Udell on “Race-by-Race” Basis for Sprint Season

Photo: GMG Racing

While set to feature for the full SprintX season, Alec Udell says he’s currently taking a “race-by-race” approach to the Pirelli World Challenge Sprint rounds but is hopeful of potentially completing the remainder of the season.

The GMG Racing driver made his season debut in last month’s SprintX opener at Circuit of The Americas with Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 41 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

With plans now in place to complete the SprintX season, alongside the Frenchman for three of the four remaining rounds, Udell has now made it a priority to fill out his season in the single-driver 50-minute races.

Following this weekend’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, three Sprint rounds remain at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (May 18-20), Road America (June 22-24) and Watkins Glen (Aug 31 – Sept. 2).

“At the moment we’re probably looking pretty good for the rest of SprintX and then it’s more race-by-race for Sprint,” Udell told Sportscar365.

“I haven’t gotten a for sure go-ahead yet, but that’s what I’m feeling for this.”

Udell said additional races will likely depend on the support of Loci, a newly launched blockchain IP research and exchange platform, which has come on board to support his PWC efforts this year.

“We’ll see what kind of activation we get from this weekend and go from there,” Udell said.

“We got a lot of activation from the COTA event for Loci, which is what it boils down to. You want to get something back for what you’re investing.

“We’re here at [Long Beach], we’ve had fans come up and get stickers of the car and pick up hero cards. It’s really cool to see that happening.”

Udell will have a new co-driver for the SprintX round at VIR later this month, with Jaminet unavailable due to his ADAC GT Masters commitments, which races at Most in the Czech Republic that weekend. 

The Frenchman, who has starred in his outings with the team, will however pair with Udell for the SprintX events at Lime Rock Park, Portland International Raceway and Utah Motorsports Campus.

Udell indicated that Jaminet’s sub for VIR will likely be a Porsche-contracted driver.

“We’re working through that with Owen [Hayes] and Porsche Motorsport North America just trying to figure out what the best option is going to be,” he said.

“We’ll have a good car. We were quick there last year with myself, Preston [Calvert], Laurens [Vanthoor], and James [Sofronas].

“I think we’ve got a good setup going into this year and a known quantity with myself and this car so hopefully we can add another good shoe to the deal.”

Udell Returns to Site of First Race as GT Pro

The 22-year-old Clemson University engineering student is looking forward to this weekend’s round at Long Beach, site of his first race as a professional driver in PWC competition.

Udell was elevated from GTA to the GT class last year, following an impressive season-opening weekend at St. Pete, having finished 7th in his first race as a GT driver.

“Coming back, I want to turn it from just good practices to good finishes,” she said. “I didn’t have the best qualifying and the race got cut short because of the flood we had on the back straight.

“There wasn’t too much time in the race to make up too much ground. Last year I got my first finish in GT and we were able to get away pretty unscathed.

“This track likes to eat cars a bit so the focus this weekend is running fast and running clean.

“It’s a great event, probably the biggest attendance event we’ll have this year, so coming out here and being able to show strong and promote Loci with what we’re doing on track and being part of the expo here, it’s a great event.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John