John Allen will return to SRO competition this weekend at Circuit of the Americas, but this time with a much bigger to-do list.
Allen will co-drive along side Kris Wilson as both compete in the full season of the SRO Pirelli GT4 America Sprint X Championship. Allen will keep himself busy as he also is set to campaign in the TC America championship on board a second BMW starting this weekend.
Allen and Wilson will be competing in both the GT4 and TC series with the duo driving the No. 16 BMW M4 GT4 in the Sprint X Championship and the No. 21 University of Alabama College of Engineering BMW M240iR in the TC Championship.
A retired engineer and United States Air Force Major, Allen is now taking on a new challenge and using his previous knowledge to take on the SRO season of competition. Allen is also a Distinguished Engineering and fellow University of Alabama alumni and will be using his race team as a platform to promote the college which he credits much of his success to.
Allen has been racing since 2013, first getting his seat time building at 54 years old, but has quickly adapted to the rigors of World Challenge competition. His knowledge and determination to learn made his steep learning curve easy to manage, bringing him to commit to the full season effort just four years after making his first start in the competitive category.
“I’m very excited to return to Pirelli World Challenge in 2019 representing The University of Alabama College of Engineering driving the No. 21 BMW M240iR in Touring Car and the #16 BMW M4 GT4 in Sprint-X along with co-driver Kris Wilson,” said Allen. “AutoTechnic has done a great job preparing the cars and we are ready to start the season at COTA."
Both drivers call Colorado home as the double-driver line up has seen Wilson add driver to his list of duties along with being his long time driver coach. Wilson is coming off of a big podium finish at Daytona International Speedway in January and is looking to continue that momentum with Allen, especially for such a special cause with the University of Alabama beside them.
"I can't wait to get the season going at COTA with my new teammate John Allen,” said Wilson. “The new BMW GT4 is a great car to drive and the AutoTechnic guys have been awesome to work with so far in preseason testing.”
The season opener will head to Circuit of the Americas this weekend where Allen has had success already. Last year Allen scored a second-place finish in the GTS-4 class at the National Auto Sports Association German Touring Series National Championship.
“I drove a race car for the first time at age 54 so my learning curve has been steep but it is great fun,” said Allen. “I still have a lot to learn and enjoy learning something new everyday. My driver development progressed in 2018 with several great races including a Top 5 finish at the Creventic Dubai 24H race in the BMW M4 GT4 and 2nd Place in GTS-4 class at the National Auto Sports Association German Touring Series National Championship race at Circuit of The Americas."
The 2019 SRO season kicks off this weekend at Circuit of the Americas with official practice beginning on Friday, March 1st. Both series will feature double header races with the first TC race on Saturday, March 2nd at 12:20pm ET and the first Sprint X race at 2:10PM ET. The final round of races will happen on Sunday, March 3rd with TC beginning at 10:05AM ET and Sprint X beginning at 11:15AM ET.
For news and updates follow us on Twitter, Instagram @JohnAllenRacing, and www.Facebook.com/JohnAllenRacing
Live timing can be viewed at https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/190906 as well as live streaming at https://world-challenge.com/streamvideo