Action Express to run teenage prize-winner in Rolex 24
Action Express Racing’s tie-in with Whelen Engineering has paid off for 17-year-old Briton Stuart Middleton, who will compete in the #31 Cadillac DPi-V.R in the Rolex 24 at Daytona next January.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Middleton, from Northumberland, UK, earned the ride by winning the British GT4 championship for HHC Motorsport.
The Sunoco Challenges are devised to compare and assess performances across multiple championships each season. Points are awarded for qualifying and race results, including fastest lap, which are then converted into an individual average score for each competing driver over the course of a full campaign.
Reigning British GT4 champion Middleton has become the youngest driver ever to win the Sunoco Whelen Challenge, which guarantees a fully funded prize drive in the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as well as testing at Daytona this year, and also in the official ‘Roar Before the Rolex 24’ in early January.
Middleton’s prize sees him follow in the wheeltracks of previous Sunoco Whelen Challenge winners Seb Morris and Jonny Adam.
Among Middleton’s teammates for the race is another Sunoco Whelen Challenge champion, former F1 driver Felipe Nasr who has replaced Penske-bound Dane Cameron in the #31 Cadillac’s fulltime lineup, alongside Eric Curran. AXR has also signed its regular enduro ace Mike Conway.
Said Middleton: “I’m ecstatic, speechless to be honest. This is such a huge prize and an incredible opportunity for me so early in my career, I can’t thank Anders Hildebrand and everyone at Anglo-American Oil enough. Being part of the Action Express team with Felipe, Mike and Eric is just amazing… it hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
“My first season in GT4 with my fantastic team-mate Will Tregurtha was just amazing… To win the championship in our rookie year was more than we could have hoped for, and for me to now win the Sunoco Whelen Challenge is the icing on the cake.
“This is a huge step-up for me: not only will it be my first ever 24-hour race but it’s going to be in one of the biggest and most demanding races in the world with some of the very best drivers and teams on the planet.
“It’s going to be amazing driving at Daytona too, something I never realistically thought might happen in my career.”
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