Michelin Pilot Challenge

Last updated
Michelin Pilot Challenge
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge logo.svg
CategoryGrand touring
Touring car
CountryFlag of the United States.svg  United States
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada
Inaugural season1997
Drivers' championGS: Flag of the United States.svg Vincent Barletta
GS: Flag of the United States.svg Robby Foley
TCR: Flag of the United States.svg Harry Gottsacker
TCR: Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Robert Wickens
Makes' championGS: Flag of Germany.svg Mercedes-AMG
TCR: Flag of South Korea.svg Hyundai
Teams' championGS: Flag of the United States.svg #96 Turner Motorsport
TCR: Flag of the United States.svg #33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian
Official website michelinpilotchallenge.imsa.com
Motorsport current event.svg Current season
Competitors in the KONI Challenge on a pre-grid at New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2008 KONI Challenge New Jersey.jpg
Competitors in the KONI Challenge on a pre-grid at New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2008

The Michelin Pilot Challenge is a grand touring and touring car racing series run by the International Motor Sports Association. Originating from the Canadian Motorola Cup, the series was taken over by Grand-Am in 2001 to become the Grand-Am Cup following the demise of rival IMSA's Firehawk series of similar rules in the US. KONI became series sponsor for the start of the 2007 season when the series became known as the KONI Challenge Series, before renaming once more prior to the start of the 2009 season as the KONI Sports Car Challenge. The series name was once again changed for the 2010 season to Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. In 2019, the series rebranded again after Michelin was selected to become the new official tire supplier of the series. [1]

Contents

The Continental Challenge was the support series for Grand-Am's premier offering, the Rolex Sports Car Series. In 2014, the series became the support series for the United SportsCar Championship (now known as the IMSA SportsCar Championship) upon the merger of the Rolex Series and the American Le Mans Series.

Races

In traditional sports car racing format, the races are often run with both GS and ST classes on track simultaneously, which is known as a "combined" race. Occasionally the races will be run in "split classes", with separate races for both classes. This is especially common for shorter venues such as Lime Rock Park. Currently the races are 2 hours in length with a required driver change.

Telecasts

Vehicles

The series uses two classes in each race. Originally, these were:

From 2017, IMSA allowed cars built by "mainstream automotive manufacturers" to SRO GT4 regulations to compete, with a complete phase out of the original Grand-Am GS class the next year. Also in 2018, IMSA introduced TCR Touring Cars as a third class, with the intention of it replacing the Street Tuners as the second class, which happened the following year. [2]

The original format was reminiscent of the original Trans-Am Series, combining conventional sports cars and touring cars, though the Trans-Am Series usually had a single driver per car, unlike the Continental Challenge, which has two drivers per car. Some vehicles in the Continental Challenge have actually been wrapped to resemble the original Trans Am cars, such as the Boss 302 Mustangs of George Follmer and Parnelli Jones or the original Sunoco Camaro. As the Pilot Challenge consists of longer races (2-4 hours), the cars are also eligible for the United States Auto Club's Pirelli World Challenge GT4 or TCR classes, which are one-hour races.

