Outstanding field set for Sunday’s main event at famed street circuit

This weekend in the 42nd edition of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach racing fans will have the opportunity to see some of the best GT sports car action in the world.

The 2016 Pirelli World Challenge road racing series, featuring sports cars such as Porsche, Cadillac, Ferrari, McLaren, Nissan, Acura, Bentley and Audi, will be difficult to top after 2015 road racing sedan campaign proved to be the most competitive racing campaign in the U.S. In the always-tough GT division, the top seven drivers in the final point standings drove seven different auto makes and nine of the top 11 in points were with different manufacturers.

“The 2015 Pirelli World Challenge proved to be the most competitive in the series’ 26-year history and we expected another incredible season in all seven of our classes especially the GT and GTS categories,” said Greg Gill, President and CEO of WC Vision, producers of the Pirelli World Challenge. “The driver, team and manufacturer lineup will see some of the best wheel-to-wheel action in North American racing and we believe the racing fans will love following the PWC series throughout the 2016 season.”

After Johnny O’Connell scored his fourth consecutive GT title last year, the personable Georgia driver admitted the 2015 championship was his most gratifying season of his prestigious career. The Cadillac ATS-V.R driver has won the 24 Hours of LeMans four times, raced in the Indy 500, won numerous driver crowns in several series but the 2015 PWC title was O’Connell’s finest moment.

“We had a new Cadillac that needed to be developed for a highly-competitive class,” said O’Connell. “It was going to be tough for me and the Cadillac boys to win the GT championship again. Then we had a crash at Long Beach when we got taken out. Then we had huge fire at the Barber track. It was a big scramble for us. We brought out the older car and we worked our rear-ends off to get back in the points hunt. Then it went right down to the final event in Monterey to clinch it.”

And O’Connell, a race winner at the Circuit of the Americas already in 2016, knows the battle is just as fierce this year with a spectacular field in the GT division.

“For 2016, I welcomed a new teammate Michael Cooper (GTS Champion) to Cadillac Racing,” Johnny said. “Michael is a fast young talent who I am sure will push me at every track this season. And there are others like Patrick Long, Michael Lewis, James Davison, Alvaro Parente, Jon Fogarty, Andrew Palmer plus the Ferraris, Acuras, Audis and more. And the GT division has rolling starts in 2016 is exciting too. The Pirelli World Challenge is the place to be in sedan racing right now.”

Long, one of the world’s top Porsche drivers, is back in PWC in 2016 with the EFFORT Porsche GT3 and teaming up with another young star in Lewis. Long is the last driver to win the GT division not named O’Connell when the California native captured the 2011 title.

The Manhattan Beach, Calif., racer is a multi-time LeMans winner and a factory Porsche driver for some 12 years now. Long won the first Pirelli World Challenge race of the season in Austin, Tex., and is one of the true veterans battling O’Connell for the coveted GT crown.

“The biggest challenges will be the level of competition and integrating into a new team quickly,” said Long, a two-time 24 Hours of LeMans winner. “I’m excited to how the series has evolved since 2011. It’s tough to find GT racing like PWC throughout the world. World class drivers, teams and cars makes for a tremendous combination for the fans.”

O’Connell and Long lead an outstanding field of international racing veterans to the PWC GT category as well as Fogarty, Parente, Davison, Andrew Davis and Ryan Eversley. Fogarty, a former IMSA and Formula Atlantic champion, brings the prestigious Gainsco team to the Pirelli World Challenge in 2016 with the ultra-fast McLaren 650S sports car in the GT class. Parente, the International GT champion, is a factory McLaren driver with Davison, a multi-time Indy 500 starter, leading the Nissan factory contingent. Davis and Eversley, former sports car champions, wheel potent Porsche and Acura machines in GT too.

But don’t discount the youngsters in the GT division either.

Lewis, whose father, Steve, fielded the famed Nine Racing midget in the USAC ranks with drivers like Stan Fox, Tony Stewart, Jason Leffler and Dave Darland, has vaulted to the limelight with an impressive double victory performance in the streets of St. Petersburg in March in the EFFORT Racing Porsche. At age 25, Lewis is already a contender for the GT title.

“It is so exciting to race with Patrick Long as a teammate in the Pirelli World Challenge,” said Lewis, a former Formula 3 racer from Laguna Beach, Calif. “I couldn’t ask for a better teammate and team with EFFORT Racing. It was a dream weekend at St. Petersburg with two pole positions and two wins. Now I want to continue that momentum throughout the upcoming races.”

But Lewis isn’t the only young driver performing at a high level early in 2016.

Take former GTS champion Cooper of Syosset, N.Y., for example. Cooper, 26, is finishing up his second college degree (in nutrition) at Long Island University and racing full-time for Cadillac Racing as O’Connell’s teammate. Cooper is the current GT point leader after four rounds.

While Michael may still be studying the books, he sure isn’t looking like a rookie in the GT division this year after three impressive podium finishes already and was the series point leader after the first four events in 2016.

“It’s fun to have Johnny as a teammate this year and he will show me so many things with the Cadillac,” said Cooper, a three-time sports car series titleholder. “But I also have to remember that I am fighting with Johnny for finishes and points too. The GT class is just so competitive that I have to drive my Cadillac flat out against some incredible talent. It doesn’t matter who is next to me on the track. It’s tough.”

And Lewis and Cooper aren’t the only youngsters in the GT battle in 2016. How about 21-year-old Pennsylvania racer Colin Thompson (GT Cup champion) and 17-year-old star Austin Cindric, son of Penske Racing President Tim Cindric, or Andrew Palmer, another open-wheel star before moving to Bentley in PWC, and Adderly Fong, the Hong Kong star who served as a test driver for the Lotus F1 team last year?

After looking at the Pirelli World Challenge GT field in 2016, it’s no wonder why O’Connell believes he will have his hands full in attempting to capture a stunning fifth straight championship.