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Pirelli World Challenge - Team Hot Wheels And Jack Baldwin Back To Long Beach


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LONG BEACH, April 13, 2012: Jack Baldwin and the No. 68 Hot Wheels®/GTSport/Porsche Napleton Racing Cayman S will take to the streets of Long Beach again this weekend in the Pirelli World Challenge following a strong debut for the all-new effort last month in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Along with primary partners InvoicePrep and Voodoo Ride, Baldwin brought Hot Wheels® back to major league road racing for the first time in two decades at St. Petersburg with the new Cayman S. Baldwin finished fifth in the first race of that weekend’s doubleheader on Saturday and backed it up with a come-from-behind seventh-place finish in Sunday’s second and final race of the weekend at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

“The St. Petersburg opener was real exciting but we learned that we had our work cut out for us,” said Baldwin, who won the 1992 Trans-Am Championship with Team Hot Wheels™ “The best part of GTSport is the truly great bunch of guys that make up our team, and I can’t say enough about how hard everyone back at Napleton Porsche has worked to get the car to where it is today. My partners and I feel pretty good about where we are in such a short time, and we are looking toward the future has we build strength and stability.”

Although Baldwin is still busy today as a race-winning professional driver, he is best known for the 1992 Trans-Am title in the popular Hot Wheels® Camaro. He has not been to Long Beach to race since that era.

“The last time I raced at the Beach was behind the wheel of the Hot Wheels® Camaro,” Baldwin said. “To be honest I have not had the best luck at this great event, but I am truly thrilled to be back in the Hot Wheels® Cayman to turn that luck around.”

This year’s Pirelli World Challenge season marks the return to major road racing competition for Hot Wheels® while Baldwin has three championships in total in a non-stop career that spans nearly for nearly four decades. The Baldwin/Team Hot Wheels™ duo is back after 20 years in search of more title-winning success in a full-season campaign in the Pirelli World Challenge GTS class. Invoice Prep and Voodoo Ride are the other lead partners in the effort.

The team is running a Pirelli Cayman Interseries-based Porsche Cayman S that has been modified to GTS specifications. The car was built and will be maintained by Porsche Napleton Racing (PNR), the racing division of leading Chicago area Porsche dealer Napleton Porsche of Westmont, and is entered by GTSport Racing.

Although the No. 68 Hot Wheels®/GTSport/Porsche Napleton Racing Cayman S will be on track for all three days of the Long Beach weekend, including Sunday’s featured one-hour sprint race at 4:15 p.m. local time, the team’s first scheduled appearance is later today in downtown Long Beach. The colorful Cayman will be on display at the annual Thunder on Pine Avenue street party Thursday night.

The Pirelli World Challenge Long Beach event, which is being presented by StopTech, will air on the NBC Sports Network, April 29, at 3 p.m. EDT. All World Challenge races this season are also being streamed live online at www.world-challengetv.com.

The No. 68 Team Hot Wheels/GTSport/Porsche Napleton Racing Cayman S is also supported by Napleton Porsche Motorsports, BBS, StopTech, Jamestown Fish Restaurant, RaceLink, TPC, AIM, RS683 and Schnorr Art.