The Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series is coming to Southern California as part of the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Although the race may take place on an 11-turn temporary street course, it feels like home to GMG Racing, the multi-series professional racing team and premier performance tuning facility for European vehicles in Southern California.

“GMG Racing has called this track ‘home’ for the last six years,” notes James Sofronas, GMG president, co-founder, and lead driver. “There have been minor changes to the track but the philosophy for driving it has remained constant.”

The Southern California native won on this course in the 2009 World Challenge series and was runner-up last year. He admits that the multi-series experience is one of the greatest advantages GMG will bring to the ALMS race on Saturday, April 14 behind the wheel of the No. 32 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in the GTC class.

“GMG is running 5 cars in the World Challenge race on the same course, that same weekend. Most of them are Porsche GT3 Cup cars,” Sofronas points out. “The cars will be tuned to different specs but we will get plenty of opportunity to collect some track data and get a feel for the unique characteristics the course offers.”

As the lead driver for GMG Racing he will participate in two WC practice sessions between his ALMS practice session and the ALMS qualifying event.
“Of course our other big advantage is the support we get from great companies behind us like Mobil 1, Tracks.io and Endless.”

Sofronas will be joined by co-driver Alex Welch, who debuted as part of the GMG Racing ALMS team in 2011. “I am very excited to once again be behind the wheel with GMG and co-driver James Sofronas,” said Welch. “This is my first street course race and am looking forward to the challenge, it’s going to be a great weekend with everything going on in Long Beach.”

Both drivers were part of the 3 man team that ran in the challenging 12 Hours of Sebring last month. The team suffered a setback 3 hours into that race when the car experienced a failed alternator and lost nearly a dozen laps in the pits. Pinpoint driving and hard determination allowed them to make up spots. The GMG squad climbed into a 7th place GTC class finish, surviving one of the toughest endurance races in the world.

“Those endurance-length races can be brutal on everyone from driver to crew,” states Sofronas. “Two hour races like the one in Long Beach next weekend fit nicely into our comfort zone.”

The current ALMS season marks the fourth for GMG Racing. Global Motorsports Group made its ALMS debut with a driver lineup featuring Sofronas in the 2009 finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, finishing fifth in the Challenge class. GMG Racing contended its first full ALMS season in 2010 taking two podiums, and competed in limited schedule in 2011.

The Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach will be broadcast Saturday, April 14, at 7:30pm EST on ESPN 2. ESPN3 will have live streaming of the qualifying event on Friday, April 13, at 8pm EST and will stream the race live the next day starting at 7:15pm EST.

For more information about GMG Racing, visit www.GMGracing.com or keep up to date through Facebook (GMG Racing), Twitter (@GMGracing) and YouTube (/GMGracing).

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Press Contact: Jonathan Zaleski / The PR Collective / 310-943-7143 / jonathan@theprcollective.com