GMG
Racing Press Release
SANTA
ANA, Calif. (October 3, 2013)- Following
a roller coaster of a season that has seen James Sofronas and the entire Global
Motorsports Group (GMG) in a season-long championship battle with Johnny O’Connell’s
No. 3 Cadillac CTS-V.R, everything will boil down to this Sunday’s finale
during the Foametix Grand Prix of Houston.
“Whatever happens on Sunday, everyone on this team should be
proud of getting to this point,” stated Sofronas. “We’ve come so close to
winning this thing in the past, nothing would make me happier than to finally
take it; especially in our first full year with Audi. The way the points are
shaping up, it should be a straight fight between Johnny and I on Sunday, so
we’ll just have to keep our heads down and see where it goes.”
With Sofronas and the No.14 The Thermal Club / Hoffman Power
Weight / Swisher Racing / Mobil 1 Audi R8 LMS a mere 21 points ahead of their
Cadillac challengers, Sunday’s race promises to be a close fight. With World
Challenge’s point system, a series of pole positions, fastest laps and
victories by O’Connell could usurp the GMG team regardless finishing position.
With that the Villa Park, California resident knows he must do everything he
can to say ahead.
Luckily for James, he will not go it alone as the team will
welcome Audi factory driver René Rast to the fold this weekend. Driving the No.
95 Swisher Racing Audi R8 LMS, Rast will join Sofronas in an effort to bolster
the team’s championship hopes.
Rast, from Minden, Germany, will be making his debut in the
Pirelli World Challenge but is no stranger to American competition. In 2012, he
won the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, and followed it up with a podium run during
this year’s event. He currently competes in the FIA GT series, where he has taken
multiple pole positions.
This is all possible thanks to GMG veteran Bill Ziegler, who
came up with the idea to step out of his No. 95 Swisher Racing machine in favor
of the talented German.
“I can’t tell you how much it means to me that Bill has so
graciously allowed René to run with us this weekend,” continued Sofronas. “Bill
and everyone at Swisher Racing have been such a loyal part of the GMG program,
that you can never fully pay back what they’ve done to help out. Similarly,
Audi has really gone out of their way to help us out in securing René. His
record speaks for itself, and it will bolster our team effort that much more.”
Practice for this weekend’s event begin tomorrow morning at
8:35AM CT, with the race taking place on Sunday. Live coverage of the series
finale can be found live on world-challengetv.com at 10:45AM CT.
Photo credit: GMG Racing
