Michelin Pilot Challenge

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]

Michelin Pilot Challenge
CategoryGrand touring
Touring car
Country United States
 Canada
Inaugural season1997
Drivers' championGS: Tyler Mcquarrie
GS: Jeff Westphal
TCR: Mark Wilkins
TCR: Michael Lewis
Teams' championGS: #39 Carbahn with Peregrine Racing
TCR: #98 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian
Makes' championGS: Mercedes-AMG
TCR: Audi
Official websitemichelinpilotchallenge.imsa.com
Current season
Competitors in the KONI Challenge on a pre-grid at New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2008

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 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 30 minutes in length with a required driver change.

Telecasts
  • All telecasts are exclusive 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 website

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 painted to resemble the original Trans Am cars, such as the Boss 302 Mustangs of George Follmer and Parnelli Jones or the original Sunoco Camaro. Several vehicles in ST have also competed in the SCCA's Pirelli World Challenge touring car class.

Champions
Season GS Champion Car ST / TCR Champion Car
2004[3] Craig Stanton
Terry Borcheller		 Cadillac CTS-V David Haskell
Sylvain Tremblay		 Mazda RX-8
2005[4] David Empringham
Scott Maxwell		 Ford Mustang David Haskell
Sylvain Tremblay		 Mazda RX-8
2006[5] Anders Hainer
Boris Said		 BMW M3 Don Salama
Will Turner		 BMW 330i
2007[6] Jeff Segal
Jep Thornton		 BMW M3 Trevor Hopwood
Adam Burrows		 BMW 330i
2008[7] Joe Foster
Scott Maxwell		 Ford Mustang Jamie Holtom Chevrolet Cobalt SS
2009[8] Kenny Wilden Ford Mustang Chris Miller Honda Civic Si
2010[9] Charles Espenlaub
Charlie Putman		 BMW M3 David Thilenius[N 1]
Lawson Aschenbach[N 1]		 Honda Civic Si
2011[10] Paul Dalla Lana BMW M3 Niclas Jönsson Kia Forte Koup
2012[11] John Farano[N 2]
David Empringham[N 2]		 Porsche 997 Pierre Kleinubing
Jason Clunie		 Mazdaspeed3
2013[12] Nick Longhi
Matt Plumb		 Porsche 997 Terry Borcheller
Mike LaMarra		 BMW 128i
2014[13] Trent Hindman BMW M3 Coupe Eric Foss BMW 328i
Porsche Cayman
2015[14] Andrew Davis
Robin Liddell		 Chevrolet Camaro Stevan McAleer
Chad McCumbee		 Mazda MX-5
2016[15] Billy Johnson
Scott Maxwell		 Ford Mustang GT350R-C Nick Galante
Spencer Pumpelly		 Porsche Cayman
2017[16] Dillon Machavern
Dylan Murcott		 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR Eric Foss Porsche Cayman
2018[17] Hugh Plumb
Owen Trinkler		 Mercedes-AMG GT4 ST: Devin Jones
ST: Nick Galante
TCR: Britt Casey Jr.
TCR: Tom Long		 ST: BMW 328i (F30)
TCR: Audi RS 3 LMS
2019 Tyler McQuarrie
Jeff Westphal		 Audi R8 LMS GT4 Michael Lewis
Mark Wilkins		 Hyundai Veloster N TCR

Notes
  1. 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. 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.

References
  1. "Michelin Pilot Challenge Revealed; Two Classes in 2019 – Sportscar365". Retrieved 2018-10-14.
  2. https://www.imsa.com/news/082016/imsa-finalizes-racing-platform-innovations
  3. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2016-01-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-01-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-01-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-09-16. Retrieved 2014-03-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2016-01-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-09-16. Retrieved 2014-03-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-09-16. Retrieved 2016-01-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-07-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-07-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-04-10. Retrieved 2015-07-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2016-01-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. http://sportscarchallenge.imsa.com/standings/driver
  16. https://sportscarchallenge.imsa.com/standings/driver
  17. https://sportscarchallenge.imsa.com/standings/driver
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