{"id":2325,"date":"2010-02-10T14:30:24","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T19:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2010-02-10T14:30:24","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T19:30:24","slug":"new-entries-in-grand-touring-challenge-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/alms\/new-entries-in-grand-touring-challenge-class\/","title":{"rendered":"New entries in Grand Touring Challenge Class"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The Challenge is on. With four classes of cars all traveling at different speeds, the American Le Mans Series\u2019 on-track action will be even more exciting in 2010.<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After a successful debut in 2009 at five races, the Series is expanding the Grand Touring Challenge (GTC) class for all nine events this year in conjunction with the ACO.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The GT Challenge class features three specifications of Porsche\u2019s 911 GT3 Cup car, which are based on the road-going Porsche 911 GT3 RS. The power for the 2010-spec car has increased over last year &#8211; about one to two seconds faster. The car also has an output of 450 bhp, a top speed of 150 mph, and a maximum engine speed of 8,500 rpm.<\/p>\n<p>The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup also is featured in IMSA\u2019s Patr\u00f3n GT3 Challenge by Yokohama, one of the sanctioning body\u2019s premier development championships.<\/p>\n<p>With the season about to get under way with the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida, five new GTC teams have announced their entries, all of which will run on Yokohama\u2019s environmentally friendly ADVAN ENV-R02 tires. Combining orange oil with natural rubber to form a new compound, Yokohama\u2019s proprietary technology reduces petroleum by approximately 10 percent and increases recyclability while maintaining the high performance levels of previous race slick compounds.<\/p>\n<p>New GTC entries for 2010 include:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022<strong><em>Werks2\/P7 Racing<\/em><\/strong> &#8211; Running in its second year of Series competition with returning drivers Galen Bieker and Robert Rodriquez, who finished third in their debut race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.<br \/>\n\u2022<strong><em>GMG Racing<\/em><\/strong> &#8211; Competing for a full season after debuting at the 2009 season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Team owner James Sofronas will partner with Bret Curtis.<br \/>\n\u2022<strong><em>Kelly-Moss Motorsports<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Transitioning from the Patr\u00f3n GT3 Challenge by Yokohama, Kelly-Moss Motorsports will feature driver Darrell Carlisle in its Series debut.<br \/>\n\u2022<strong><em>Alex Job Racing<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 One of the most successful teams in Series history will be returning with a two-car assault: The No. 23 car will be piloted by Bill Sweedler, who returns as an entry after racing consecutively from 1999-2006 in the GT2 class, along with Romeo Kapudija; the No. 81 entry will be driven by Juan Gonzalez and Butch Leitzinger, who was a standout for Dyson Racing in LMP with seven prototype victories and 83 starts in the American Le Mans Series.<br \/>\n\u2022<strong><em>Velox Racing<\/em><\/strong> &#8211; returning after racing twice in the 2009 GT Challenge class with drivers Shane Lewis and Jerry Vento.<\/p>\n<p>These GTC entries will compete among the most professional and elite drivers, teams and manufacturers in the world. On track, the GTC cars will have red markings on their rear-wing endplates, mirrors and windscreens, to help differentiate from the rest of the field.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Source ALMS<br \/>\n\u00a9 RIF<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Challenge is on. With four classes of cars all traveling at different speeds, the American Le Mans Series\u2019 on-track action will be even more exciting in 2010. \u00a0 After a successful debut in 2009 at five races, the Series is expanding the Grand Touring Challenge (GTC) class for all nine events this year in &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[9],"tags":[5264,5334,682,5346,219,224],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2327,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions\/2327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}