Champions

SeasonGS ChampionCarST / TCR ChampionCar
2004 [3] Flag of the United States.svg Craig Stanton
Flag of the United States.svg Terry Borcheller
Cadillac CTS-V Flag of the United States.svg David Haskell
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Sylvain Tremblay
Mazda RX-8
2005 [4] Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg David Empringham
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Scott Maxwell
Ford Mustang Flag of the United States.svg David Haskell
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Sylvain Tremblay
Mazda RX-8 (2)
2006 [5] Flag of Sweden.svg Anders Hainer
Flag of the United States.svg Boris Said
BMW M3 Flag of the United States.svg Don Salama
Flag of the United States.svg Will Turner
BMW 330i
2007 [6] Flag of the United States.svg Jeff Segal
Flag of the United States.svg Jep Thornton
BMW M3 (2) Flag of the United States.svg Trevor Hopwood
Flag of the United States.svg Adam Burrows
BMW 330i (2)
2008 [7] Flag of the United States.svg Joe Foster
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Scott Maxwell
Ford Mustang (2) Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jamie Holtom Chevrolet Cobalt SS
2009 [8] Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Kenny Wilden Ford Mustang (3) Flag of the United States.svg Chris Miller Honda Civic Si
2010 [9] Flag of the United States.svg Charles Espenlaub
Flag of the United States.svg Charlie Putman
BMW M3 (3) Flag of the United States.svg David Thilenius [N 1]
Flag of the United States.svg Lawson Aschenbach [N 1]
Honda Civic Si (2)
2011 [10] Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Paul Dalla Lana BMW M3 (4) Flag of Sweden.svg Niclas Jönsson Kia Forte Koup
2012 [11] Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg John Farano [N 2]
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg David Empringham [N 2]
Porsche 997 Flag of Brazil.svg Pierre Kleinubing
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jason Clunie
Mazdaspeed3 (3)
2013 [12] Flag of the United States.svg Nick Longhi
Flag of the United States.svg Matt Plumb
Porsche 997 (2) Flag of the United States.svg Terry Borcheller
Flag of the United States.svg Mike LaMarra
BMW 128i (3)
2014 [13] Flag of the United States.svg Trent Hindman BMW M3 Coupe (5) Flag of the United States.svg Eric Foss BMW 328i (4)
Porsche Cayman
2015 [14] Flag of the United States.svg Andrew Davis
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Robin Liddell
Chevrolet Camaro Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Stevan McAleer
Flag of the United States.svg Chad McCumbee
Mazda MX-5 (4)
2016 [15] Flag of the United States.svg Billy Johnson
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Scott Maxwell
Ford Mustang GT350R-C (4) Flag of the United States.svg Nick Galante
Flag of the United States.svg Spencer Pumpelly
Porsche Cayman (2)
2017 [16] Flag of the United States.svg Dillon Machavern
Flag of the United States.svg Dylan Murcott
Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR (3) Flag of the United States.svg Eric Foss Porsche Cayman (3)
2018 [17] Flag of the United States.svg Hugh Plumb
Flag of the United States.svg Owen Trinkler
Mercedes-AMG GT4 Flag of the United States.svg ST: Devin Jones
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg ST: Nick Galante
Flag of the United States.svg TCR: Britt Casey Jr.
Flag of the United States.svg TCR: Tom Long
ST: BMW 328i (5)
TCR: Audi RS 3 LMS
2019 Flag of the United States.svg Tyler McQuarrie
Flag of the United States.svg Jeff Westphal
Audi R8 LMS GT4 Flag of the United States.svg Michael Lewis
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Mark Wilkins
Hyundai Veloster N TCR
2020 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Kyle Marcelli
Flag of the United States.svg Nate Stacy
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Flag of Colombia.svg Gabby Chaves
Flag of the United States.svg Ryan Norman
Hyundai Veloster N TCR (2)
2021 Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jan Heylen Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport (4) Flag of the United States.svg Michael Lewis
Flag of the United States.svg Taylor Hagler
Hyundai Veloster N TCR (3)
2022 Flag of the United States.svg Alan Brynjolfsson
Flag of the United States.svg Trent Hindman
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (2) Flag of the United States.svg Taylor Hagler (2)
Flag of the United States.svg Michael Lewis (2)
Hyundai Elantra N TCR (4)
2023 Flag of the United States.svg Vincent Barletta
Flag of the United States.svg Robby Foley
BMW M4 GT4 Gen II (6) Flag of the United States.svg Harry Gottsacker
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Robert Wickens
Hyundai Elantra N TCR (5)

Notes

  1. 1 2 The Bimmerworld 328i of Bill Heumann and Seth Thomas and the Compass360 Civic of Thilenius and Aschenbach finished the 2010 season tied in ST points. As both teams had the same number of wins and second-place finishes, Thilenius and Aschenbach won the title by virtue of having more third-place finishes.
  2. 1 2 Matt Plumb was victorious in the final race and was the presumed champion, but upon official review he was determined to have been illegally entered in multiple cars, and thus received no points, handing the championship to Farano and Empringham.

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