Ricmotech World Challenge Series Season 7 Wrap-up

The World Challenge Series ended the season at the iconic Road America on August 7th. This season the Cadillac V-Series GTP car was added to the Class making for some exciting battles in GTP. An exciting finale was put on by all the classes as championships were still not decided entering the final event.

In GTP Palikui Grant from D2D eRacing entered the finale with 4 wins on the season and just a 9-point lead over 2-time winner Bailey Piotrowski. Grant had a nerve-racking finale as he found himself nearly catching the wall in the early laps but managed to seal his faith by the end and take the Championship Title. Bailey Piotrowski would finish the season 2nd just 12 points back after capturing 4 poles on the season and 2 wins. It was DNA Motorsports Ben Rose who put up as strong battle in the shadows coming in with 6 top 5's finishing in 3rd just 9 points back from 2nd. Fernando Takahashi and Ryan Reesman fought hard all season trying to capture a podium in the championship but fell just shy with both finishing with 3 top 5's under their belt.

In GT3 AM class the championship battle heated up in the finale as points leader Michael Brooks entered the final event with a 16-point lead and feeling secure about his chances of a title until Lap 26 when he found himself tangling with #02 GTP car exiting the Carousel causing severe steering damage to the car. After a pit stop and some careful driving the #83 was able to finish the event and still win the title by a mere 4 points over Teammate Dre Divac. The #12 of Divac had his own triumphant season finishing the season with 1 win and 6 top 5's bringing the The Wrong Stuff race team the top 2 spots in GT AM. Youngster and up and coming sim racing talent Leo Dragotta put on quite a show this season with 5 top finishes and a win in the season finale. Veteran XMS drivers Chuck Lebano and SCCA Foundation driver Jeff Jacobs finished the season strong with Lebano ending up with 4 top 5's and Jacobs with 2 top 5's respectively.

The GT3 Pro Class had it's own storyline of finale jitters as Iago Moraes from The Wrong Stuff Team entered the finale with a small points lead and a lot of confidence, however a mistake on lap 1 found him heading into the tire barriers sustaining significant nose damage. Another incident occurred for the #9 where on lap 4 he spun at Bill Mitchell bend and rolled forward in the path of the #60 causing race ending damage to both vehicles. This created a new scenario for the Orion Teammates however Travis Schwenke who entered the finale 2nd in points had his own troubles and on lap 26 brushes a GTP car at the carousel and acquires wall damage but was still able to continue. Teammate Mike Dam kept his head down not knowing how this Championship was going to play out as he was 3rd entering the finale several points back. After some hard-fought battles GT3 Pro ended up in a much different picture than was anticipated as Mike Dam captured a back-to-back World Challenge title by a mere 5 points over Teammate Travis Schwenke who managed to remain in second in the Title chase and the #9 of Iago Moraes finished third. Series veteran Chris Thorman found himself 4th in the Championship after the early finale ending incident and The Wrong Stuff's Joey Rutledge ended up 5th just 3 points behind the #60 of Thorman.

The series for 2023 returns on August 28th as we head to Daytona International Speedway for Round 1 of Season 8!

Don't miss any of the action as all races are covered live on Apex Racing TV by SCCA announcer Gregg Ginsburg & Larry "Lefty" McLoud