GMG Racing could return to Pirelli World Challenge GT competition later this month at Circuit of The Americas, with the California-based team working on a Porsche 911 GT3 R entry for Alec Udell.

Udell, who enjoyed a standout rookie season in the GT3 ranks last year, is absent from this weekend’s season-opening event at St. Pete, although team principal James Sofronas is hopeful a deal can be put together for the remainder of the year, following positive talks with sponsors.

“I’m an optimist so the glass is half full,” Sofronas told Sportscar365.

“At a minimum it would be SprintX. We just need to get to COTA and we’ll probably do Long Beach because it’s on our backyard and then we try to make the push to VIR.”

Sofronas indicated that Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet has been allocated to the team by the German manufacturer for the SprintX races.

Jaminet teamed with Sofronas for the final two SprintX weekends of the season last year, scoring four class victories and helping propel the team owner/driver to the Pro-Am class championship.

“That’s why we’re excited,” Sofronas said. “We saw what Mathieu did last year with me. Alec is obviously a proven entity, especially at COTA.”

Udell and GMG were due to contest the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup races in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, until a pre-season testing accident derailed those plans.

It’s understood the team would utilize the same Porsche chassis for the PWC effort, which has been rebuilt.

GMG has shifted its PWC focus to the GTS class for the start of the season, fielding a pair of new Audi R8 LMS GT4 cars for Sofronas and George Kurtz this weekend in St. Pete.

The team’s return to the GT ranks would come as a significant boost to the class, which currently features only 11 GT/GTA entries for the season-opener.

Additional entries from Black Swan Racing and AIM Autosport are also expected for COTA.