Bumper Grid for Penultimate Round of Radical Cup at COTA

Double digits will grace the grid in all three classes of Blue Marble Radical Cup North America this weekend for the penultimate round at Circuit of The Americas.

The big grid is a result of an influx of local Texan talent, young guns returning, fresh faces and a boost to the Platinum class, and is effectively a preview of the recently announced Las Vegas World Finals event taking place in November.

“A record number of Radical SR10s are set to start this weekend,” said global motorsports director Tom Drewer.

“This is in part thanks to a number of our longtime SR3 drivers stepping up to a new challenge in the 425hp, 380lb of worth of torque in the SR10.”

Ryno Racing’s Jason Greenwood (AMI Information Systems), WISKO Racing’s Bob Greczyn (Mellow Mushroom) and Apex Motor Club President Jason Plotke are the latest to make leap.

The 12-car field is further boosted by locals including Radical Texas racers Conrad Park and Willie Putrajaya – the latter being one to watch after earning two podiums last year – who join the class championship contenders including Robert Rossi (WISKO Racing/Carpet Giant), Steve Jenks (Group-A/Audien Hearing) and former American Le Mans winner Jon Field (One Motorsport/Bricker Home Design).

Field should be particularly strong after completing a warmup test with GT Celebration last weekend, where he took two class wins and his SR10, in the hands of Kenton Koch, recorded the fastest lap of the weekend of 2:05.685 – faster than all the other LMP3, sports racer and GT3 machinery on site.

Chris McMurry’s (Crown Concepts/Prisma) presence in Pro 1340 means two former IMSA LMP1 drivers on the grid at COTA, and the competitive nature of the class continues with the return of Road America race winner Robert Cipriani-Detres (Team Stradale) to duke it out with points leaders Mike Anzaldi (Ryno Racing/Emmett’s Energy) and Canadian Austin Riley (Racing with Autism).

Aurora Straus (Group-A Racing/Richard Mille/Arch Capital) is another to follow after impressing in her debut earlier this year, with three podium finishes in Pro 1500 at Watkins Glen.

At COTA she will attempt to take her maiden win, which will be made tougher with the reunion of last year’s Pro 1500 title fighters. Reigning champ Gustavo Rafols (Wisko Racing) returns after racing at Silverstone with the Radical factory team, while Gregg Gorski (One Motorsport/Smokebody) will make the trek from Barcelona after double duty in both the Speed Euroseries and Hankook 24h Series race.

The COTA race weekend will also feature fresh faces as the Blue Marble Radical Cup North America program welcomes Autobahn Country Club member Ben Blander with Team Stradale and Apex Motor Club’s Evan Wolf who will compete out of the Crown Concepts camp.

Drewer added: “The COTA event weekend is in-effect a preview of the recently announced World Finals Las Vegas which will take place at Spring Mountain Motor Club on Nov. 9-13.

“We are expecting very large grids of each of the three classes, as well as drivers from across the United States and Canada, being joined by fellow Radical racers from Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.

“We can’t help but look forward to what will be a world-class race weekend.”

Blue Marble Radical Cup North America teams and competitors will hit the track on Friday for a pair of Promoters Test Sessions prior to the first official practice.

Practice 2, qualifying, and the first wheel-to-wheel race will commence Saturday before two more races take the green flag Sunday. All three races will be live-streamed at youtube.com/radicalmotorsport.