FORT MILL, S.C. — Continental Tire the Americas is teaming up with Random Vandals Racing — a BMW customer racing team based in Concord, N.C. — to compete in 10 World Racing League (WRL) events in 2023.
The WRL focuses on endurance-road-racing events. Competitors use street-legal tires.
The 2023 season kicks off Jan. 20-222 at NOLA Motorsports Park near New Orleans and runs through Dec. 1-3 at Circuit of the Americas near Austin, Texas. There are 13 race weekends scheduled.
Random Vandals will enter a pair of BMW M4 GT4s, one with primary sponsorship from Continental. The vehicle — driven by Mo Dadkhah, Michael Gilbert, and a third driver to be announced at later date — will feature a livery of Continental's iconic gold and black colors.
A second BMW M4 GT4 will have secondary sponsorship from Continental.
Random Vandals will use two of Continental's latest performance tires, the ExtremeContact Force, a 200 UTQG endurance racing built tire which Random Vandals will run in dry conditions, and the ExtremeContact Sport02, which the team will use in wet-weather conditions.
Paul Sparta, team principal for Random Vandals, said the WRL's endurance-racing format will be a "great showcase" for the new Continental tires.
Sparta said the ExtremeContact Force has proved to be quick and long-wearing, which gives the team confidence it can bring home some great results. Testing is under way.
The WRL is a professionally run amateur series promoting and operating endurance races at road courses across the country. It's founded on the premise that racing should be simple, affordable, safe and fun.
All major road-racing sanctions are eligible, including Sports Car Club of America, National Auto Sport Association and and others.
WRL endurance event weekends include racing on both Saturday and Sunday with nearly every race eight hours long. The Daytona event, scheduled for June 9-10, will be a 14-hour race.
"We are excited to partner with Random Vandals on a full-season two-car effort in the World Racing League GTO class," Travis Roffler, director of marketing for Continental Tire, said.
"Random Vandals has shown they are a winning team and this will be a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate the superior performance of our ExtremeContact Force and ExtremeContact Sport02 products."
Random Vandals Racing, which also competes professionally in both IMSA and SRO, will start the 2023 World Racing League season with a two-day test at NOLA Motorsports Park ahead of the season opener.
