Pirelli World Challenge

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Another TUSC GTD team making the switch to PWC: NGT is planning on running 4 to 5 cars next year!

Couple of Cup Porsches but also 2 GT3 cars in GT, assuming current Porsche GT3s (but not confirmed yet).

http://www.racer.com/pwc/item/110028...orld-challenge

It's gonna be busy on the grid next year!

So that is where half the new cup class will come from! Great news, and I hope they can keep running a Momo livery on a car or two.

[TRspitfirefan]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

More good entry news, 2 full time Beamers from Turner!

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Another TUSC GTD team making the switch to PWC: NGT is planning on running 4 to 5 cars next year!

WOW! PWC 2014 was awesome, but 2015 is going to be MEGA!

From SC365 article.
http://sportscar365.com/imsa/tusc/20...pdate-gtlmgtd/Another potential entry.

Flying Lizard Motorsports – The IMSA stalwarts could be off to Pirelli World Challenge next year, while scaling back its TUDOR Championship involvement. The Lizards remain committed to its Audi R8 LMS cars, which may be put into action in the Patron Endurance Cup. (2 cars possible – partial season)

Also this.

Paul Miller Racing – While having been the highest-placed Audi in 2014, the team has yet to confirm its return. A move to Pirelli World Challenge is reportedly an option, as well as an expansion to a two-car effort, should the right pieces fall into place.

Both the Lizards and PMR would be fantastic additions!

[rich07]

Awesome news about Turner, I read that they've already decided their drivers for next year. I'm guessing it'll be Paltula and Cameron and if that's indeed so then that'll be brilliant to watch.

[Jameson]

Originally Posted by rich07

Awesome news about Turner, I read that they've already decided their drivers for next year. I'm guessing it'll be Paltula and Cameron and if that's indeed so then that'll be brilliant to watch.

DSC is hinting on Palttala here

[Coach Ep]

JDX Racing was looking at PWC too (although not really recent news):

http://sportscar365.com/world-challe...t3-revolution/

An entry (or two) in the cup class would certainly not come as a surprise!

[rwintle]

Originally Posted by HighParker

PWC GT at Mosport in May 2015, joining Touring Cars and Canadian Nascar series that were there at Mosport in May 2014.
http://www.world-challenge.com/news/...-schedule.html

WOOHOO!!! I missed this when first posted but this makes me happy.

In other (slightly related) news - no Trans Am at Mosport/CTMP this year. Too bad, I do enjoy that series. But I'll happily trade it for PWC GT. The first race weekend of the year at CTMP just got better.

[Mechanic Z]

Pirelli World Challenge looks like it's got the potential to be even better in 2015 than it was this year!

Really nice to be able to look forward to it!

Another Lizards article, Still essentially "no comment", but some interesting notes in it:
http://racer.com/imsa/item/110060-im...ision-imminent

"As far as the quantity, the equipment required is much different, and for two trucks, running three cars makes sense, and even four cars would be possible if you're really efficient on your truck packing," Ingraham said. "Three cars is the right number, but making it all work, finding the right folks, making the budget numbers work – all of that is sitting on my desk right now. Looking at the combined World Challenge and TUDOR Championship calendars, the costs, the conflicts, and all of that is where I'm focused at the moment."

[nasportscar]

Tonight at 8:00pm Eastern, we'll be having a live call-in Round Table with PWC leadership - Scott Bove, Greg Gill (and others) and special guest Johnny 'O Connell will all be on the phone. Sign up and ask them some questions, or just listen in. Info and signup here:

We're only taking the first 25, but we have a few open spots available:

http://nasportscar.com/join-the-pire...n-round-table/

[JorritVD]

My Silly Season update. Read it here:
https://gt3series.wordpress.com/2014...e-oct-22-2014/

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by rich07

Awesome news about Turner, I read that they've already decided their drivers for next year. I'm guessing it'll be Paltula and Cameron and if that's indeed so then that'll be brilliant to watch.

