20 Cars Entered For GT World Challenge Road America Weekend

Just five races remain in the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS season, making next weekend’s double-header weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, a crucial marker in the hunt for the series’ three sets of championships.

20 cars are on the provisional entry list for the Road America weekend which comprises the ninth and tenth rounds of the season.

Up front in the Pro Cup category, Andrea Caldarelli still leads the Drivers’ standings by 47 points over his K-PAX Racing team mate and former co-driver Jordan Pepper. K-PAX’s year-long undefeated streak came to an end at Watkins Glen, but both the black #1 K-PAX Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Caldarelli and Michele Beretta, and the sister green #3 car of Pepper and Misha Goikhberg, will aim to right the ship at “America’s National Park of Speed.”

However, the #33 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis could well be the favourite for the outright victories – not only because the 6.4 kilometre circuit tends to favour the Mercedes-AMG’s higher top speeds, but for the simple matter that this team and these drivers just picked up a GTD class win at the IMSA Road America round earlier this month!

To that end, the #6 US Racetronics AMG GT3 (Steven Aghakhani/Loris Spinelli) and the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 (Michael Dinan/Robby Foley) look to continue their rivalry as they battle for second in the teams’ standings, separated by just five points. Dinan and Foley won outright in Race 2 at Road America a year ago, driving the previous M6 GT3.

In the Pro-Am ranks, the #04 CrowdStrike with Riley Motorsports AMG GT3 of George Kurtz and Colin Braun leads by 21 points over the #45 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R of Charlie Luck and Jan Heylen. Heylen and Wright Motorsports took the Pro-Am victory in Race 1 at Road America last year, and the Belgian veteran held off Braun to take the outright victory in Race 1 at Watkins Glen last month.

But Kurtz took charge with a final-minutes pass to take the overall win in Race 2 at the Glen. With a Spa 24 Hours class win in hand, Kurtz and his co-driver Braun will look to build upon their own impressive run of three class victories and seven podiums in the first eight races – as Kurtz bids for GT World Challenge America and GT America SRO3 class titles in 2022.

Don’t count out the #93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 (Ashton Harrison/Mario Farnbacher), which currently sits third in the standings, 46 points back of Kurtz and Braun. Racers Edge won their class in Race 2 last season and are one of the two other teams that have a class win this season. The other is the #13 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo (Justin Wetherill/Ryan Dalziel) – Dalziel is weeks removed from an LMP2 class win at Road America, while Wetherill won on the streets of Nashville in GT America that same weekend.

Then there’s local heroes RealTime Racing, who are as motivated as ever to perform at their home event. The last time the World Challenge mainstays competed at Road America, Mike Hedlund and Dane Cameron won overall in an Acura NSX GT3. Three years later, Erin Vogel and Michael Cooper will be aiming for similar success with a class win of their own.

The #38 ST Racing M4 (Samantha Tan/Nick Wittmer) is expected to return after missing the Watkins Glen round, while the black and red #191 Lamborghini of Jeff Burton and Corey Lewis will now be entered by TR3 Racing. TR3 had previously fielded a car for Ziad Ghandour and Giacomo Altoe through the VIR round. Zelus Motorsports will still sponsor the Burton-led entry, which exited the Watkins Glen meeting early after Burton crashed both his primary and alternate chassis.

The Am Cup will welcome back the #61 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 (Jean-Claude Saada/Conrad Grunewald) after missing Watkins Glen, and for the first time this season, GMG Racing will enter the #032 Porsche 911 GT3-R for Kyle Washington and James Sofronas, who make the step up from GT America.

Currently, the #23 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari of Onofrio Triarsi and Charlie Scardina leads the Am standings by 100 points thanks to the recent absence of their rivals at AF Corse, and could clinch the championship this weekend by winning their class in both races this weekend.

FGTWCA PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST >>

Images © Brian Cleary, Sarah Weeks / SRO Motorsports Group America