Continuing a 2015 season in which he’s taken a podium in every race that he’s finished, Global Motorsports Group’s (GMG) Alec Udell took an impressive victory during today’s Race One of the Pirelli World Challenge’s GT Cup category at the famed Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

“What an amazing day!” stated Udell. “This was exactly what we needed after such an up-and-down season, and I couldn’t be more thankful to everyone at GMG for making this possible. As soon as we took the lead I knew I couldn’t give it up, and Colin was really pushing hard to get around. I give him a lot of credit for racing very clean, and I look forward to continuing the fight tomorrow.”

Competing in the GT-Cup category, a spec-class for the prolific Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 991, the 19-year-old has had a mixed season so far. After scoring repeat podiums during the series’ opening rounds in Texas, a start-line incident at the second weekend in St. Petersburg, Florida, would result in severe damage to his No. 17 Porsche forcing him to sit out several events since. Upon his return, the Woodlands, Texas native has been on the podium in every race he’s started, topped by today’s victory.

Driving as the premier member of GMG’s renowned driver development program, Alec’s victory serves as the perfect showcase for GMG’s unique position in the world of Porsche racing. Located in Santa Ana, California, at the heart of Southern California’s car culture, the organization is one of the most well known for their understanding of Porsche performance in both professional motorsports as well as street tuning. In fact, with a large technology crossover between the organization’s race and street performance divisions, the team has had a unique ability to support Alec’s efforts despite being the lone Porsche for GMG in the series.

Qualifying second, Alec was off to a stellar start by lap two, getting a jump over pole sitter Colin Thompson during a restart. Finding himself in the lead as he crossed the line for the second time, Alec was never challenged during the opening half of the race, opening a gap to the rest of the field and never looking back.

As the race progressed, championship point leader Colin Thompson had caught Alec, and with a series of yellow flags leading to the final laps, the stage was set for a close fight between the two young guns. While Thompson would challenge Alec at several points during the closing laps, the respect was clear between the two with Thompson avoiding any risky moves as the checkered flag fell. It would serve as the first Pirelli World Challenge victory for Udell, a much welcome result for Alec and family.

Also competing for GMG was team owner James Sofronas in the No. 14 The Thermal Club/Spyder/Mobil 1Audi R8 LMS ultra. After a clean start, the Californian was hard at work to continue his top-ten streak, looking in contention throughout much of the event. Unfortunately, as the field approached lap traffic, James was caught out in the process, eventually falling to 13th by time he’d crossed the checkered flag.

“Of course I would have liked a better result for myself, but today was all about Alec!” stated Sofronas. “The entire Udell family are such great people, and they really needed this victory after such a trying season. We couldn’t be more proud of Alec’s mature run today, and of course it’s a great demonstration of our heritage with Porsche. The guys have been hard at work learning every inch of the 991, and we’ve found several speed secrets of the year, and we’re finally starting to show that fruit. Hopefully we can continue this into tomorrow, but for now we have some celebrating to do!”

With a double-header weekend in store, Race Two will occur in less than 24 hours’ time with the action starting tomorrow at 12 PM ET.