In its inaugural race on Pirelli P Zero Racing Slicks, the GMG Racing BMW M3 of James Sofronas and Fabryce Kutyba shattered track records for fastest qualifying and fastest race laps at Willow Springs raceway, and swept the BMW CCA (Car Club of America) Club Race CM Class during the BMWCCA West Coast season finale club race last weekend.
The team at GMG has been racing, building, tuning and servicing European cars for several years, and switching over to Pirelli’s P Zero made all the difference last weekend at the track.
“This was our first time on the P Zeros,” said James Sofronas, co-owner/driver of the GMG M3 – a car that has been built from the ground-up in their California-based shop. “Our performance in last week’s race is a testament to the tire’s design and development. For it to handle so well on its first time out - and our understanding that we still have chassis adjustments to make tells us that even with such fast times, there is still room for improvement – and we’re excited about that.”
Sofronas quickly established the pace last weekend at Willow Springs, and lead the time sheets all day long. Not surprising after breaking the qualifying record by nearly two seconds – in a car that is 200 pounds overweight for its CM class.
When the green flag dropped James took off and never looked back, taking the CM class win and in the process broke the race lap record by 1.4 seconds running a fast lap of 1:25.5.
“GMG is a terrific example of the kinds of grassroots, club-level Motorsports Pirelli is targeting in North America,” said Rafael Navarro, III, Director of Motorsport and Media Relations for Pirelli Tire North America. “We are building relationships with great teams and drivers – just like GMG – every day. Our relationship with them includes testing at the amateur and professional levels as well, and with last week’s performance, we expect great things from GMG in the future!”
