Michelin Pilot Challenge

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File: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 and thus simplified their branding name by removing Sports Car term.[1]

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 Grand Sport (GT4) and TCR 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

  • Until 2013, broadcasts were to Fox Sports 1, formerly Speed Channel. All telecasts are uploaded to the series website after their initial airing.
  • From 2019 season, NBC Sports telecast Delayed-Race and IMSA TV has telecast live via Peacock.
  • In some countries, NASCAR Holdings (which owns IMSA) feature the Michelin Pilot Challenge is included in NASCAR's media rights deals in Mexico and Brazil that includes NASCAR's three national series, IMSA's two major series, and American Flat Track, all of which have broadcasts produced by NASCAR.
  • IMSA TV, which is controlled by NASCAR Productions, has international rights in selected countries.

Vehicles

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

  • The Grand Sport (GS) class features large-displacement 6-cylinder, 8-cylinder, 10-cylinder or 12-cylinder sports cars as well as small displacement 4-cylinder forced induction sports cars.
  • The Street Tuner (ST) class is for smaller 4-cylinder, 5-cylinder or 6-cylinder sedans, hatchbacks, coupes or convertibles.

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

Season GS Champion Car ST / TCR Champion Car
2004[3] Template:Flagicon Craig Stanton
Template:Flagicon Terry Borcheller 		Cadillac CTS-V Template:Flagicon David Haskell
Template:Flagicon Sylvain Tremblay 		Mazda RX-8
2005[4] Template:Flagicon David Empringham
Template:Flagicon Scott Maxwell 		Ford Mustang Template:Flagicon David Haskell
Template:Flagicon Sylvain Tremblay 		Mazda RX-8 (2)
2006[5] Template:Flagicon Anders Hainer
Template:Flagicon Boris Said 		BMW M3 Template:Flagicon Don Salama
Template:Flagicon Will Turner 		BMW 330i
2007[6] Template:Flagicon Jeff Segal
Template:Flagicon Jep Thornton 		BMW M3 (2) Template:Flagicon Trevor Hopwood
Template:Flagicon Adam Burrows 		BMW 330i (2)
2008[7] Template:Flagicon Joe Foster
Template:Flagicon Scott Maxwell 		Ford Mustang (2) Template:Flagicon Jamie Holtom Chevrolet Cobalt SS
2009[8] Template:Flagicon Kenny Wilden Ford Mustang (3) Template:Flagicon Chris Miller Honda Civic Si
2010[9] Template:Flagicon Charles Espenlaub
Template:Flagicon Charlie Putman 		BMW M3 (3) Template:Flagicon David Thilenius[N 1]
Template:Flagicon Lawson Aschenbach[N 1] 		Honda Civic Si (2)
2011[10] Template:Flagicon Paul Dalla Lana BMW M3 (4) Template:Flagicon Niclas Jönsson Kia Forte Koup
2012[11] Template:Flagicon John Farano[N 2]
Template:Flagicon David Empringham[N 2] 		Porsche 997 Template:Flagicon Pierre Kleinubing
Template:Flagicon Jason Clunie 		Mazdaspeed3 (3)
2013[12] Template:Flagicon Nick Longhi
Template:Flagicon Matt Plumb 		Porsche 997 (2) Template:Flagicon Terry Borcheller
Template:Flagicon Mike LaMarra 		BMW 128i (3)
2014[13] Template:Flagicon Trent Hindman BMW M3 Coupe (5) Template:Flagicon Eric Foss BMW 328i (4)
Porsche Cayman
2015[14] Template:Flagicon Andrew Davis
Template:Flagicon Robin Liddell 		Chevrolet Camaro Template:Flagicon Stevan McAleer
Template:Flagicon Chad McCumbee 		Mazda MX-5 (4)
2016[15] Template:Flagicon Billy Johnson
Template:Flagicon Scott Maxwell 		Ford Mustang GT350R-C (4) Template:Flagicon Nick Galante
Template:Flagicon Spencer Pumpelly 		Porsche Cayman (2)
2017[16] Template:Flagicon Dillon Machavern
Template:Flagicon Dylan Murcott 		Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR (3) Template:Flagicon Eric Foss Porsche Cayman (3)
2018[17] Template:Flagicon Hugh Plumb
Template:Flagicon Owen Trinkler 		Mercedes-AMG GT4 Template:Flagicon ST: Devin Jones
Template:Flagicon ST: Nick Galante
Template:Flagicon TCR: Britt Casey Jr.
Template:Flagicon TCR: Tom Long 		ST: BMW 328i (5)
TCR: Audi RS 3 LMS
2019 Template:Flagicon Tyler McQuarrie
Template:Flagicon Jeff Westphal 		Audi R8 LMS GT4 Template:Flagicon Michael Lewis
Template:Flagicon Mark Wilkins 		Hyundai Veloster N TCR
2020 Template:Flagicon Kyle Marcelli
Template:Flagicon Nate Stacy 		Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Template:Flagicon Gabby Chaves
Template:Flagicon Ryan Norman 		Hyundai Veloster N TCR (2)
2021 Template:Flagicon Jan Heylen Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport (4) Template:Flagicon Michael Lewis
Template:Flagicon Taylor Hagler 		Hyundai Veloster N TCR (3)
2022 Template:Flagicon Alan Brynjolfsson
Template:Flagicon Trent Hindman 		Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (2) Template:Flagicon Taylor Hagler (2)
Template:Flagicon Michael Lewis (2) 		Hyundai Elantra N TCR (4)
2023 Template:Flagicon Vincent Barletta
Template:Flagicon Robby Foley 		BMW M4 GT4 Gen II (6) Template:Flagicon Harry Gottsacker
Template:Flagicon Robert Wickens 		Hyundai Elantra N TCR (5)
2024[18] Template:Flagicon Matt Plumb Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (3) Template:Flagicon Chris Miller

South AfricaScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Mikey Taylor

Audi RS 3 LMS TCR (2)

Notes

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  1. ↑ a b 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. ↑ a b 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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References

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External links

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