2016 CTMP - World Challenge

The 2016 World Challenge season was the twenty-seventh consecutive year for the series. There were eleven race weekends – the series kicked-off in March at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) and ended at Laguna Seca in early October.

The vehicle classes were the same as the previous year:

Grand Touring (GT) – This is the series quickest class and is predominantly cars competing in the FIA GT3 category. Examples of vehicles racing in this class include: Porsche 911 GT3 R, Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, McLaren 650S GT3, Cadillac ATS-V.R GT3 and Ferrari 488 GT3.

Grand Touring Sportsman (GTA) – This class includes the same vehicles as GT, however, the drivers are not considered professionals. Competitors in this category are evaluated after each event and based on their performance may be elevated to the GT class.

GT Cup – This is a spec class for 2015-2016 Porsche 991 GT Cup cars.

Grand Touring Sport (GTS) – The cars in this class are similar to the GT vehicles but have more preparation restrictions. In previous years, this class was mainly comprised of Ford, Chevrolet and Porsche products. In 2016, the GTS category witnessed the appearance of a number of new vehicles which proved to be very competitive - KTM X-Box GT4, Ginetta G55 GT4 and SIN R1 GT4.

Touring Car (TC) – This class is for smaller sedans and sports cars which are allowed some performance modifications. Examples of vehicles competing in this category include: Honda Accord, Kia Forte, Mazda MX-5 and Porsche Boxster.

Touring Car A (TCA) – Many of the cars competing in this class are the same as those found in Touring Car. What sets them apart are the minimum amount of modifications that can be made – most changes are to improve the safety of the vehicles.

Touring Car B (TCB) - The slowest of all the World Challenge categories is based on the Sports Car Club of America’s B-Spec class. Examples of vehicles competing in this class include: Chevrolet Sonic, Honda Fit, Kia Rio, Mazda 2 and Mini Cooper.

The Canadian Tire Motorsport Park event had a total of twenty-six GT starters – GT 15-entries, GTA 11-entries and GT Cup 9-entries. Rounds eight and nine were 50-minutes in length around the ten-turn 2.459-mile road course.

Lap-1 of round eight and pole-sitter Patrick Long in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R leads the field through Moss Corner. Following Long is the second fastest qualifier, Andrew Palmer driving a Bentley Continental GT. Behind Palmer is the Acura TLX-GT of Ryan Eversley and Palmer’s teammate Adderly Fong.

Patrick Long started the season with EFFORT Racing and in the first seven races he had a win at COTA and a third at Long Beach. After round seven, EFFORT Racing announced that they would be withdrawing from the series. Long joined Wright Motorsports. In race eight, he started from the pole and led flag-to-flag. Sunday’s race was a repeat of the previous day’s performance. Long led from the pole and won by a margin of 2.743-seconds.

Chris Green a former Porsche GT3 Cup Canada Champion has many miles around Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, so it was no surprise that he grabbed the GT Cup pole position for Saturday’s race. At the start, Green maintained first place until lap-17 when he had to pit for a flat tire, this dropped him to fourth in class. He had much better luck the next day leading all thirty-laps to score his first World Challenge win.

In race eight, Andrew Palmer qualified his Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3 just 0.074-seconds behind pole-sitter Patrick Long. In the weekend’s first race, Palmer traded fastest laps with Long but was not close enough to challenge for the lead and finished second. In Round-Nine, he repeated Saturday’s performance – starting and finishing second.

Alex Udell was able to capitalize on Chris Green’s misfortune in round eight. Udell was gridded second in the GMG prepared Porsche 911 GT3 Cup but inherited the lead and win when Green suffered a flat tire. This was Udell’s fourth win of the 2016 season. The following day Udell was second in the GT Cup class at the checkered flag.

Patrick Long’s teammate at Wright Motorsports was GTA competitor Michael Schein. Schein driving a Porsche 911 GT3 R duplicated Long’s accomplishment but in the GTA class. He started from the pole and led flag-to-flag scoring his first two victories of the 2016 season.

Ryan Eversley was gridded third for race eight. The Acura TLX-GT driver finished third – 6.557-seconds behind winner Patrick Long. To date, this was his best result of the 2016 season. He would also start Sunday’s event from the third spot. A rain shower just before the race resulted in two-laps behind the pace car and a single file start. Entering turn-four on the first lap at speed Eversley and Adderly Fong made contact both drivers retired.

2015 World Challenge Touring Car Champion, Corey Fergus made the jump to the GT Cup class. Fergus was having a difficult season; he had a DNF in the fourth race at St. Petersburg and did not earn his first podium until round five at Barber Motorsports Park. At Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, he qualified fourth for Saturday’s race and earned the final spot on the podium. In the weekend’s second race, Fergus started and finished fourth.

1n 2016, Kyle Marcelli took over the driving duties of the CRP Racing Audi R8. Marcelli qualified and finished sixth in round eight. His time in Saturday’s race put him in the sixth grid position for Sunday’s event. The incident between Eversley and Fong at the start of race nine elevated Marcelli to fourth. At the checkered flag, he was fourth but second place James Davison’s 35.6-second penalty for an on-track altercation elevated Marcelli to third.

