ANSA MOTORSPORTS GOING SPRINTX RACING WITH MANFREDI AND SUMMERTON AT LAGUNA SECA
ANSA Motorsports is set to make its SprintX championship debut in the Pirelli World Challenge next week during round 3 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California on Oct. 7-9. Ludovico Manfredi and Jonathan Summerton will share driving duties in the No. 27 ANSA Motorsports prepared Porsche 911 GT3-Cup in the GT-Cup class.
ANSA Motorsports will have its hands full next week in California, since in addition to entering one Porsche 911 GT3-Cup in the SprintX, the team from Miami Gardens, Florida, will field three KTM X-Bows in the Pirelli World Challenge GTS championship.
2016 marks the inaugural season of the SprintX GT Championship Series Similar to GT races in the Pirelli World Challenge, SprintX races have a sprint format, as races are 60 minutes in length. The difference between a GT race and a SprintX race is that each SprintX race features a mandatory driver change and up to one tire change between the 25-and 35-minute mark of the race, leading to plenty of strategy by the team’s engineers.
ANSA Motorsports has solid experience racing the Porsche GT3-Cup car. The team won the 2012 and 2014 Porsche GT3-Cup Challenge USA championships in the Gold Cup class and last year finished third in the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge GT-Cup class championship.
Manfredi has a great deal of experience racing with ANSA Motorsports, the team co-owned by Alain Nadal and Patrick Otto Madsen, especially in the IMSA Prototype Lites series, where Manfredi won and scored multiple podium finishes in the last three seasons.
“I am looking forward to being reunited with ANSA Motorsports, in what has been a year of little or no racing activity for me,” Manfredi said. “And what better way than doing so in my favorite car, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, and at MRLS, one of the coolest race tracks in the world, in one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Every time I compete at Laguna Seca, I feel truly lucky and thankful to be able to do so. The team will welcome Summerton as one of the two drivers for the two SprintX races. Jonathan impressed me with his drive at Spa last year in the Porsche Supercup with the team MOMO-Megatron, and I am looking forward to sharing the car with him. I am also curious to see how the SprintX format is developing.”
Summerton, from Redwood City, California, made a name for himself in the junior formula ranks late in the 2000s, winning an A1GP race for Team USA and racing his way to a tie with John Edwards for the 2009 Atlantic Championship. Summerton made his successful sports-car debut in 2012 with the BMW Team RLL American Le Mans Series GT program, winning the Twelve Hours of Sebring and earning three podiums from four starts. Summerton recently raced in the Pirelli World Challenge GT class behind the wheel of a Mercedes AMG SLS and finished 8th in round 9 at Sonoma Raceway.
“Having an opportunity to drive for ANSA Motorsports is very exciting and to team up with Ludovico Manfredi,” Summerton said. “I'm sure together we can be competitive from the get-go and hope together we can bring home a podium.”
The Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca SprintX event will feature two one-hour races, and ANSA Motorsports and its two drivers’ goal is to learn the SprintX rules fast and score a podium finish in the GT-Cup class in their first series appearance.
ANSA Motorsports will have its hands full next week in California, since in addition to entering one Porsche 911 GT3-Cup in the SprintX, the team from Miami Gardens, Florida, will field three KTM X-Bows in the Pirelli World Challenge GTS championship.
2016 marks the inaugural season of the SprintX GT Championship Series Similar to GT races in the Pirelli World Challenge, SprintX races have a sprint format, as races are 60 minutes in length. The difference between a GT race and a SprintX race is that each SprintX race features a mandatory driver change and up to one tire change between the 25-and 35-minute mark of the race, leading to plenty of strategy by the team’s engineers.
ANSA Motorsports has solid experience racing the Porsche GT3-Cup car. The team won the 2012 and 2014 Porsche GT3-Cup Challenge USA championships in the Gold Cup class and last year finished third in the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge GT-Cup class championship.
Manfredi has a great deal of experience racing with ANSA Motorsports, the team co-owned by Alain Nadal and Patrick Otto Madsen, especially in the IMSA Prototype Lites series, where Manfredi won and scored multiple podium finishes in the last three seasons.
“I am looking forward to being reunited with ANSA Motorsports, in what has been a year of little or no racing activity for me,” Manfredi said. “And what better way than doing so in my favorite car, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, and at MRLS, one of the coolest race tracks in the world, in one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Every time I compete at Laguna Seca, I feel truly lucky and thankful to be able to do so. The team will welcome Summerton as one of the two drivers for the two SprintX races. Jonathan impressed me with his drive at Spa last year in the Porsche Supercup with the team MOMO-Megatron, and I am looking forward to sharing the car with him. I am also curious to see how the SprintX format is developing.”
Summerton, from Redwood City, California, made a name for himself in the junior formula ranks late in the 2000s, winning an A1GP race for Team USA and racing his way to a tie with John Edwards for the 2009 Atlantic Championship. Summerton made his successful sports-car debut in 2012 with the BMW Team RLL American Le Mans Series GT program, winning the Twelve Hours of Sebring and earning three podiums from four starts. Summerton recently raced in the Pirelli World Challenge GT class behind the wheel of a Mercedes AMG SLS and finished 8th in round 9 at Sonoma Raceway.
“Having an opportunity to drive for ANSA Motorsports is very exciting and to team up with Ludovico Manfredi,” Summerton said. “I'm sure together we can be competitive from the get-go and hope together we can bring home a podium.”
The Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca SprintX event will feature two one-hour races, and ANSA Motorsports and its two drivers’ goal is to learn the SprintX rules fast and score a podium finish in the GT-Cup class in their first series appearance.