Decades of combined motorsports experience unite to form a new community of sports car racing. GT Celebration takes retired race cars and brings them together to compete at premier race tracks across North America. The paddock has become a buzzing community of talented enthusiasts seeking the energy that only motorsports can provide.
GT Celebration is built from the ground up by Rob Morgan, a man that was born with racing all around him, to feature the best in the business with one mission — to deliver safe, unforgettable race weekends for his competitors. His father, Charles Morgan, is a key member and adviser bringing his experience running Pirelli World Challenge and winning race teams.
“Once professional sports car teams finish their season, the cars built to compete only have a few places to go,” says Rob Morgan. “We have seen them go to collectors, casual lapping days or storage. Our team recognizes these cars have a lot more to give to drivers that are eager to push and enjoy their capabilities. They deserve their own space designed by decades of professional motorsports experience. We built GT Celebration to deliver just that.”
The series officially launched at the end of 2019 for the 2020 season. Although the schedule was largely disrupted due to COVID-19, a champion was crowned across six events to earn an automatic entry for 2021 with the season‘s entry fee covered.
The GT Celebration series aims to meet the needs of drivers who prefer the thrill and excitement of racing over advancing a career in racing. It is likely they already have raced semi-professionally, or have experience in other amateur circuits prior to joining GTC.
Race cars are primarily driver-owned and operated, but many customers come with a team such as Flying Lizard, TruSpeed, Vali or other organization that provides engineering, support, car setup and more at each race. Entrants are enthusiasts for automotive and motorsport, and also have a wide variety of other notable interests that often stem from successful entrepreneurial pursuits. Among them are former race team owners, series owners, Le Mans-winning drivers, IndyCar engineers, Porsche Motorsport executives, Fortune 500 CEOs and others.
Classes and competitors
Featuring classes in GT3, GT4 and TCC, GT Celebration events support Formula Drift, professional sports car race weekends and Yokohama Driver‘s Cup competition. Competitors enjoy over four hours of track time at priority slots throughout the weekend. In-between sessions, the GT Celebration trailer becomes the hub of activity with room to discuss with your coach, other competitors and GTC team members.
Weekend format
Each race weekend features 4.75 hours of priority track time with three practices, two qualifying sessions and two races awarding points for the season driver championship along with personalized podium-placed trophies for racers to bring back to their home, office or garage. Competitors are welcome to hang out in the central GTC competition trailer where they can network with series management, ask tech questions or just talk some shop.
Each car is inspected before and after each session to ensure compliance with previously-set regulations.
With a full calendar of 14 races at 7 tracks across the U.S, 2021 will continue to enhance the experience started up in 2020.
“I wanted to race different tracks and get a feel for what traveling to race could look like. A GT Celebration event came to my home track at UMC (Utah Motorsports Campus) and I decided to race that event,” said Jason Harward. “It was so much fun that I raced the rest of that series and ended up taking second place in the championship. I learned a ton. As a whole, GT Celebration is a series with lots of competition, high fun with low pressure.”