With partnership with Shift Up Now, championship-winning team Round 3 Racing will field an all-female team in the GTO class of World Racing League: Erin Vogel, Loni Unser and Sarah Montgomery are ready to take on Road Atlanta this weekend.
In the last couple of years, World Racing League's top team Round 3 Racing has partnered with Shift Up Now – a collective of female racing drivers led by Indy500 veteran Pippa Mann – with the aim of funding female athletes in motorsport.
Last year alone, the team sealed Eastern Championships as well as National titles across the GP1 and GP3 classes. Loni Unser, Hannah Grisham and Sarah Montgomery all had a remarkable season in WRL, as well as Sabré Cook – at her return to racing after an injury – and Erin Vogel had successful appearances in the GP1 class.
The partnership between Round 3 Racing and Shift Up Now has now stepped up to a full female line-up for the 2023 season, as Sarah Montgomery, Loni Unser and Erin Vogel will share the wheel of the #401 BMW M4 GT4 in the GTO class – the team's first effort as a fully-female crew in the class.
The program is supported by Shift Up Now associate sponsor Bell Techlogix, a transformational Next Generation Digital Workplace and Infrastructure Management solutions provider based in Indianapolis. The company will also support Sally McNulty in TC America and Pippa Mann at the 51st running of the ADAC Total 24 Hour race at the Nurburgring.
“We are very pleased and proud to expand our partnership with Shift Up Now" – Ron Frankenfield, CEO of Bell Techlogix commented. "Our support of Pippa, Sally, Erin, Loni and Sarah as they push to drive change and equality for women in motorsport is just one initiative that Bell Techlogix is engaged in as we aggressively show our unwavering support for diversity, equity and inclusion."
The GTO team is set to make its debut this weekend at Road Atlanta and the crew is clearly aiming for the championship.
“Round 3 Racing has made a long-term commitment to work alongside Shift Up Now and help provide opportunities for talented women in motorsport,” said Round 3 Racing team owner Brad McCall. “We’ve fielded winning entries with female racers at every level of our WRL program, but the financial support to be able to continue providing talented racers with the equipment and opportunity to stand on podiums, win races, and fight for championships is onerous."
“We’re thrilled to welcome Bell Techlogix, a business that works hard to support diversity, equity and inclusion in their workplace, as we field the first ever all female GTO program in this championship’s history.”
Loni Unser, daughter of Johnny Unser and part of one of the most famous racing families in the sport, soon made a name for herself, climbing the ladder of American sports cars in one of the most challenging and competitive propaedeutic series: the Mazda MX-5 Cup. 24-year-old Unser then stepped up to the Porsche Cayman platform with R3R in 2022, as part of the #701 crew in the GP1 class.
Erin Vogel has been contesting the GT World Challenge America in the past two years, having made her SRO debut in 2019, in a GT4 program that soon led her to the GT3 debut the following year. Her progression has been extraordinary and, teaming up with Michael Cooper, Vogel became the first woman to win in class in GT3 competitions globally, in a SRO championship.
Her Pro-Am victory at VIRginia International Raceway was followed by three more podiums and a pole position. In 2022, Vogel raced the Acura NSX GT3 Evo for the first time and had a strong second half of the season, marked by another ProAm podium at Watkins Glen.
Vogel joined Round 3 Racing at the end of 2023, in the COTA double-header alongside Unser and Cook.
Sarah Montgomery, 28, will be back behind the wheel of the #401 BMW M4 GT4 after last year's WRL campaign, where she finished with five podiums and fifth in the overall standings.
Montgomery started professional racing in 2014, with a top-10 in points in the spec-Mazda MX5 Cup. She then moved to the Pirelli World Challenge in 2017, driving for Shea Holbrook's Shea Racing team and, in 2019, Sarah became the first woman to step on the podium in the highly competitive Global Mazda MX-5 Cup Series.
Montgomery has been racing in the multi-class endurance championship WRL since 2020, where she claimed four pole positions and collected victory at the final round of the season.
In 2021, Montgomery also claimed victory in the 24 hour race at Sebring at the wheel of a Porsche GT4 car.
With the help of Bell Techlogix, the first all-female team in GTO will make their debut at Road Atlanta on February 10-12, with a nine-hour and a seven-hour race scheduled.