DETROIT (June 3, 2013)- Heading to Saturday’s Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, the entire crew at Global Motorsports Group (GMG) knew that their two Audi R8 LMS entries would face an uphill road at the twisty and bumpy confines of the temporary street course.

Luckily for drivers James Sofronas and Duncan Ende, a hard-fought, double-header weekend would once again see the team on the podium, and still with a strong hold on the Pirelli World Challenge Series GT point lead.

“We knew this weekend was going to be tough,” stated Sofronas. “With the weight penalties that have been put on us we’ve had to really work hard to get every bit of speed we could to be competitive. Luckily the guys put together a great car and we came away fairly unscathed this weekend.”

With rounds six and seven of the championship taking place on Saturday and Sunday, GMG came into the weekend with added challenges from previous races. After winning a sensational three of the first five rounds, series officials elected to place an additional weight penalty on the cars following their performance in Austin. In total, this meant Sofronas and Ende would carry an additional 150 lbs. from when they’d started the season. On a tight and bumpy street course such as Detroit, the added weight would have a significant impact on the car’s ability to both corner and accelerate.

During Saturday’s round, the theme for both drivers was simply to finish. On a track notorious for high attrition, both Sofronas and Ende drove a cautious pace to find themselves in fourth and sixth, respectively, throughout much of the race. As the round came to its final stages, the No. 14 Mobil 1 / Children’s Tumor Foundation Audi R8 LMS of James Sofronas would give a hard charge toward the top three. However, patience with an eye on championship points would prevent the Californian from taking significant risks. James would eventually finish fourth, his worst finish of the season. Ende, in the No. 24 STANDD / Merchant Services, Ltd. Audi R8 LMS, would see a more frustrating end to his race. After fighting a hard three-way battle with the No. 54 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of Tim Pappas and the No. 46 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Tomy Drissi, a mechanical gremlin during a downshift would send Ende wide under braking, allowing Pappas and Drissi to pass through. Ende would finish seventh.

During Sunday’s round, however, the race took a much more positive turn. After qualifying on pole for the event, Sofronas would fall back on the start to third, once again taking some time to get his tires up to temperature for the second half of the race. After watching the leading Volvo and Cadillac slowly gain ground over him, the Audi eventually began to reel the leaders in as James' consistent pace began to show through. Once catching the leaders, an endless series of yellows would mar any hopes for the No. 14 to be able to make a worthwhile pass. After a late race restart saw Sofronas battling hard with the No. 8 Cadillac of Andy Pilgrim, an eventual accident by Pilgrim would end the race under yellow, sealing the third place result for James. This would be his sixth podium in seven rounds, and still with a healthy lead in the series championship.

“The series works very hard to keep everything level, and it unfortunately meant we’d have a hard time passing today,” stated Sofronas. “I was enjoying the fight to get back up front, and if we’d stayed green for the second half of the race I might have had something, but it just wasn’t our day. I hate to see that happen to Andy, but I’m glad he’s OK. It was a good fight, just too bad it ended that way. Either way, we managed to keep our cars clean this weekend and we’ll head off to Lime Rock knowing we can show well.”

For Los Angeles native Duncan Ende, a march to the front would net him a career-equaling best finish of fourth. After falling back a few places on the start, Ende found himself locked in several battles, first with Mike Skeen’s Nissan and then eventually the leading pack of Volvos and Cadillacs. Ende sat a comfortable fifth heading into a late race restart. As Sofronas and Pilgrim engaged in a late-braking dual headed into turn three, Pilgrim’s car came to such a halt that Ende was left with no choice but to make contact, managing to drive away relatively unscathed en route to fourth.

“Fourth was a good result for us today, and once again a pretty busy race to get there,” stated Ende. “It seemed like every position involved people getting together in front of me, but luckily I managed to escape it all. I apologized to Andy for running into the back of him, but he seemed to understand there wasn’t much I could do to avoid it. The crew put together a great car, and I think heading into the road courses we should have a real shot at some hardware.”

For Bill Ziegler’s No. 95 Swisher Racing Pontiac Solstice, mechanical troubles would keep the car from racing in front of its “home” crowd of Detroit fans, however, the car would return for a quiet second round. Surviving the carnage that enveloped much of the GTS field, Ziegler would bring his car home safely in 13th.

Following four races in two weeks, the entire Pirelli World Challenge Series will take a one-month break before returning to the historic Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut. As only the second permanent road course that the series has run on all season, the entire GMG organization looks forward to continuing their championship fight. Round Eight will take place on Friday, July 5, with Round Nine the next day. Live coverage can be found on www.world-challengetv.com.

Highlights from Detroit can be viewed on NBC Sports on Sunday, June 16, at 5PM ET.