Michelin Pilot Challenge

Michelin Pilot Challenge

Category	Grand touring Touring car
Country	United States   Canada
Inaugural season	1997
Drivers' champion	GS: Vincent Barletta GS: Robby Foley TCR: Harry Gottsacker TCR: Robert Wickens
Makes' champion	GS: Mercedes-AMG TCR: Hyundai
Teams' champion	GS: #96 Turner Motorsport TCR: #33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian
Official website	michelinpilotchallenge.imsa.com
Current season

Competitors in the KONI Challenge on a pre-grid at New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2008

The Michelin Pilot Challenge is a grand touring and touring car racing series run by the International Motor Sports Association. Originating from the Canadian Motorola Cup, the series was taken over by Grand-Am in 2001 to become the Grand-Am Cup following the demise of rival IMSA's Firehawk series of similar rules in the US. KONI became series sponsor for the start of the 2007 season when the series became known as the KONI Challenge Series, before renaming once more prior to the start of the 2009 season as the KONI Sports Car Challenge. The series name was once again changed for the 2010 season to Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. In 2019, the series rebranded again after Michelin was selected to become the new official tire supplier of the series and thus simplified their branding name by removing Sports Car term. ^[1]

The Continental Challenge was the support series for Grand-Am's premier offering, the Rolex Sports Car Series. In 2014, the series became the support series for the United SportsCar Championship (now known as the IMSA SportsCar Championship) upon the merger of the Rolex Series and the American Le Mans Series.

Races

In traditional sports car racing format, the races are often run with both Grand Sport (GT4) and TCR classes on track simultaneously, which is known as a "combined" race. Occasionally the races will be run in "split classes", with separate races for both classes. This is especially common for shorter venues such as Lime Rock Park. Currently the races are 2 hours in length with a required driver change.

Telecasts

• Until 2013, broadcasts were to Fox Sports 1, formerly Speed Channel. All telecasts are uploaded to the series website after their initial airing.
• From 2019 season, NBC Sports telecast Delayed-Race and IMSA TV has telecast live via Peacock.
• In some countries, NASCAR Holdings (which owns IMSA) feature the Michelin Pilot Challenge is included in NASCAR's media rights deals in Mexico and Brazil that includes NASCAR's three national series, IMSA's two major series, and American Flat Track, all of which have broadcasts produced by NASCAR.
• IMSA TV, which is controlled by NASCAR Productions, has international rights in selected countries.

Vehicles

The series uses two classes in each race. Originally, these were:

• The Grand Sport (GS) class features large-displacement 6-cylinder, 8-cylinder, 10-cylinder or 12-cylinder sports cars as well as small displacement 4-cylinder forced induction sports cars.
• The Street Tuner (ST) class is for smaller 4-cylinder, 5-cylinder or 6-cylinder sedans, hatchbacks, coupes or convertibles.

From 2017, IMSA allowed cars built by "mainstream automotive manufacturers" to SRO GT4 regulations to compete, with a complete phase out of the original Grand-Am GS class the next year. Also in 2018, IMSA introduced TCR Touring Cars as a third class, with the intention of it replacing the Street Tuners as the second class, which happened the following year. ^[2]

The original format was reminiscent of the original Trans-Am Series, combining conventional sports cars and touring cars, though the Trans-Am Series usually had a single driver per car, unlike the Continental Challenge, which has two drivers per car. Some vehicles in the Continental Challenge have actually been wrapped to resemble the original Trans Am cars, such as the Boss 302 Mustangs of George Follmer and Parnelli Jones or the original Sunoco Camaro. As the Pilot Challenge consists of longer races (2-4 hours), the cars are also eligible for the United States Auto Club's Pirelli World Challenge GT4 or TCR classes, which are one-hour races.