Turner is a great team led by a really good guy in Will Turner. Everyone knows Cameron is stupid fast. Now pretty much everyone knows Palttala is Pro fast, even with his current FIA Silver ranking. And in full disclosure, I've talked with Will the last 2 seasons about running one of their Z4's in PWC (2014 before I agreed to the Ferrari deal and for 2015).

However, in the real world I don't know how they'd get the budget to run the cars from those 2 drivers. Palttala might bring a little bit, but not enough to run the car for the entire season and definitely not enough to support both cars. Since they're buying new cars I'd bet the intention is to rent them as a customer program to get their (Turner) money back. They're very good GT-A cars because unlike most of the other GT3's, they have yaw-control. Not Just ABS and TC.

-mike

[JorritVD]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

Turner is a great team led by a really good guy in Will Turner. Everyone knows Cameron is stupid fast. Now pretty much everyone knows Palttala is Pro fast, even with his current FIA Silver ranking. And in full disclosure, I've talked with Will the last 2 seasons about running one of their Z4's in PWC (2014 before I agreed to the Ferrari deal and for 2015).

However, in the real world I don't know how they'd get the budget to run the cars from those 2 drivers. Palttala might bring a little bit, but not enough to run the car for the entire season and definitely not enough to support both cars. Since they're buying new cars I'd bet the intention is to rent them as a customer program to get their (Turner) money back. They're very good GT-A cars because unlike most of the other GT3's, they have yaw-control. Not Just ABS and TC.

-mike

Yes, Palttala is for sure a gold rated driver. But I don't think he is platinum.

I don't think Palttala brings money directly, but could Turner has some of a construction with MarcVDS owner Marc van der Straten maybe? Because I thought Turner have some people from the MarcVDS team during the race weekends working on the car. So maybe Turner gets some kind of discount with paying the MarcVDS mechanics/engineers if Palttala drives?

[Canada ALMS fan]

Next year is going to be mega! The announcements just keep coming.
http://www.racer.com/pwc/item/110089...-on-gt-program

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Canada ALMS fan

Next year is going to be mega! The announcements just keep coming.
http://www.racer.com/pwc/item/110089...-on-gt-program

Could they be going after a Mercedes?

[Jameson]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

They're very good GT-A cars because unlike most of the other GT3's, they have yaw-control. Not Just ABS and TC.
-mike

I though the yaw-control / DSC / ESP was banned end of 2013. At least I've read the Z4s haven't been using it anymore in Europe this season.

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by Jameson

I though the yaw-control / DSC / ESP was banned end of 2013. At least I've read the Z4s haven't been using it anymore in Europe this season.

I don't know about that, but the ones here in North America have it.

-mike

[Jameson]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

I don't know about that, but the ones here in North America have it.
-mike

That's pretty weird, but you know better! I actually thought the Turner Z4 was the only Z4 GT3 / GTD in the States.

[BullMan]

And the numbers keep swelling: Dragonspeed will have 2, possibly 3 Mercedes SLS on the grid:

http://www.racer.com/pwc/item/110130...rs-on-the-rise

Is there going to be a point when they realize they don't need the Porsche Cup class? I guess they might be hedging their bets on a downturn in numbers in 2016 when TUSC finally get's their heads out of their butts.

[TF110]

All they need now is a GT Viper and a Lexus

[NaBUru38]

And a Jaguar F-Type...

[TRspitfirefan]

While we're dreaming, how about a couple of Nissan GTRs and a few full season V12 Vantages.
PWC already boasts a really stellar grid, but there's always room for more!

The possibilities are almost endless!

[jasonjessica09]

Originally Posted by TRspitfirefan

While we're dreaming, how about a couple of Nissan GTRs and a few full season V12 Vantages.
PWC already boasts a really stellar grid, but there's always room for more!

The possibilities are almost endless!

It looks like at this point every major make in GT3 racing will be represented in the series accept for Nissan. Lets hope someone comes with that. But yeah PWC will be the premier all GT sprint series in the world in 2015 for sure. Also I think this series will have more manufacturer diversity that the Blancpain Endurance Series.

