2016 Utah Motorsports Campus - 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.

Utah Motorsports Campus hosted rounds sixteen and seventeen for the GT cars in early August. Teams competed on the fifteen-turn 3.048-mile ‘Outer Course’.

Saturday’s overall and GT class podium at the 2016 Grand Prix of UMC presented by Energy Solutions. To the left is the runner-up Adderly Fong from Bentley Team Absolute. And, on the right competing in the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R is Patrick Long. In the center, victorious for the first time is Nissan driver Bryan Heitkotter. The trio repeated this performance in round seventeen.

Bryan Heitkotter, driving the No. 05 AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R GT3 scored his first Pirelli World Challenge GT win. In the weekend’s first race Heitkotter qualified third but an incident between the front row starters – Alvaro Parente and Michael Cooper – allowed him to take first and lead all twenty-six laps. He repeated his performance on Sunday – leading flag to flag for his second victory.

The final round of the weekend and Bryan Heitkotter gets the jump on pole-sitter Michael Lewis to lead the field of twenty-two starters into corner one. The second row of Patrick Long in the Wright Motorsports Porsche and the Bentley of Adderly Fong would also displace Lewis. He would finish fourth – 4.250-seconds behind Heitkotter.

In the GTA category, Martin Fuentes driving the Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 scored his ninth win of the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge season. On Sunday, Fuentes started eight positions behind class leader Frankie Montecalvo. Montecalvo jumped to an early lead but faded and was passed by Fuentes on lap-22. With his ninth victory of 2016, Fuentes established a new record for the most wins in a season.

During Saturday’s race the Porsche GT Cup competitors line-up single file through ‘The Attitudes’. Leading the group is eventual race winner Sloan Urry in a car prepared by TruSpeed Motorsports. Urry is followed by series points lead Alex Udell. Udell led laps twelve through eighteen and for the remaining eight circuits Urry was out front to score his fifth victory of the season.

Alec Udell qualified the GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on the class pole for round fifteen. After twenty-six laps of close racing with Sloan Urry he finished in the runner-up position. In Sunday’s event, Udell started first again but this time, the challenge came from Mckay Snow. He passed Snow for the lead on lap-16 to notch up his tenth win of the season and increase his points lead over Urry.

2016 was the first appearance for Adderly Fong in the Pirelli World Challenge championship. Fong entered the series as an experienced driver with the 2013 Audi R8 LMS Cup title to his credit. Fong’s best World Challenge finish to date had been a second at Road America in round thirteen. At the Utah Motorsports Campus event, he would match this result on Saturday and Sunday driving a Bentley Continental GT3.

Driving the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R prepared by Wright Motorsports was Michael Schein. Schein competed in the GTA class and started last in the category after it was decided to change a tire before Saturday’s race. In round fourteen, he was able to pass Brent Holden in another Porsche and finish third. Capitalizing on Frankie Montecalvo issues in Sunday’s event, Schein finished in the runner-up spot.

GT points leader Alvaro Parente championship hopes took a hit in round fifteen at Utah. Parente topped the charts in practice and qualifying driving the K-Pax McLaren 650S GT3. At the start of Saturday’s race, he and Michael Cooper in a Cadillac made contact. The impact damaged Parente’s suspension and he was forced to retire. As a result, he scored no points and started last in round sixteen. The best Parente could do on Sunday was eleventh and he lost the points lead.

Local resident and rookie Mckay Snow had ‘a lot to live up to’. Snow’s parents Martin and Melanie and his brother Madison have had a great deal of success racing sports cars. Mckay did not disappoint as he finished third in his first Pirelli World Challenge outing. In round sixteen on Sunday, the Porsche GT Cup driver led laps one through fifteen and eventually finished second to points leader Alec Udell.

Frankie Montecalvo looked set to dominate the GTA class at the Utah Motorsport Campus. Montecalvo’s practice and qualifying times placed him among the more experienced professional GT drivers. In round sixteen, he started thirteenth overall and finished ninth to capture the class victory. Montecalvo dominated Sunday’s race until slowed by an issue – he finished last in the GTA category and twentieth overall.

Patrick Long joined Wright Motorsports after round eight when EFFORT Racing decided to withdraw from the series. Starting with a new team early in the season did not appear to hinder Long’s performance. In the weekend’s first race, he started the No. 58 Porsche 911 GT3 R in fourth place and finished third. Long produced the same results in round seventeen but more important he took the GT points lead.

