James-GMG

GMG Brings 4 car assault to Infineon


August 23rd:
Santa Ana, CA

Racing on the West Coast for the Pirelli World Challenge finale at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma CA is always eagerly anticipated by both the team and the drivers for GMG. With 4 cars entered for round 12, GMG will be very busy this weekend.
Anders Hainer will be running his 6th race of the season in the GMG/Under Armor/ McKenna Audi R8 as he continues to get faster and faster at each event. GMG will also be fielding 2 Porsches with local CA residents Brent Holden and newcomer to the team, Mike Hedlund. Brent has run several WC races with GMG as well as in other Porsche series and is looking forward to coming back to Infineon where he clinched his 2010 Pirelli Drivers Cup Championship. Mike brings a great deal of talent for a relatively young driver with only a little over a year of formal racing under his belt. Team Owner James Sofronas added, "I have been watching Mike drive at several of the IMSA and PCA events over the past year and there is no doubt he has the ability to compete at this level. He has logged a lot of laps here at Infineon and I think he knows this track very well, I look forward to working with him. Mike also commented about his first foray into the World Challenge ranks, " After getting my start in SCCA club racing last year, I'm very excited to have my first start with SCCA Pro Racing in the Pirelli World Challenge series at my home track, Sonoma! With the experience and success GMG has had in World Challenge over the years, I couldn't have wished for a better debut weekend. It'll certainly be a fun and exciting weekend of racing with my buddies from GMG and enjoying the fantastic Sonoma Valley weather with my friends and family in the stands! It's a big learning weekend for me and we might just surprise a few people!" Leading the GTS brigade for GMG is long standing team driver Bill Ziegler, who will pilot his Pontiac Solstice for the 2nd race weekend. Mid Ohio was more of a test session for the new car and GMG has spent the last 3 weeks working 16 hour days to take this car to the next level. Sonoma should be a great track for this lightweight and nimble coupe. Although it will be Bill's first time racing here, the team foresees a strong weekend in the #95 Swisher Racing Pontiac Solstice.



Video from all of this weekend's races will be streamed live on www.world-challengetv.com, with audio from qualifying also streaming live on Friday. Additionally, NBC Sports Network will air the races on Sunday, September 9 at 3:30 p.m. (EDT).

Update: Mike qualified 12th in the very competitive GT field and will make his first WC start tomorrow at noon.

Pics of Mike from practice and qualifying:

Laguna_Dude

Awesome! Way to go GMG!

Veloce Raptor

Kick butt, guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

analogmike

Odd not seeing James in the field, hope he's ok.

fleadh

Taking a little longer to come up to speed in the WC car, but making progress- faster each time we go out. Looking forward to the race this afternoon at 12 PST!

-mike

James-GMG

All is good Mike, thanks for asking.......playing Team Mgr this weekend making sure Mike and Anders and the rest are good to go!

Next year we will be running both a Porsche program and Audi R8 program in World Challenge, so it looks like another exciting WC season coming up in 2013.

James-GMG

Mike, you are doing a pretty good job since you had such little practice time.....I know you will do well in the race......gotta get you set up on the launch control for the start!

Live video feed today for the race here:http://www.world-challengetv.com/ at Noon PST.

mooty

go get them, mike!

GuyIncognito

sweet! didn't realize you guys get to run on the IndyCar weekend!

good luck guys!

FFaust

6 minutes to go. Got to get the

James-GMG

UPDATE:

Mike finished a very respectable 8th place today after starting 12. He was patient and showed a lot of experience and picked his spots to move up the order during the race.
8th in this field, running laptimes just over a second slower than the top 5 is very impressive.......nice job Mike!

Now go have some fun at Spa!

fleadh

Thanks! Here's a quick trimmed lap battle with Skeen during the race:


-mike

FFaust

Ha! I remember seeing the attempt at the carousel, but not the part where you made it stick. Nice heated battle, just waiting for him to make a mistake

FFaust

Totally off topic, but very cool video Mike

fleadh

Here's my qualifying lap in the GMG Porsche:


With a little more testing I think we could have been rite up there. I was very inconsistent in my driving up to and through qualifying. Normally my Motec eclectic lap time in a qualifying session is only a tenth or 2 quicker than my best lap.. at Sonoma I was 1.5 seconds off. More to learn that's for sure!

-mike