I am not a fan of ELMS GTC by the way because there are too many Ferraris and those cars have a 40 kg weight penalty to slow them down I think. Don't like neutered GT3 cars. Kinda like GTD through next year.

2015 will be the peak year for PWC. It will lose a little bit the year after but will still be strong. They should stick to sprint races to give them a unique identity from TUSC which will be enduros with pit crews and tire changes required.

[MitchZ06]

Uh, GTC in ELMS is far and away better than GTD, add a bit of weight to your GT3 and go racing vs *******ize it and change the wing, electronics changes, etc. They're really nothing alike....

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Don't get me wrong and I'm Not saying I don't like all these cars,but I don't think PWC is going to be all that stellar.i don't trust scca to handle this many cars and quality teams all at once,scca and PWC is has been more geared towards am and club racing.the grid is exploding with all these new cars and teams,but how about scca and the staff are they hiring race directors,tech inspectors,new rules or is it going to be a free for all.seriously they are going to be forced to split gt and gts,will indycar weekends even allow that?and seriously the standing starts need to go or it's going to be a distruction derby when the lights go out.

I want to see all these cars and great racing,but one hour is not enough when there's cautions.and erlier this year they were good at not calling them but as the year went on we saw 20-30 fcy which ruined several races.add more cars,more am drivers and more aggressive pro drivers for 2015 and I forsee 20-30 minute gt3 perades.not that I don't like gt3 but I want to see full on racing.1:30-2 hour races are considered sprint races,1 hour. Heck that's just warm up.then with this many teams and manufactures getting involved don't think PWC won't change bop in Cadillacs favor when it feels like it.

I really hope PWC and scca can pull off 2015, might have to be the first race series to implement code 60 in the US,that would be cool but I HIGHLY doubt that will ever happen.

[Mechanic Z]

Originally Posted by Lagunaseca_4life

Don't get me wrong and I'm Not saying I don't like all these cars,but I don't think PWC is going to be all that stellar.i don't trust scca to handle this many cars and quality teams all at once,scca and PWC is has been more geared towards am and club racing.the grid is exploding with all these new cars and teams,but how about scca and the staff are they hiring race directors,tech inspectors,new rules or is it going to be a free for all.

They actually have a race director, Geoff Carter. Seems to be well-respected, and he's done a pretty good job since I've been watching, as best as I can recall.

seriously they are going to be forced to split gt and gts,will indycar weekends even allow that?and seriously the standing starts need to go or it's going to be a distruction derby when the lights go out.

They are actually planning on splitting GT and GTS already:

http://sportscar365.com/world-challe...dule-revealed/

I want to see all these cars and great racing,but one hour is not enough when there's cautions.and erlier this year they were good at not calling them but as the year went on we saw 20-30 fcy which ruined several races.add more cars,more am drivers and more aggressive pro drivers for 2015 and I forsee 20-30 minute gt3 perades.not that I don't like gt3 but I want to see full on racing.1:30-2 hour races are considered sprint races,1 hour. Heck that's just warm up.then with this many teams and manufactures getting involved don't think PWC won't change bop in Cadillacs favor when it feels like it.

I'd like to see longer races, but the twin one-hour race format is actually okay, IMO. With GT and the new GT cup class running separate from GTS, should be a bit less speed difference; hopefully that will lead to less cautions. Actually, I thought PWC did a pretty good job with cautions this year. They kept them fairly short, and didn't seem to just throw them around that much, I thought. Plus, they have a traveling safety team. Keep them safe!

As for the BoP, weren't the Cadillacs actually still slower than the other cars, post BoP changes? They sure seemed it.


To me, World Challenge is pretty cool right now, and looks like it's going to be better still in 2015. Let's make sure their events are well-attended!

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Originally Posted by Mechanic Z

To me, World Challenge is pretty cool right now, and looks like it's going to be better still in 2015. Let's make sure their events are well-attended!

I agree,just right now I feel that they may be getting a little ahead of them selfs.i do hope it works out for a great season.