The GTA podium from the weekend’s final event. In the center is the winner Martin Fuentes who captured his ninth victory of 2016. In doing so, Fuentes set a new record for the most wins in a season. To Fuentes right is Wright Motorsports driver Michael Schein and completing the podium is Brent Holden from GMG Racing.

FINISH	CLASS	CLASS	DRIVER	TEAM / CAR	LAPS
1	1	GT	Bryan Heitkotter	Nissan GT Academy / Nissan GTR	26
2	2	GT	Adderly Fong	Bentley Team Absolute / Bentley Continental GT3	26
3	3	GT	Patrick Long	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 R	26
4	4	GT	Ryan Eversley	RealTime Racing / Acura TLX-GT	26
5	5	GT	Colin Thompson	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	26
6	6	GT	Austin Cindric	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	26
7	7	GT	Jon Fogarty	Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	26
8	8	GT	Spencer Pumpelley	RealTime Racing / Acura TLX-GT	26
9	1	GTA	Frankie Montecalvo	DIME Racing / Mercedes AMG SLS GT3	26
10	10	GT	Craig Dolby	Nissan GT Academy / Nissan GTR	26
11	11	GT	Kyle Marcelli	CRP Racing / Audi R8 LMS GT3	26
12	2	GTA	Martin Fuentes	Scuderia Corsa / Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	26
13	3	GTA	Michael Schein	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 R	26
14	14	GT	Johnny O'Connell	Cadillac Racing / Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3	26
15	15	GT	Michael Cooper	Cadillac Racing / Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3	26
16	4	GT Cup	Brent Holden	GMG Racing / Porsche 911 GT3 R	26
17	1	GT Cup	Sloan Urry	TruSpeed Autosport / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	26
18	2	GT Cup	Alec Udell	GMG Racing / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	26
19	3	GT Cup	McKay Snow	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	25
20	4	GT Cup	Alex Welch	GMG Racing / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	25
21	5	GT Cup	Corey Fergus	Motorsports Promotions / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	25
22	17	GT Cup	Michael Lewis	Calvert /Curb-Agajanian / Porsche 911 GT3 R	24
23	18	GT	Alvaro Parente	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	2

FINISH	CLASS	CLASS	DRIVER	TEAM / CAR	LAPS
1	1	GT	Bryan Heitkotter	Nissan GT Academy / Nissan GTR	28
2	2	GT	Adderly Fong	Bentley Team Absolute / Bentley Continental GT3	28
3	3	GT	Patrick Long	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 R	28
4	4	GT	Michael Lewis	Calvert /Curb-Agajanian / Porsche 911 GT3 R	28
5	5	GT	Jon Fogarty	Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	28
6	6	GT	Michael Cooper	Cadillac Racing / Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3	28
7	7	GT	Colin Thompson	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	28
8	8	GT	Craig Dolby	Nissan GT Academy / Nissan GTR	28
9	9	GT	Kyle Marcelli	CRP Racing / Audi R8 LMS GT3	28
10	10	GT	Johnny O'Connell	Cadillac Racing / Cadillac ATS-V.R. GT3	28
11	11	GT	Alvaro Parente	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	28
12	12	GT	Austin Cindric	K-PAX Racing / McLaren 650S GT3	28
13	1	GTA	Martin Fuentes	Scuderia Corsa / Ferrari 458 Italia GT3	28
14	2	GTA	Michael Schein	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 R	28
15	3	GTA	Brent Holden	GMG Racing / Porsche 911 GT3 R	27
16	1	GT Cup	Alec Udell	GMG Racing / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	27
17	2	GT Cup	McKay Snow	Wright Motorsports / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	27
18	3	GT Cup	Corey Fergus	Motorsports Promotions / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	27
19	4	GT Cup	Alex Welch	GMG Racing / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	27
20	4	GTA	Frankie Montecalvo	DIME Racing / Mercedes AMG SLS GT3	24
21	5	GT Cup	Sloan Urry	TruSpeed Autosport / Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	21
22	17	GT	Ryan Eversley	RealTime Racing / Acura TLX-GT	20
23	-	GT	Spencer Pumpelley	RealTime Racing / Acura TLX-GT	0

Copyright Notice:

All content (photographs and text) appearing on this website are the exclusive property of © www.zoompics.com and are protected under International copyright laws. The subject matter on this website may not be reproduced, copied, stored or manipulated.