Pirelli World Challenge GT & GTS Racing - Sonoma 2016

Pirelli World Challenge GT cars turning into the hairpin at the end of Sonoma's drag strip.  Car number 45, Porsche 911 GT3, was racing in the GTA class

Supporting the Indy Car GoPro Grand Prix at Sonoma in September were some really excellent GT races that were part of the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge Championships road racing series.  They featured some extremely close and competitive racing, some well known drivers such as Patrick Long and a mouth watering selection of GT cars.   It is not in many series where you see cars from Audi, Cadillac, McLaren, Porsche, Nissan, Maserati, Mercedes, Bentley, Ferrari, Lotus and Aston Martin out on the track!  

Ryan Eversley in the Acura TLS-GT that was racing in the GT class.   Here he is seen exiting turn 3.   Acura is a brand used by Honda.   This car has a 3.5 litre turbocharged engine producing 550hp.

GT Class
The GT class is for FIA GT3 cars, luxury brand sports or GT vehicles.  They can be two door coupé or sedan models with rear wheel drive and have turbocharged or normally aspirated engines with 500hp plus.  The PWC attracts an amazing variety of cars into this class as can be seen below:

John Fogarty in the McLaren 650S GT3 entering turn 2 at Sonoma.

Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 3.8 litre turbocharged GT car.

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 6.2 litre GT Coupé entering the turn 7 hairpin.

Johnny O'Connell, four times driver's champion in this series in his Cadillac ATS-VR GT3. 

Kyle Marcelli in his Audi R8 LMS Ultra.

Adderley Fong in the Bentley Continental GT3

Gunnar Jeanette in a Porsche 991 GT3R

GTA Class
The GTA class is for GT cars driven by Gentlemen drivers rather than the professionals or semi-professionals.   They race with the GT cars.

The Mexican driver, Martin Fuentes, in a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3

Andy Wilzoch in the Flying Lizards Porsche GT3R

Drew Regitz in the Audi R8 LMS GT3

Tim Pappas in a Porsche

GTS Class
The GTS cars have lower power than the GT cars and are 300-400hp and have a lower permissible prep level.

Ford Mustang Boss 302 driven by Nate Stacy

Martin Barkey in a KTM XBow GT4

Scott Heckart in a Sin R1 GT4

Greg Milzcik in an Aston Martin Vantage GT4

Jeff Courtney in a Maserati Gran Tourismo MC Trofeo leads a similar car through Turn 2.

The Lotus Evora GT4 of Kevin Marshall

Harry Gottsacker's Ginetta GT4 leads a group in the GTS race.

Tony Gaples in a Chevrolet Camaro Z28

GT CUP Class
The GT Cup class is for 2015-2016 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup spec cars with about 400hp.  They race with the GT cars.

Preston Calvert in his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in Turn 3.

The GT Race
This was an exciting race which Austin Cindric led for a long time in his McLaren before finally getting beaten by Johnny O'Connel's Cadillac.  Top GTA car was the Porsche of Michael Schein who just beat the Ferrari of Martin Fuentes.

Austin Cindric's McLaren leads on the first lap at the hairpin turn 7.  He is followed by 2 Cadillacs, 2 more McLarens, a Porsche and a Nissan.

Further down the field the Acura battles it out with the Porsches, Ferrari and Bentley.

The field exits the hairpin and enters the Esses.  Close racing throughout.

The No.97 Porsche of Gunnar Jeanette spins on the exit of the hairpin.

Patrick Long's Porsche finished in eighth position.  Here he leads a Nissan and a Ferrari.

The battle for the lead between McLaren and Cadillac between turns 3 and 4.

The GTS Race
The GTS race was also great entertainment with Nate Stacy just holding off the pack to take a win in his Mustang.

Stacy's Mustang leads the field into the second corner on lap 1.

Further down the field a Sin R1 leads the Maseratis.

After a lap or two the Mustang had a definite lead from the KTM XBows. The sixth place Ginetta eventually finished second. 

Ginetta about to gobble up a KTM XBow.

Mark Klenin eventually finished eighth in his Maserati.

Top XBow driver was Hugh Plumb in third place.

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