The 26th Pirelli World Challenge season opener takes place this weekend from Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. A total of 116 cars are entered between the Grand Touring and Touring Car disciplines.
Forty GT cars are entered for the Austin doubleheader, 19 in GT and 21 in GTA. Ten GT Cup drivers will make it an even 50 cars on the starting grid this weekend. This is the first year for the GT Cup class. Thirteen manufactures are represented across GT and GTA.
Johnny O'Connell has won the last three GT titles and he will look to get a debut victory for the Cadillac ATS-VR GT3. He will be in the #3 Cadillac while Andy Pilgrim returns for another season of PWC driving in the #8 Cadillac. Last season's GT runner-up Mike Skeen returns to the #2 CRP Racing Audi R8. IMSA GTD regular Madison Snow will join Skeen at CRP Racing this weekend in a the #21 CRP Audi. Two other Audis are entered in GT for Austin are PWC veteran James Sofronas in the #14 Audi R8 LMS ultra and Guy Cosmo in the #23 M1 Racing LLC Audi.
K-PAX Racing ended 2014 with Robert Thorne scoring McLaren's first victory in PWC. Thorne is back with K-PAX as the McLaren 650S GT3 makes it's PWC debut. Joining Thorne at K-PAX is Frenchman Kevin Éstre, a champion in Porsche Carrera Cup France and Germany and finished second in the 2012 Porsche SuperCup championship.
Team Bentley Dyson Racing ended their debut season with Guy Smith picking the Continental GT3's maiden victory in the final round. Chris Dyson replaces Smith in the #16 Bentley and Butch Leitzinger returns for another season in the #20.
Ryan Dalziel swept last year's race weekend at Mid-Ohio in the #31 EFFORT Racing Porsche 911 GT3R and finished second in three of the other four starts he made in 2014. The Scotsman will attempt most of the PWC but has one conflict with his FIA WEC schedule with Extreme Speed Motorsports. The PWC round at Sonoma and FIA WEC round at Nürburgring are the same weekend.
Three Ferraris are entered in GT. Six-time Le Mans class winner Olivier Beretta will run the #61 R.Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia. Scuderia Corsa has entered the other two Ferraris with Duncan Ende in the #64 and Mike Hedlund in the #65.
The only cars that do not meet FIA GT3-specifications in GT are the RealTime Racing Acura TLX-GTs. Peter Cunningham will be in the #42 and Ryan Eversley will be in the #43.
Indy Lights race winner and occasional IndyCar driver James Davison will make his PWC debut in the AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R GT3. Reiter Engineering has entered a Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 FL2 to be driven by Dutchman Nicky Catsburg. The lone Aston Martin in GT is the #28 LG Motorsport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 to be driven by Lou Gigliotti.
A few notable GT-A entrants. Christian Nielsen will run the #7 TRG Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3. Bret Curtis and Bill Ziegler will run the #32 and #95 Turner Motorsport BMW E89 Z4 GT3s respectively. Formula Three race winner Michael Lewis will drive the #41 Porsche 911 GT3R for EFFORT Racing. Drew Regitz moves from GTS to the #19 Audi R8 LMS Ultra for Stephen Cameron Racing. Risk Competizione will field the #62 Ferrari 458 Italia for Mexican Ricardo Perez. Brazilian Marcelo Hahn returns in the #0 Lamborghini Gallardo Extenso R-EX and Bryan Heitkotter will be teammate to Davison in the #05 Nissan GT Academy GT-R GT3.
NGT Motorsport will field a Ferrari in GTA for Henrique Cisneros and a Porsche in GT Cup for Eduardo Cisneros. Eduardo will be in the #29 with Henrique in the #30. GMG will not only field Sofronos in GT but Alec Udell in the #17 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Other notable GT Cup entries are the #18 TruSpeed Autosport Porsche of Phil Fogg, Jr. and #60 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Santiago Creed.
Twenty cars are entered in GTS this weekend. Defending champions Blackdog Speed Shop are with out their champion driver. Lawson Aschenbach, winner of the last two GTS titles, will not return in 2015. Michael Cooper and Tony Gaples will run the #10 and #11 Chevrolet Z28 Camaros respectively. Another Camaro in the GTS field will be the #20 BestIT Racing entry driven by Andy Lee.
Jack Baldwin finished runner-up in last year's championship and returns in the #73 GTSport Racing Porsche Caymen. Buz McCall will be Baldwin's teammate in the #72 Porsche. Kia Racing fell short in the championship battle despite having Mark Wilkins lead late in the season. The Canadian returns in the #38 Optima but will have a new teammate as Ben Clucas replaces Nic Jönsson in the #36 Optima. Dean Martin is back for another season after winning three races in 2014 in the #50 Rehagen Racing Ford Mustang Boss 302.
Jack Roush, Jr. finished fifth in last year's championship and will have two new teammates at Capaldi Racing. Nick Esayian moves over from the TRG Aston Martins to the #34 Ford Mustang. Dan Martinson will be in his rookie season in the #33 Ford. TRG will field two Aston Martin Vantage GT4s this season. Kris Wilson will be in the #07 and Derek DeBoer will drive the #09. Lou Gigliotti will also compete in GTS this weekend in the #28 Vantage GT4. Vesko Kozarov will drive the #23 Skullcandy Team Nissan 370Z.
This will be the second time PWC has raced at Circuit of the Americas. In 2013, the series ran on the same card as the V8 Supercars weekend. Johnny O'Connell and James Sofronas split the GT races that weekend while Lawson Aschenbach and Andy Lee split in GTS.
GT/GTA and GT Cup will all run together while GTS will have their own separate races. The GTS races are at 1:20 p.m. ET on Saturday and 11:20 a.m. ET on Sunday. The GT/GTA/GT Cup races will be 3:45 p.m. ET on Saturday and 2:25 p.m. ET on Sunday. All races can be seen live via World-ChallengeTV.com.
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