Kia Is Going Racing

Kia unveils their new racing program

Kia dropped a bomb on those attending their scheduled press conference at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday, November 3rd. The automaker that introduced the Scion-fighting, customizable Soul last year is apparently not stopping the barrage on the aftermarket it began last year by entering the bolt-on personalization market, but is now throwing the gauntlet down in the performance segment as well. Kia announced Tuesday it would be entering two Kia Fortes into the 2010 GRAND-AM KONI Sports Car Challenge Series in the Street Tuner (ST) class. The two Fortes are a joint effort between Kia and the Kinetic Group and will be driven by Andy Lally and Nic Jönsson who have both previously raced in the GRAND-AM Rolex series.

Kia chose the Grand-Am Street Tuner Class because they felt the demographics most closely matched the market the Forte is aimed toward. The hope is the racing team will demonstrate to their target audience how competitive the Forte can be and introduce others to the performance side of Kia as well.

Both drivers have had many recent successes in GRAND AM racing and should provide a competitive edge to the new team.