GMG Racing, the multi-series professional racing team and premier performance tuning facility for European vehicles in Southern California, successfully debuted the world’s first World Challenge Audi R8 LMS at the 2012 Grand Prix of Long Beach while racing a total of six cars across two races that included a pair of fourth place finishes.

“It was a weekend full of challenges and successes for GMG Racing as we fielded more cars than any other team in weather ranging from terrible to perfect,” noted GMG Racing president, co-founder, and lead driver James Sofronas.

Sofronas was the only GMG Racing driver to participate in both the Pirelli World Challenge and Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series races this weekend. He placed 4th in the ALMS race on Saturday night in the No. 32 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car along with co-driver Alex Welch in the GTC class. The race hit a snag early for GMG when Welch had contact with a prototype vehicle. Later during Sofronas’ turn at the wheel, a cone kicked up by another vehicle smacked into the car and damaged the front-splitter for the rest of the race.

“Despite the setbacks Alex and I managed to keep our focus, and with the support of our amazing crew we ended up in fourth, just shy of the podium but up two positions better than we started,” said Sofronas.

For Sunday’s World Challenge Race, Sofronas took the wheel of the No. 14 GMG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in the GT class. The 2009 winner and last year’s runner up again pulled a 4th place finish, running nose to tail with teammate Dino Crescentini for part of the time in the No. 4 StopTech/GMG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

“All in all I had a pretty good World Challenge race,” summarized Sofronas. “We got a great start and both Dino and I squeezed past Lawson Aschenbach to get into 5th and 6th respectively. We each gained another spot by lap 2 and I passed Dino on lap 4. From there I had to contend with a very strong Ferrari into Turn 1 which caused me to become defensive in the braking zones. This allowed the top 3 cars to pull away for the rest of the race, especially after I lost another few seconds through contact with a lapped Mustang.”

The attention-getting car was the world’s first World Challenge Audi R8 LMS, which made its racing debut for the Pirelli World Challenge stop in Long Beach at the Grand Prix. GMG took delivery of the vehicle from Germany less than two weeks before the race and worked around the clock to get it tested and adapted to World Challenge spec in time.

The car posted the third best time in its first official practice session, which was a very wet affair with rain and a touch of hail pounding the track on Friday morning. From a 13th place start the No. 40 GMG Audi R8 LMS piloted by 2006 Grand-Am champion Anders Hainer held its own in Sunday’s race. Despite having two stalled cars block the way at the start, Hainer managed to gain two spots to wrap up an 11th place finish.

“It was an exciting honor to debut the world’s first World Challenge Audi R8 LMS at a legendary event like the Grand Prix of Long Beach,” said Hainer. “It would not have been possible without the support of McKenna Audi, Under Armour and GMG Racing, and on a personal level from my friends and family who were at the race. GMG Racing’s team of guys did a fantastic job getting the car as good as we could in just a week or so, since the car came in from Germany. Now I look forward to working with GMG Racing to further develop this great car as the season progresses.”

“This Audi R8 LMS is the heart of the Audi racing program at GMG,” points out GMG vice president and co-owner Fabryce Kutyba. “It will get focused attention by our development team as we continue to shape the vehicle’s track characteristics and engineer performance motorsport parts for this platform.”

Brent Holden made his 2012 GMG Racing debut in Long Beach behind the wheel of the No. 44 GMG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car in the GT class this weekend. He ran a solid race with lap times faster than his qualifying times to finish right behind Hainer in 12th place.

The big disappointment for the weekend occurred when the No. 95 Swisher / GMG Mitsubishi EVO had its GTS class bid end in the first lap of the Sunday race after getting struck by another vehicle. Bill Ziegler had earned the car a 6th place start after the 4WD vehicle excelled in the damp qualifying session under his skilled driving.

“A team of experienced drivers and a superlative crew came together for a fantastic weekend of driving supported by our great sponsors including StopTech, Mobil 1, Pirelli Tires, Swisher, Tracks.io and Endless,” concluded Sofronas.

The Pirelli World Challenge at the Grand Prix of Long Beach will air on the NBC Sports Network (formally Versus) on Sunday, April 29th at 3-4:30PM eastern. The next stop for the series is the Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park on April 26-27. The American Le Mans Series moves on to Laguna Seca for the American Le Mans Monterey from May11-13.

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