The 2014 Pirelli World Challenge season was the 25th season of the

Pirelli World Challenge The GT World Challenge America is a North American auto racing series launched in 1990 by the Sports Car Club of America. It has been managed by the Stephane Ratel Organisation since 2018, and has been sanctioned by the United States Auto Club s ...

championship. It marked the debut of a new "Touring Car A-Spec" class. A new "GT A-Spec" class also made its debut. These new classes featured amateur drivers. The series also held a round at

Brainerd International Raceway Brainerd International Raceway is a road course, and dragstrip racing complex northwest of the city of Brainerd, Minnesota. The complex has a dragstrip, and overlapping and road courses. The complex also includes a kart track. The raceway hos ...

for the first time in its history, with a touring car doubleheader held in support of a

Trans Am Series The Trans-Am Series is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of track types includin ...

event; also making its series debut was

Barber Motorsports Park Barber Motorsports Park is an multi-purpose racing facility located in Birmingham, Alabama. It was built by George W. Barber, and includes the Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum. It has been the site of the IndyCar Series' Grand Prix of Alabam ...

. The GT groups competed in sixteen fifty-minute sprints on nine circuits. The touring cars competed in fourteen sprints on seven road courses. The first race for GT cars at St. Petersburg was canceled due to heavy rain, so a make-up race was added for the series finale at Miller Motorsports Park. The second race for touring cars at Barber was also canceled due to rain, so a make-up race was added to the schedule at Mosport. In the GT championship, three wins at the first four meetings – at

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

and a double at Belle Isle – along with consistent finishing thereafter was enough to give

Johnny O'Connell Johnny O'Connell (born July 24, 1962) is the most successful GM factory racing driver from the United States. He currently drives for Cadillac in the Pirelli World Challenge, winning the 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 GT driver's championship. Caree ...

a third consecutive series title at the wheel of his

Cadillac CTS-V The Cadillac CTS is an executive car that was manufactured and marketed by General Motors from 2003 until 2019 across three generations. Historically, it was priced similarly to cars on the compact luxury spectrum; but it has always been size ...

. O'Connell finished 156 points clear of his closest championship rival, Mike Skeen, who also won three races during the season; he achieved a double victory at

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...

along with a win at

Sonoma Raceway Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway from 1967 to 1980 and 1982 to 2002, Golden State International Raceway in 1981 and Infineon Raceway from 2002 to 2012) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern S ...

, driving an

Audi R8 LMS ultra The Audi R8 is a mid-engine, 2-seater sports car, which uses Audi's trademark quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. It was introduced by the German car manufacturer Audi AG in 2006. The car is exclusively designed, developed, and manufactu ...

. The championship top three was completed by Anthony Lazzaro at the wheel of a

Ferrari 458 GT3 The Ferrari 458 Italia (Type F142) is a Mid-engine design, mid-engine sports car produced by Ferrari. The F458 is the successor of the Ferrari F430, F430, and was first officially unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show#2009, 2009 Frankfurt Motor ...

. Lazzaro finished 30 points behind Skeen, taking victories at Barber Motorsports Park and the second race at Sonoma Raceway. Seven other drivers won race in the class in 2014; the only driver to win more than one race was

Ryan Dalziel Ryan Dalziel ( ; born 12 April 1982), is a Scottish professional racing driver. Dalziel has seen the most success in his career in the United States, racing in the American Le Mans Series GT1 class and the Champ Car World Series, and winning t ...

, who took a double win at

Mid-Ohio Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a road course auto racing facility located in Troy Township, Morrow County, Ohio, United States, just outside the village of Lexington. Mid-Ohio has also colloquially become a term for the entire north-central regio ...

. Single race victories were taken by Andrew Palmer (Barber Motorsports Park) and

Tomáš Enge Tomáš Enge (; born 11 September 1976) is a Czech former professional racing driver who has competed in many classes of motorsport, including three races in Formula One. He has twice been sanctioned professionally for drug offences. Career Born ...

(St. Petersburg), while the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

races were won by Kuno Wittmer and

Nick Tandy Nick Tandy (born 5 November 1984) is a professional British racing driver currently racing for Corvette Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the 64 Corvette C8.R. His major victories include the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 2015 ...

, and the Miller Motorsports Park races were won by Robert Thorne and Guy Smith. The GTA class held within the GT championship was won by Michael Mills, who finished in eighth place in the overall GT standings.

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

won the Manufacturers' Championship by five points ahead of

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...

