Sometimes championships come from dominating performances throughout the season and sometimes they are won through consistency.  Sloan Urry returned to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama this weekend as the championship leader and despite two performance inhibiting challenges, he remained consistent, he kept his car in-tact and scored enough points to remain on top.

The first challenge for Sloan this week was physical; he fell off his skateboard while riding home from his office last week and injured his left forearm.  He arrived in Alabama with a hard brace but it became obvious after Thursday’s practice session that he would need more support to be able to wrestle his Porsche 991 around the twisty 2.38-mile 15-turn road course.  Concerned about the weekend ahead and protecting the points lead, TruSpeed Autosport race engineer Tim Lewis contacted Olympic boxing coach, Dave Godber.  Godber owns Round One Boxing for Health in Birmingham and his very familiar with the taping techniques required to stabilize injuries for continued competition.  Godber was willing to help and spent the weekend at the track preparing Sloan’s arm for each session, “I’m really grateful to Dave.  His help made all the difference for me this weekend.  I am still in quite a bit of pain, but I might not have been able to compete without his help.”

The second challenge was mechanical.  The behavior of the #20 SecurityNational/Avasis/Porsche 991 changed dramatically from practice on Friday afternoon where Sloan recorded the fast time by a half a second.  Fighting massive oversteer, Sloan’s qualifying time on Saturday morning was slower than his practice times from Friday and in race one on Saturday afternoon, he struggled to keep the car on track. His fastest lap time during the race was two seconds slower than his quickest lap the day before. Despite the challenges, he preserved his equipment and took the checkered flag in third position, earning 90 valuable points.  Frustrated and confused, but committed to excellence, the TruSpeed Autosport team worked until midnight inspecting, rebuilding and replacing many components of the car on Saturday.

Sloan returned Sunday morning for his final race of the weekend hoping to pilot a much improved car, and looking for a victory.  Sloan took the green flag under sunny skies and immediately began to challenge Corey Fergus in the #00 Porsche. The two battled up and down the hills and through the 13 turns throughout the 45-minute race.  With just two minutes to go, Fergus was hit by another competitor and Sloan assumed second position, where he remained until the checkered flag.

Watch the race on CBS Sports next Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 4:00pm ET. Next up: Sloan heads North to Canada in May for a double-header at MoSport with a six-point championship lead over Alec Udell.  For more information, visit www.sloanurryracing.com

Sloan Urry: “Corey (Fergus) and I had a great battle throughout the race today.  Unfortunately, he was spun by another competitor. I feel bad for him, but I am happy for the points we scored out there today, and I am happy to push forward in the championship. I am looking forward to going testing soon because we have some gremlins in the car that we didn’t really figure out here.  Luckily we have some time before MoSport to work on that and also for my arm to heal.  Always a big thank you to Avasis, SecurityNational Mortgage and my team TruSpeed for getting us here and able to be a competitive effort.”

Tyler Tadevic: “It wasn’t an easy weekend for us, but I am really proud of Sloan and the TruSpeed guys.  It could have easily gone another way for us but Sloan hung in there and salvaged all the points he could and the boys worked their tails of to improve the car.”

Monterey, Calif. (13 September 2015) – Sloan Urry closed out the 2015 Pirelli World Challenge championship on a high note on Sunday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca when he delivered SecurityNational’s 13th podium of the season in what has been an impressive run for the 23-year old racer.

Urry qualified third on the grid for the GT Cup presented by MOMO season-finale continuing his positive trend of qualifying performances throughout the year. He scored a starting position among the top-three in all but two races of the 18-round championship.

Opening the race from the inside of the second row, the GT Cup class lined up for a standing start and Urry perfectly hit his marks at the drop of the green flag. He stuck right with the leading two cars as the trio pulled away and put a significant gap over the remainder of the field.

As Urry chased down the second place car of Alec Udell, the faster class of the GT machines caught the GT Cup cars as each raced for position in their respective categories. That made for some challenging racing as Urry fought for second place while also remaining mindful of the GT class machines.