Champions

Season	GS Champion	Car	ST / TCR Champion	Car
2004 [3]	Craig Stanton Terry Borcheller	Cadillac CTS-V	David Haskell Sylvain Tremblay	Mazda RX-8
2005 [4]	David Empringham Scott Maxwell	Ford Mustang	David Haskell Sylvain Tremblay	Mazda RX-8 (2)
2006 [5]	Anders Hainer Boris Said	BMW M3	Don Salama Will Turner	BMW 330i
2007 [6]	Jeff Segal Jep Thornton	BMW M3 (2)	Trevor Hopwood Adam Burrows	BMW 330i (2)
2008 [7]	Joe Foster Scott Maxwell	Ford Mustang (2)	Jamie Holtom	Chevrolet Cobalt SS
2009 [8]	Kenny Wilden	Ford Mustang (3)	Chris Miller	Honda Civic Si
2010 [9]	Charles Espenlaub Charlie Putman	BMW M3 (3)	David Thilenius [N 1] Lawson Aschenbach [N 1]	Honda Civic Si (2)
2011 [10]	Paul Dalla Lana	BMW M3 (4)	Niclas Jönsson	Kia Forte Koup
2012 [11]	John Farano [N 2] David Empringham [N 2]	Porsche 997	Pierre Kleinubing Jason Clunie	Mazdaspeed3 (3)
2013 [12]	Nick Longhi Matt Plumb	Porsche 997 (2)	Terry Borcheller Mike LaMarra	BMW 128i (3)
2014 [13]	Trent Hindman	BMW M3 Coupe (5)	Eric Foss	BMW 328i (4) Porsche Cayman
2015 [14]	Andrew Davis Robin Liddell	Chevrolet Camaro	Stevan McAleer Chad McCumbee	Mazda MX-5 (4)
2016 [15]	Billy Johnson Scott Maxwell	Ford Mustang GT350R-C (4)	Nick Galante Spencer Pumpelly	Porsche Cayman (2)
2017 [16]	Dillon Machavern Dylan Murcott	Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR (3)	Eric Foss	Porsche Cayman (3)
2018 [17]	Hugh Plumb Owen Trinkler	Mercedes-AMG GT4	ST: Devin Jones ST: Nick Galante TCR: Britt Casey Jr. TCR: Tom Long	ST: BMW 328i (5) TCR: Audi RS 3 LMS
2019	Tyler McQuarrie Jeff Westphal	Audi R8 LMS GT4	Michael Lewis Mark Wilkins	Hyundai Veloster N TCR
2020	Kyle Marcelli Nate Stacy	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4	Gabby Chaves Ryan Norman	Hyundai Veloster N TCR (2)
2021	Jan Heylen	Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport (4)	Michael Lewis Taylor Hagler	Hyundai Veloster N TCR (3)
2022	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (2)	Taylor Hagler (2) Michael Lewis (2)	Hyundai Elantra N TCR (4)
2023	Vincent Barletta Robby Foley	BMW M4 GT4 Gen II (6)	Harry Gottsacker Robert Wickens	Hyundai Elantra N TCR (5)
2024 [18]	Matt Plumb	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 (3)	Chris Miller Mikey Taylor	Audi RS 3 LMS TCR (2)

Notes

1. The Bimmerworld 328i of Bill Heumann and Seth Thomas and the Compass360 Civic of Thilenius and Aschenbach finished the 2010 season tied in ST points. As both teams had the same number of wins and second-place finishes, Thilenius and Aschenbach won the title by virtue of having more third-place finishes.
2. Matt Plumb was victorious in the final race and was the presumed champion, but upon official review he was determined to have been illegally entered in multiple cars, and thus received no points, handing the championship to Farano and Empringham.

References

1. "Michelin Pilot Challenge Revealed; Two Classes in 2019 – Sportscar365" . Retrieved 2018-10-14.
2. "IMSA Finalizes Racing Platform Innovations | IMSA". www.imsa.com. Archived from the original on 2016-08-18.
3. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
6. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
7. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-09-16. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
8. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-09-16. Retrieved 2014-03-24.
10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-09-16. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
11. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
12. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
13. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-04-10. Retrieved 2015-07-28.
14. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
15. "Michelin Pilot Challenge: Home".
16. "Michelin Pilot Challenge: Home".
17. "Michelin Pilot Challenge: Home".
18. "Michelin Pilot Challenge: Home". IMSA. Retrieved 2025-06-23.

External links

• Official website