PWC: 2017 Driver ratings plans announced

WC Vision, producers of the Pirelli World Challenge, today announced its platform for the driver ratings in the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge Championships as North America's top GT Production-based road racing series.

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Recognizing the global racing communities' interest in the Series, Marcus Haselgrove, Director of Competition for the Pirelli World Challenge, worked closely with SRO's Jacquie Groom (Sporting Director) and Claude Surmont (Technical Director) to develop a standard driving rating system for all PWC GT3 and GTS (GT4) competition for the 2017 campaign.

"With two distinct championships for 2017 (GT Sprint and GT SprintX), we wanted to establish driver rankings for the Pirelli World Challenge that invite a variety of drivers to compete for those championships," said Haselgrove. "Drivers can race for the Sprint points, the SprintX points and the overall points titles. We feel this system can help all our customer racers to compete on a level playing field towards a championship title."

Haselgrove explained that the GT Sprint ratings will remain similar to 2016 with the GT3 Gold/Platinum drivers ranked for the Pro class. Bronze drivers are ranked for the Amateur class. Pro/Am Status for Silver drivers will be determined by the PWC competition board.

Below is the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge Driver Ranking System:

 *Special consideration

In the GTS (GT4) series, the Pro classes will be listed as Silver/Gold ratings with the Amateurs as Bronze. Platinum drivers will not be eligible.

With the new SprintX classes in 2017, the driver ratings will include the Pro, Pro-Am and Am-Am system for the two-driver concept in the 60-minute events.

The Pro category will allow any combination of Silver/Gold/Platinum. The Pro-Am is a Bronze driver plus a Silver or Gold driver. The Am-Am is two bronze drivers.

In GTS (GT4) divisions, the Pro-Am combination will include a Bronze driver plus a Silver/Gold driver while the Am-Am combo will feature two Bronze rated drivers only.

"We believe these new driver combinations will allow additional drivers to compete in various events throughout the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge series, especially for the customer teams and amateur drivers," said Greg Gill, president and CEO of WC Vision. "Working with SRO in 2016 has given our staff an excellent communication platform in worldwide GT racing and we're excited to continue this alliance as we grow the Pirelli World Challenge."

In SprintX competition, the Pro-Pro and Pro-Am division will have no minimum driver change time while the Am-Am category will have a 60-second minimum time to allow its two drivers make a proper driver change in its entry.

As the 2017 schedule and Sprint and SprintX regulations are completed, more information will be distributed to the competitors, manufacturers, and sponsors.