. In the GTS class, four-time race winner

Lawson Aschenbach Lawson L. Aschenbach (born November 22, 1983) is an American professional racing driver. He is a four-time Pirelli World Challenge champion, and most recently, the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge GTS Champion. He is the 2006 SPEED World Challenge (l ...

took his second straight series title, finishing 50 points clear of his closest competitor, Jack Baldwin, who won three races. Both drivers took advantage of Mark Wilkins suffering a pointless final weekend at Miller Motorsports Park, which dropped him 108 points behind Aschenbach in the final standings. Wilkins had finished each of the previous races in the top ten, including victories at Barber Motorsports Park and Toronto. Dean Martin took a double victory at Belle Isle and added a third victory in Toronto en route to fourth in the championship.

Niclas Jönsson Niclas ("Nic") Jönsson (born August 4, 1967, Bankeryd) is a Swedish racing driver, currently driving in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He drove in the Indy Racing League in the 1999 and 2000 seasons with 4 career starts. His best care ...

also achieved a double victory – at Road America – having previously won at Long Beach, but no points in the final four races of the season dropped him to seventh in the final championship standings. The season's only other winner was Nick Esayian, who won the first race at Miller Motorsports Park. In the Manufacturers' Championship,

Kia Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...

claimed the title by six points ahead of

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

. In TC, only Michael DiMeo was able to win more than two races during the season, but his eight victories allowed him to win the class title by nearly 500 points over Karl Thomson, who was a race winner at Brainerd. Third place, a further 82 points in arrears, was Adam Poland, who won races at Road America and Miller Motorsports Park. Steven Doherty won the other races at Road America and Miller Motorsports Park en route to fourth in the championship, while the other Brainerd race winner was Fred Emich, who finished fifth in the championship.

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

comfortably won the Manufacturers' Championship. TCA class honors were taken by Jason Wolfe, who won five races on his way to the championship. Wolfe finished 207 points clear of another five-time winner, Shea Holbrook, while a further 24 points behind in third place was Ernie Francis, Jr., who won a trio of races, including a double at Brainerd. Aside from his GTS foray, Jönsson achieved a victory at Miller Motorsports Park. Kia won the Manufacturers' Championship on a tie-break with Honda, by six wins to five. TCB championship honors went to Brian Price, at the wheel of a

Honda Fit The Honda Fit (Japanese: ホンダ・フィット, Hepburn: ''Honda Fitto'') or Honda Jazz is a small car manufactured and marketed by Honda since 2001 and now in its fourth generation. It has a five-door hatchback body style and is considered ...

. Price won four races at the first three meetings – Barber Motorsports Park,

Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formerly Mosport Park and Mosport International Raceway) is a multi-track motorsport venue located north of Bowmanville, in Ontario, Canada, east of Toronto. The facility features a , 10-turn road course; a adva ...

and

New Jersey Motorsports Park New Jersey Motorsports Park is a road course "Motorsports Entertainment Complex" located in Millville, Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States. It has hosted races since opening in 2008 and currently hosts a schedule including MotoAmerica P ...

– and added a fifth win at the final meeting at Miller Motorsports Park. Price won the title by 125 points ahead of Nathan Stacy, who was the other winner at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Third place went to Tyler Palmer, 58 points behind Stacy, taking victories at New Jersey Motorsports Park and Mid-Ohio. The season's other multiple winner was Johan Schwartz, who won three of the final four races at Brainerd and Miller Motorsports Park. The season's other winners were Glenn Nixon at Road America, and Chase Pelletier at Mid-Ohio. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Honda finished 25 points clear of the next best manufacturer,

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

Schedule

Source:

News

On January 7, 2014, it was announced that Pirelli, WC Vision had agreed to a five-year extension to their Title and Official Tire Partnership for the World Challenge Championships. On January 6, 2014, it was announced that the TV broadcast partnership with NBC Sports Network had been renewed for 2014. On December 24, 2013, it was announced that the

Reiter Engineering Reiter Engineering GmbH & Co Kg, commonly known simply as Reiter Engineering, is a German racing team and racing car manufacturer established in 2000 by motorsport engineer Hans Reiter. Reiter was a partner of Lamborghini from 2000 to 2014, involv ...

Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 GT3 would be homologated for competition. On October 28, 2013, it was announced that the Porsche 911 GT3 R would be homologated for competition. The March 29 race was canceled due to heavy rain. Only qualifying points were awarded.

Entries

GT

TC

TCA

Race results

Championship standings

Drivers' Championships

Championship points were awarded to drivers based on qualifying and finishing positions. The driver had to complete at least 70% of the winner's number of laps to receive points. The Pole position winner received 7 points. In addition, 1 bonus point was awarded to a driver leading a lap during a race, and 3 bonus points were awarded to the driver leading the most laps. The driver who set the fastest lap of the race received 1 bonus point.