestead Miami:
https://twitter.com/DLaw544/status/968579292769734656
Truspeed at MSR Houston:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfuXpJQg...speedautosport
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfuZXt0g...y=ryan_dalziel
Alegra at MSR Houston:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BftZl3zl...encer_pumpelly
Pfaff at MSR Houston
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bft_XNVg...affmotorsports

Bcarr6 · 1 Mar 2018, 12:43 (Ref:3804896)

TRG on board for ST PETES ONLY again, with Spencer Pumpelly. Hope they find budget or willingness to continue for more races, although Pumpelly is signed up for Sprint X with Allegro.

cbbrit · 1 Mar 2018, 14:51 (Ref:3804924)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

TRG on board for ST PETES ONLY again, with Spencer Pumpelly. Hope they find budget or willingness to continue for more races, although Pumpelly is signed up for Sprint X with Allegro.

Great news for Spencer! And it's ALEGRA Motorsports!

Mechanic Z · 1 Mar 2018, 18:40 (Ref:3804983)

Delay on the second Callaway, so only Keilwitz at St. Pete:

Quote:

Callaway Competition‏ @CallawayCompUSA 3h3 hours ago

An update regarding our 2018 @WCRacing effort:

broadrun96 · 1 Mar 2018, 19:28 (Ref:3804993)

And Cooper has been released from contract by the team so it sounds like the second car is VERY delayed. Is the team running the car and taking on the full costs? Doesn't appear like they have any sponsors on the livery aside from the usual contingency stuff.

cbbrit · 2 Mar 2018, 17:51 (Ref:3805286)

Entry list is now out!

http://files.world-challenge.com/eve...-EntryList.pdf

Speed-King · 2 Mar 2018, 18:17 (Ref:3805290)

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbbrit

Entry list is now out!

http://files.world-challenge.com/eve...-EntryList.pdf

GT3 down to 12 cars.

GT4 is spectacular, though.

Bcarr6 · 2 Mar 2018, 18:17 (Ref:3805291)

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbbrit

Entry list is now out!

http://files.world-challenge.com/eve...-EntryList.pdf

Lacklustre

TRspitfirefan · 2 Mar 2018, 18:56 (Ref:3805292)

Disappointing to see so few GT3 entries. It seems strange that we've lost so many teams in one off season. Unfortunately the "DPi" manufacturer badging exercise class has seemingly sucked all the air out of US sports car racing.
At least the GTS class seems to be thriving, so it's not a total wash.

nasportscar · 2 Mar 2018, 18:59 (Ref:3805294)

Is it too late to combine GT and GTS? Hopefully more entries are coming for SprintX

merak1974 · 2 Mar 2018, 22:40 (Ref:3805320)

Great to see Courtney will be back with the Maserati! ... and Roberts too

nasportscar · 3 Mar 2018, 00:00 (Ref:3805328)

Quote:

Originally Posted by merak1974

Great to see Courtney will be back with the Maserati! ... and Roberts too

They'll have a third car at a few races as well

merak1974 · 3 Mar 2018, 18:32 (Ref:3805497)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nasportscar

They'll have a third car at a few races as well

Great!

Courtney was a bit unlucky on some occasions last year. I hope he drives the Maserati to some wins this year.

cbbrit · 4 Mar 2018, 20:52 (Ref:3805778)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nasportscar

They'll have a third car at a few races as well

Which will be driven by Walter Bobko. Not sure if this third car will be at St. Pete though.

nasportscar · 5 Mar 2018, 00:35 (Ref:3805799)

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbbrit

Which will be driven by Walter Bobko. Not sure if this third car will be at St. Pete though.

Correct. He's in for a partial season

merak1974 · 4 Mar 2018, 22:07 (Ref:3805785)

Amazing array of marques in the GT4 (GTS) class: Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Ginetta, Maserati, McLaren, Mercedes, Panoz, and Porsche.

nasportscar · 5 Mar 2018, 18:51 (Ref:3806032)

Pick 'Em http://nasportscar.com/pwc-pick-em/

cbbrit · 7 Mar 2018, 15:28 (Ref:3806642)

Excellent news here as Daniel Morad has been confirmed at CRP Racing for the season.

http://sportscar365.com/world-challe...ason-with-crp/

Bcarr6 · 7 Mar 2018, 16:00 (Ref:3806649)

Not a suprise to anyone I dont think but Daniel Mancinelli is confirmed at TR3

cbbrit · 9 Mar 2018, 01:27 (Ref:3806960)

First pics from St. Pete as today was unloading and technical inspection day.

http://sportscar365.com/features/pho...season-opener/

Also sportscar365.com has their first notebook of the week.

http://sportscar365.com/world-challe...ay-notebook-3/

cbbrit · 9 Mar 2018, 16:41 (Ref:3807087)

Practice 1 details and results for GT/GTA:

http://sportscar365.com/world-challe...ce-in-st-pete/

TRspitfirefan · 9 Mar 2018, 20:37 (Ref:3807138)

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbbrit

Practice 1 details and results for GT/GTA:

http://sportscar365.com/world-challe...ce-in-st-pete/

Ferrari and Porsche look like the cars to beat this weekend. We all knew Vilander would be quick but I'm a bit surprised and super impressed with Scott Hargrove and the Pfaff Porsche team. Were did they come from?

cbbrit · 9 Mar 2018, 20:59 (Ref:3807142)

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRspitfirefan

Ferrari and Porsche look like the cars to beat this weekend. We all knew Vilander would be quick but I'm a bit surprised and super impressed with Scott Hargrove and the Pfaff Porsche team. Were did they come from?

All the info is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Hargrove

http://pfaffmotorsports.com/

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