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The Michelin Pilot Challenge is a
grand touring A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupé with either a ...
and
touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move ...
series run by the
International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...
. Originating from the Canadian
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
Cup, the series was taken over by Grand-Am in 2001 to become the Grand-Am Cup following the demise of rival
IMSA The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive direc ...
'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 Continental AG, commonly known as Continental or colloquially as Conti, is a German multinational automotive parts manufacturing company specializing in tires, brake systems, interior electronics, automotive safety, powertrain and chassis compo ...
Sports Car Challenge. In 2019, the series rebranded again after
Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...
was selected to become the new official tire supplier of the series. The Continental Challenge was the support series for Grand-Am's premier offering, the
Rolex Sports Car Series The Rolex Sports Car Series was the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It was a North American-based sports car series founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed ...
. In 2014, the series became the support series for the
United SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMS ...
upon the merger of the Rolex Series and the
American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...
.


Races

In traditional sports car racing format, the races are often run with both GS and ST 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 Lime Rock Park is a natural-terrain motorsport road racing venue located in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States, a hamlet in the town of Salisbury, in the state's northwest corner. Built in 1956, it is the nation's third oldest continuously ope ...
. Currently the races are 2 hours 30 minutes in length with a required driver change.


Telecasts

*All telecasts are exclusive to
Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...
, formerly
Speed Channel Speed was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as aut ...
. All telecasts are uploaded to the series website after their initial airing. *From 2019 season,
NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...
telecast Delayed-Race and IMSA TV has telecast live via website. *In 2022, 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 American Flat Track is an American motorcycle racing series. The racing series, founded and sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) in 1954, originally encompassed five distinct forms of competitions including mile dirt track ...
, all of which have broadcasts produced by NASCAR.


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 In an internal combustion engine, forced induction is where turbocharging or supercharging is used to increase the density of the intake air. Engines without forced induction are classified as naturally aspirated. Operating principle Overvi ...
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 The GT4 European Series is a sports car racing, sports car championship created and organised by SRO Motorsports Group. It is a pro/am championship which followed a formula similar to the FIA GT3 European Championship, which was itself derived fr ...
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 Car A TCR Touring Car is a touring car specification, first introduced in 2014 and is now employed by a multitude of series worldwide. All TCR Touring Cars are front-wheel drive cars based on 4 or 5 door production vehicles, and are powered by 1.75 t ...
s as a third class, with the intention of it replacing the Street Tuners as the second class, which happened the following year. The original format was reminiscent of the original
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 includ ...
, 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 George Follmer (born January 27, 1934) is an American former auto racing driver, and one of the most successful road racers of the 1970s. He was born in Phoenix, Arizona. His family moved to California when he was just an infant. Career Follmer ...
and
Parnelli Jones Rufus Parnell Jones (born August 12, 1933) is an American former professional racing driver and racing team owner. He is notable for his accomplishments while competing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Baja 1000 desert race. In 1962, he became the ...
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 The United States Auto Club (USAC) is one of the sanctioning bodies of auto racing in the United States. From 1956 to 1979, USAC sanctioned the List of USAC Championship Car seasons, United States National Championship, and from 1956 to 1997 the ...
's
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 ...
GT4 or TCR classes, which are one-hour races.


Champions


Notes


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Michelin Pilot Challenge International Motor Sports Association Auto racing series in the United States Auto racing series in Canada Touring car racing series Grand-Am GT4 (sports car class)