Justin Marks, a junior at Chico State University, will race in the Sports Car Club of America's Speed GT World Challenge Championship this weekend at Infineon Raceway (formerly Sears Point) in Sonoma.

Marks, a native of St. Louis, drives for the BMW Team PTG. He's a graduate of the renowned Skip Barber Racing School, was runner-up for the 2001 Speedvision GT Rookie of the Year award and placed ninth in the 2002 Speed GT points standings.

In 21 World Challenge starts, he's placed in the top five twice and in the top 10 on 11 occasions. His career-best finish was third at Laguna Seca in Monterey last year.

Marks, who's in his third year of professional racing, drives a BMW M3 two-door coupe with a 3.2-liter engine that generates 420 horsepower.

Competition at Sonoma will take place Friday through Sunday. The event will be broadcast on the Speed Channel at 2 p.m. Aug. 2.

The World Challenge travels to Elkhart Lake, Wis., Aug. 1-3 before returning to California at Laguna Seca Sept. 5-7.

Marks is majoring in communications studies at Chico State.