Calvert to Make GTA Debut at Mid-Ohio; Enters SprintX Rounds

Preston Calvert will make his GTA class debut at the Pirelli World Challenge weekend at Mid-Ohio, taking over driving duties in the No. 76 Calvert Dynamics Porsche 991 GT3 R from Andrew Davis.

In addition, Calvert Dynamics will also run the SprintX class at Utah Motorsports Campus and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with Calvert and Davis sharing the No. 76 entry prepared by Phoenix Performance.

After a strong sophomore season in the GT Cup category, Calvert is exploring his options ahead of 2017 and will make his GTA debut at Mid-Ohio, temporarily stepping away from the No. 77 GT Cup Porsche.

His best finish thus far has three visits to the podium, with a trio of third place finishes in 2016.

“Having driven a season and a half of GT Cup class racing in the Porsche GT3 Cup car, I have decided to find out whether I’ll be able to be competitive in the Porsche GT3 R, as I am now carefully considering my options for 2017 and beyond,” Calvert said.

“I am very happy with the performance that Andrew Davis has achieved in this brand new car so far this year. He has overcome some significant setup problems with grace and determination, to qualify and race the car effectively, leading to a top 10 driver points ranking, in this first year of Pirelli World Challenge GT class racing for our team.

“Andrew has been gracious enough to allow me to step into the car as of Mid-Ohio, to allow me to assess my readiness to race in GTA in 2017.

“He and I will drive the SprintX races at Utah Motorsports Campus and at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca together in the Porsche GT3 R, and Andrew will continue coaching and advising me about driving the car.

“Andrew remains my role model as a race car driver.”

Davis will return to coaching duties, overseeing Calvert’s GTA debut at Mid-Ohio, before the two will team together in the innovative SprintX class at Utah and Laguna Seca.

The SprintX class features 60-minute races with a mid-race driver change and plenty of opportunity for team strategy.

“I’ll certainly miss the challenge and competitiveness of the PWC field, but I’m looking forward to helping Preston meet his goals behind the wheel of our No. 76 Porsche 991 GT3-R,” said Davis.

“He performed very well at Mid-Ohio last season in the GT3 Cup car, so I expect him to feel right at home with the expanded capabilities of the new car.

“The SprintX races offer an exciting new opportunity to Pirelli World Challenge teams, and I was quite pleased to hear that Calvert Dynamics had decided to enter the remaining rounds at UMC and MRLS.

“I’m sure that Preston and I will have a lot of fun sharing our Porsche, and we will both be pushing for maximum results in those events.”

In addition, the team continues to run its second car, the No. 98 Porsche in the GT class, for Michael Lewis at Mid-Ohio.

Lewis had an encouraging debut with Calvert Dynamics at Elkhart Lake’s Road America in June, and now returns to Mid-Ohio, where he scored a strong fifth place finish in 2015.