2012 World Challenge kicks off at St. Petersburg

The 2012 Pirelli World Challenge series opening rounds take place this weekend at St.Petersburg, Florida, supporting the first round of this year’s IndyCar Series.

Last year’s Touring Car class champion Lawson Aschenbach has moved up into the Challenge’s GT class this year, but Compass360 Racing return with a strong four car team at St. Petersburg, fielding four Honda Civics for Robb Holland, Todd Lamb, Ryan Winchester and Shea Holbrook.

TLM USA will field four cars this season, three Volkswagen Jettas for the Ricciardelli family, Roberto, Enzo and Augusto and a Honda Civic for Gustavo Michelsen.
HPA Motorsports will field a pair of Volkswagen Jetta GLIs for Mel Shaw and Tristan Herbert, who won one the two races at St. Petersburg last season on his World Challenge debut with his Brimtek Motorsports team. Brimtek will also be back, running their Volkswagen Golf for Patrick Seguin.

Former Canadian Touring Car Championship touring class champion Anthony Rapone will be racing a Honda Civic Si for Durabond Racing, whilst Michael Cooper disrupts the all Honda-Volkswagen show in his Mazdaspeed3 which will be run by Atlanta Motorsports Group bringing the Touring Car class entry list up to 15 cars.

In the Challenge’s GTS class, among the Porsche 911s, Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros will be four touring car type cars with the two Acura TSXs of RealTime Racing returning again with Peter Cunningham and Nick Esayian for the team, whilst Kinetic Motorsports joins the series this year with its two Kia Optima SXs for Colin Braun and Michael Galati.

Qualifying for both of this weekend’s races takes place at 08:00 EST on Saturday 24th March, with race one at 18:00 EST on the same day and race two at 11:00 EST on Sunday.

Entry List for Pirelli World Challenge Touring Class – St. Petersburg

03 – Michael Cooper – Atlanta Motorsports Group – Mazda Mazdaspeed3
33 – Tristan Herbert – HPA Motorsports – Volkswagen Jetta GLI
53 – Mel Shaw – HPA Motorsports – Volkswagen Jetta GLI
63 – Roberto Ricciardelli – TLM USA – Volkswagen Jetta GLI
64 – Carl Hober – Brandon Peterson Racing – Honda Civic
65 – Enzo Ricciardelli – TLM USA – Volkswagen Jetta GLI
66 – Augusto Ricciardelli – TLM USA – Volkswagen Jetta GTI
67 – Shea Holbrook – Compass360 Racing – Honda Civic Si
69 – Gustavo Michelsen – TLM USA – Honda Civic Si
70 – Robb Holland – Compass360 Racing – Honda Civic Si
71 – Todd Lamb – Compass360 Racing – Honda Civic Si
72 – Ryan Winchester – Compass360 Racing – Honda Civic Si
80 – Patrick Seguin – Brimtek Motorsports – Volkswagen Golf GTI
81 – Anthony Rapone – Durabond Racing – Honda Civic Si
88 – TBA – Caban Motorsports – Volkswagen Jetta GLI