GTA points leader, Martin Fuentes, qualified the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 sixteenth overall and second in GTA for Saturday’s race. Mid-race Fuentes closed on race leader Schein but would settle for second at the checkered flag. On Sunday, he repeated his performance, finishing second in the GTA class.

Sloan Urry drove the No. 20 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup prepared by TruSpeed Autosport. Urry was in a tight battle for the GT Cup championship with Alex Uddel. He was gridded third for round eight and finished second after Chris Green had to pit for a new tire. On Sunday, he started and finished third in class. Urry left Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with a five-point lead over Uddel.

Competing in the GTA category was Bret Curtis racing a BMW M6 GT3. He started and finished third in Saturday’s race. In round nine he was scheduled to start eighteenth overall and third in class but the driver of Turner Motorsports BMW failed to start.

FINISH	CLASS	CLASS	DRIVER	TEAM / CAR	LAPS
1	1	GT	Patrick Long	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 R	39
2	2	GT	Andrew Palmer	Bentley Team Absolute / Bentley Continental GT3	39
3	3	GT	Ryan Eversley	RealTime Racing / Acura TLX-GT	39
4	4	GT	Adderly Fong	Bentley Team Absolute / Bentley Continental GT3	39
5	5	GT	J.D. Davison	AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy / Nissan GTR	39
6	6	GT	Kyle Marcelli	CRP Racing / Audi R8 LMS GT3	39
7	7	GT	Bryan Heitkotter	AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy / Nissan GTR	39
8	8	GT	Alvaro Parente	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	39
9	9	GT	Austin Cindric	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	39
10	10	GT	Andrew Davis	Calvert Dynamics / Porsche 911 GT3 R	39
11	11	GT	Michael Cooper	Cadillac Racing / Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3	39
12	12	GT	Johnny O'Connell	Cadillac Racing / Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3	39
13	13	GT	Peter Cunningham	RealTime Racing / Acura TLX-GT	39
14	1	GTA	Michael Schein	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 R	39
15	2	GTA	Martin Fuentes	Scuderia Corsa / Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	39
16	16	GT	Jon Fogarty	Gainsco / Bob Stallings Racing /McLaren 650S GT3	39
17	17	GT	Colin Thompson	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	38
18	3	GTA	Bret Curtis	Turner Motorsports / BMW M6 GT3	38
19	4	GTA	Brent Holden	GMG Racing / Porsche 911 GT3 R	37
20	1	GT Cup	Alec Udell	GMG / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	37
21	2	GT Cup	Sloan Urry	TruSpeed Autosport / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	37
22	3	GT Cup	Corey Fergus	Motorsports Promotions / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	36
23	5	GTA	Jorge De La Torre	De La Torre Racing Motor / Aston Martin Vantage	36
24	4	GT Cup	Chris Green	Pfaff Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	36
25	5	GT Cup	Preston Calvert	Calvert Dynamics / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	36

FINISH	CLASS	CLASS	DRIVER	TEAM / CAR	LAPS
1	1	GT	Patrick Long	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 R	30
2	2	GT	Andrew Palmer	Bentley Team Absolute / Bentley Continental GT3	30
3	3	GT	Kyle Marcelli	CRP Racing / Audi R8 LMS GT3	30
4	4	GT	Bryan Heitkotter	AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy / Nissan GTR	30
5	5	GT	Alvaro Parente	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	30
6	6	GT	Austin Cindric	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	30
7	7	GT	Michael Cooper	Cadillac Racing / Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3	30
8	8	GT	Andrew Davis	Calvert Dynamics / Porsche 911 GT3 R	30
9	9	GT	Johnny O'Connell	Cadillac Racing / Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3	30
10	1	GTA	Michael Schein	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 R	30
11	11	GT	J.D. Davison	AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy / Nissan GTR	30
12	12	GT	Peter Cunningham	RealTime Racing / Acura TLX-GT	30
13	2	GTA	Martin Fuentes	Scuderia Corsa / Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	30
14	14	GT	Colin Thompson	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	30
15	3	GTA	Frankie Montecalvo	DIME Racing / Mercedes AMG SLS GT3	30
16	16	GT	Jon Fogarty	Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	30
17	1	GT Cup	Chris Green	Pfaff Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	29
18	2	GT Cup	Alec Udell	GMG / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	29
19	3	GT Cup	Sloan Urry	TruSpeed Autosport / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	29
20	4	GT Cup	Corey Fergus	Motorsports Promotions / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	29
21	5	GT Cup	Preston Calvert	Calvert Dynamics / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	29
22	4	GTA	Jorge De La Torre	De La Torre Racing Motor / Aston Martin Vantage	28
23	18	GT	Ryan Eversley	RealTime Racing / Acura TLX-GT	2
24	19	GT	Adderly Fong	Bentley Team Absolute / Bentley Continental GT3	2
25	5	GTA	Brent Holden	GMG Racing / Porsche 911 GT3 R	0
26	6	GTA	Bret Curtis	Turner Motorsports / BMW M6 GT3	0

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