‘It’s really tough with all the other GT cars out there that are quite a bit quicker than us,” said Urry. “It makes it interesting, a lot of times it’s frustrating but it adds another element to the race. You just kind of have to be careful, because the GTs don’t play too nice, they want to get by and that’s understandable in a sprint race like this. You just have to be careful and pick your places where you need to be aggressive with them and other places to let them go.”

Urry skillfully maneuvered past Udell late in the race and drove to his eighth runner-up result of the year as he also secured second in the championship standings.

“The competitor in me always wants to be first and that’s what we aim for, but we finished second in the championship, and we’ll take it in our first year in this series,” said Urry. “I’m just happy to be on the podium again for all of my sponsors SecurityNational, Alder and Tweed, Metro National Title and Engels & Volkers and for TruSpeed Autosport. They deserved wins this year so next year we’ll tighten it up a bit!”

TruSpeed Autosport Team Owner Tyler Tadevic was pleased with Urry’s performance throughout 2015.

“I’m just really proud of Sloan (Urry) and the guys at SecurityNational, this is a fantastic way to end the year,” said Tadevic. “Sloan had a good battle for third and ended up slotting into second there at the end against someone who is probably going to be our nemesis next year. We’re looking forward to announcing a big program for next year with at least a couple of cars. Overall, it was a successful weekend and a successful season. I think we left a little on the table, but we’re going to come back and do the best we can next year. A heartfelt congrats to the Kelly Moss team and to Colin Thompson on his championship. Thank you to the crew. We had three tubbed cars this season, many sleepless nights, and at every race they got it done and the cars back on the track. The sum of any organization are the people who work for them and I have the best, so I’m thankful for them as well!”

The Pirelli World Challenge event from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will be televised on CBS Sports Network on Sunday, September 20 at 3:30 PM ET.

Costa Mesa, Calif. (8 September 2015) – It’s been an incredible season of Pirelli World Challenge competition for Sloan Urry and SecurityNational that has seen the No. 02 Porsche compete on a wide range of road and street courses across North America. This weekend, the 2015 GT Cup presented by MOMO championship comes to a close at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca at what is one of the favorite tracks on the 2015 calendar for both drivers and fans alike.

The event will cap off what has been an impressive year for Urry in which he’s tallied 12 podium results in 18 races. Those results have seen Urry stay in contention for the championship through most of the 2015 season.

He currently sits second in the standings with 1534 points.

With the championship title already wrapped up by Urry’s TruSpeed Autosport / Kelly Moss teammate Colin Thompson, the goal for Urry this weekend will be to take a victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca while also locking in second in the 2015 championship.

Urry claimed a podium finish at Laguna Seca last year while driving for JDX Racing in Porsche GT3 Cup competition. The 2.238-mile track is a challenging one and is known for its elevation changes and signature “Corkscrew” corner combination.

“I can’t believe we are already at the last event on the Pirelli World Challenge 2015 calendar but I can’t be happier that it’s at Laguna Seca,” said Urry. “I have quite a bit of experience at Laguna Seca and it is one of my favorite tracks – it’s hard to beat The Corkscrew! The track has a great flow to it and is a blast to drive. We have some good momentum from the last weekend at Sonoma, so I’m eager to get back at it. As always I know TruSpeed will do their side of things and give me a great car. It’s up to me to end the season on a good note for the SecurityNational/Engel & Volkers car.”

The season-finale weekend will begin with testing and practice on Thursday. A second practice session takes place on Friday with qualifying scheduled for 11:25 AM PST on Saturday. The race is set for Sunday with festivities beginning at 1:35 PM PST.

Live coverage of the race can be viewed at www.world-challengetv.com with CBS Sports Network televising the event on Sunday, September 20 at 3:30 PM ET.

EVENT SCHEDULE:
Thursday: Practice → 4:30 PM – 5:00 PM PST
Friday: Practice → 12:00 PM PST – 12:30 PM PST
Saturday: Qualifying → 11:25 AM – 12:10 PM PST
Sunday: Race → 1:35 PM – 2:25 PM PST