CJ Wilson Racing Acquires New Partner For Mazda Raceway

Subtitle:Team Launches Cayman Cup for Forza Motorsport 6

CJ Wilson Racing recently announced Safecraft Safety Equipment will be the primary partner on the #35 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport for the forthcoming Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. This is the second of a six-race partnership for the market-leading fire suppression experts and it is the first time the San Francisco Bay Area-based business has run the unmistakable Safecraft livery in sportscar competition. The car will once again be driven by Tyler McQuarrie and Till Bechtolsheimer.

For the Northern California native McQuarrie, this becomes the fifth different category of motorsport that he has competed in this season with Safecraft and it will be the fourth different discipline in as many weeks. The Safecraft Safety Equipment #RaceEverything campaign began in Mexico with the SCORE San Felipe 250 while April has seen McQuarrie pound the streets of Long Beach on consecutive weekends in Formula Drift and Stadium Super Trucks. McQuarrie and Safecraft will make their stock car debut in the ARCA Series at Salem Speedway, Indiana this weekend. A hectic month of racing will climax at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the CJWR #35 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport which will run in the now familiar Safecraft Safety Equipment livery for the first time.

The complexities and technical demands of McQuarrie's April schedule are not lost on the Danville, California based pro, "Racing on four consecutive weekends by itself is a lot to take on as a driver even if you are just going to different tracks. But to do it in four separate disciplines going from Drifting one week to Stadium Super Trucks the next then making my debut on an oval and then going straight to a road course, that's the tricky part."

The final leg of McQuarrie's April adventure sees him on very familiar ground. "Being able to race at Mazda Raceway with Safecraft, is just awesome. This is the track where my racing career started and it is pretty amazing to wind up this absolutely crazy month back where everything began for me. To have a local company like Safecraft on the car with all of their employees and supporters there at the event watching a car that is running in the full livery, that is now being seen in so many series, is very exciting."

Familiarity with his surroundings and his teammate in the #35 car is also a welcome benefit for McQuarrie. "I think the Safecraft car is going to be even more competitive, and having now had a race weekend with Till, I'm confident that we are going to be strong next weekend."

Those sentiments are echoed by Team Owner, CJ Wilson. "Having Tyler on the team with all of that experience in so many disciplines is a real benefit for his teammate, Till, whose racing resume to date has been in historic competition exclusively. It has been hugely helpful to have Tyler and Marc [Miller] coach Till and that is why Till is pretty much up to speed already as he clearly demonstrated at Sebring."

Wilson also sees the benefits of the Safecraft #RaceEverything campaign. "I've known Tyler for almost 10 years now and every time I turn around he has some extra tool in his driver's toolbelt. He can drive Trophy Trucks and rally cars and formula cars and prototypes and on and on. I think the only thing he hasn't tried, at this stage, is motocross so maybe that is something we have to throw at him."

The two-time MLB All-Star went on to explain the value, to CJ Wilson Racing, of Safecraft's involvement across so many disciplines. "Safecraft is a great partner for us because they really do understand how to operate across a wide variety of race vehicles and how to keep us safe when we need them the most. That is something that we are very comfortable with."

Round 3 of the 2016 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge takes place on Saturday, April 30th at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The Green Flag drops at 4:25 PM ET and the race can be seen live on IMSA.com or via the dedicated IMSA app. 

CJ Wilson Racing Launches the Cayman Cup For Forza Motorsport 6

CJ Wilson Racing also recently announced the launch of the 2016 CJ Wilson Racing Cayman Cup for Forza Motorsport 6. This ten race virtual series for the 2015 Porsche Cayman GTS is presented by Logitech G and runs in partnership with The Online Racing Association (TORA). The overall winner of the series will receive a Logitech G920 racing wheel (for Xbox One and PC) and the 6-speed manual Driving Force shifter along with a host of merchandise from CJWR's team partners.  The UK based Online Racing Association is recognized by the MSA UK, the governing body of British motorsport and it has a significant membership in North America.

CJ Wilson Racing and its drivers have worked closely with TORA to create a base model car that matches the team's Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport as closely as possible. The driver of the #33 ONE Capital/Motor Oil Matters car, Danny Burkett, has done many virtual laps in order to match both the performance and handling characteristics of the Forza Motorsport car to the real thing.

"Without a doubt seeing my #33 ONE Capital Cayman in a video game was one of the coolest moments of my life", explained the 20 year old from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Burkett went to on describe the development process. "It was awesome but a little bittersweet as the 2015 Cayman GTS in-game didn't really feel like the GT4 race car did in reality. So when we started planning the Cayman Cup race series, Matt Hunter, from TORA, sent me the base setup for the car they were planning to use and it was surprisingly good but it still need to be fine tuned. Once we got those adjustments figured out, like getting the brakes a little better and improving the overall grip levels it felt almost identical to what it was like to race the Cayman GT4 Clubsport on the track at Sebring."

TORA's development work with the young Canadian sportscar ace truly paid off as Burkett was able to get the Cayman Cup car down to a time of 2:17.1 seconds around Sebring which is only half a second off his actual race pace from the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race last month. "I think people are really going to get a kick out of driving the car, it truly is an accurate representation of what it is like to drive the CJ Wilson Racing Cayman and people are going to have a lot of fun fine tuning and customizing the car to make it their own," enthused Burkett.

Team Owner, CJ Wilson shares his driver's enthusiasm for the new series. "Its really exciting to be able to develop any kind of partnership where your actual car liveries feature in a video game. It is also great to be associated with a group like TORA that competes at a simulation quality level. The fact that people want to race Caymans built to the spec of our GT4 Clubsport is really awesome. If I was younger and didn't play baseball at night I would definitely be doing this myself, I think it's fantastic!"

Wilson also sees some of the more practical benefits of online racing. "Because Danny has been helping to develop the car for the series and he believes that it feels very much like our real race car, the Cayman Cup is going to give the competitors all of the experience with none of the costs of running a real race team and I'm kind of jealous of that!"

For the two-time MLB All-Star left hander, the partnership between Porsche and Forza Motorsport is one made in heaven. "Up until a few weeks ago you couldn't even drive Porsches in the game. Although my virtual Mclaren collection is to die for, I didn't have any Porsches to acquire and I was pretty upset about that. The fact that this came along all at the same time shows you how committed Porsche is to the virtual driving community and how connected that fan base is to the real car market."  

The quality of competition among the TORA members has not been lost on Wilson either. "Not everybody has the access to develop their abilities in karts and that other stuff. They can, however,  develop a lot of the same skills over a long period in Forza such as race craft, consistency, and damage control at the pointy end of the virtual field. Who is to say that in the future that there won't be a CJ Wilson driver that we have scouted through our partnership with TORA? It would be great to develop somebody like that from the ground up."

Starting on April 27th, the Championship will run throughout the Spring and Summer culminating with the finale at Road Atlanta on August 31st. CJ Wilson drivers, Danny Burkett and Marc Miller will be making regular guest appearances in the events throughout the season. For more series information please go to TORA forum page.