New Pirelli World Challenge GT class manager Rob Morgan has seen racing from every perspective

Pirelli World Challenge's hiring of new class managers earlier this year in preparation for the imminent 2017 season is a clear indication of what series management views as its role in the motorsports world – a business that must keep its customers happy.

"It's a growth factor," says WC Vision President and CEO Greg Gill. "The series had a history of being a cult-of-one type of leadership; that was the impression that a lot of customers gave us. Today, with more than 130 competitors registered, you're looking at a lot of people who need to be serviced. We did a beta test of this concept in July with Jim Jordan. He was able to show the value. All indications are that it has been very well received by the competitors."

So the series followed that with class managers for GT and GTS, Rob Morgan and Jack Baldwin. Both are former racers in their respective classes as well as team owners, and they've seen it all.

"It's a different side of the fence," says Morgan, the new GT class manager. "But, really, it's very similar to what all my experiences are. I've been a driver – I've been a paying driver and I've been a paid driver for a short amount of time. I've had factory sponsorships. I went out with TruSpeed and built not only the customer side of the business, but the pro side of the business. I feel like I've got a pretty good feeling to what it takes and I feel like I can talk to competitors, and people can understand that I know what they're feeling, what they're talking about, because I feel like I've done it all."

Morgan started his racing career in the IMSA Firestone Firehawk Series as his father, Charles, was racing in the Camel Lights prototypes. He raced a Ferrari 333SP prototype in IMSA, won a GTS-1 class championship at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1996, and raced NASCAR trucks while owning a team. He started a customer Porsche tuning and racing shop, TruSpeed, and went racing in World Challenge. He had some success as a driver, but his biggest achievement was winning the 2011 GT title with Patrick Long. Then he sold TruSpeed to Tyler Tadivic and took a break. When he came to Long Beach last year, it was his first time in a World Challenge paddock in four years, and he was looking for something to do and told Gill as much. They had enough common ideas that it made sense for Morgan to be the GT class manager.

"One big thing, and this is where Greg and I really hit it off, is he and I look at the people in the paddock as customers. A lot of these guys that are doing sports car racing, they don't have to do sports car racing. They'd be just fine without it. So we want to do our best to treat them like customers, take care of them and listen to their feedback. I'm just trying to do what I was doing at TruSpeed – trying to get butts in seats and get people to the racetrack, and tell them why we're better than the other guys."

Morgan's narrative largely centers on the affordability of Pirelli World Challenge, claiming the budget for a season of World Challenge is equivalent to the budget of Daytona and Sebring alone for a GT3 endurance team.