News Release September 17, 2013 No 108/13
Porsche Motorsports Pre-Event Notes. International Sports Car Weekend
Dateline. Austin, Texas
Circuit. Circuit of the Americas (COTA)
Track Length/Turns. 3.4-miles/20-turns
Round. 9 of 11, American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón
5 of 8, World Endurance Championship
13 and 14 of 16, IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama
Remaining ALMS Rounds. Virginia International Raceway, October 5
Petit Le Mans, October 19
Porsche Events.
American Le Mans Series
Date. Saturday, September 21, 2013
Race Duration.Two-Hours- 45-minutes Classes. GT (Porsche 911 GT3 RSR), GTC (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup)
World Endurance Championship
Date. Sunday, September 22, 2013
Race Duration.Six-Hours
Classes. LMGTE Pro (Porsche 911 RSR), LMGTE Am (Porsche 911 GT3 RSR)
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama
Date. Race 1, Friday, September 20, 2013; Race 2, Saturday, September 21, 2013
Race Duration. 45-minutes
Classes. Platinum (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup), Gold (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup)
Where to Watch.
American Le Mans Series
Television Race Broadcast:
ESPN2 - Sunday, September 22, 2013 - 1:00 p.m. EDT
Live Race Streaming:
ESPN3 – Saturday, September 21, 2013 - 4:30 p.m. EDT
Live Qualifying Streaming: ESPN3 – Friday, September 20, 2013 – 2:40 p.m. EDT
World Endurance Championship
Live Race Streaming:
FIAWEC.com – Sunday, September 22, 2013 - Noon EDT
Live Qualifying Streaming:
FIAWEC.com – Saturday, September 21, 2013 – 2:00 p.m. EDT
Race Weekend Schedule
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
ALMS Test Session 1 – 1:00-5:00 p.m. CDT
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge Test Session 1 – 9:00-9:45 a.m. CDT
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge Test Session 2 – 11:00-11:45 a.m. CDT
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge Practice 1 – 1:20-2:00 p.m. CDT
Thursday, September 19, 2013
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge Practice 2 – 8:45-9:15 p.m. CDT
WEC Test Session 1 – 9:30-11:30 a.m. CDT ALMS Test Session 2 – 1:00-2:30 pm CDT
WEC Test Session 2 – 2:45-4:45 p.m. CDT
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge Qualifying – 5:45-6:15 p.m. CDT
Friday, September 20, 2013
ALMS Practice 1 – 8:00-9:00 a.m. CDT
WEC Free Practice 1 – 9:15-10:45 p.m. CDT
ALMS Practice 2 – 12:40-1:40 p.m. CDT
ALMS Qualifying – 1:50-2:25 p.m. CDT
WEC Free Practice 2 – 3:25-4:45 p.m. CDT
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge Race 1 – 5:15-6:00 p.m. CDT
Saturday, September 21, 2013
ALMS Warm Up – 8:00-8:25 p.m. CDT
WEC Free Practice 3 – 8:40-9:40 p.m. CDT
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge Race 2 – 11:15-12:00 p.m. CDT
ALMS Driver Autograph Session – 12:00-12:45 a.m. CDT
WEC Qualifying – 1:00-1:25 p.m. CDT
ALMS Pre-Race Activities – 2:45-3:45 p.m. CDT
ALMS Race – 3:45-6:30 p.m. CDT
Sunday, September 1, 2013 WEC Race – 11:00-5:00 p.m. CDT
Porsche Entries.
American Le Mans Series
GT Class (3) Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
No. 17 Team Falken Tire Wolf Henzler (Germany)/Bryan Sellers (Braselton, Ga.)
No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Marco Holzer (Germany)/Bryce Miller (Summit, N.J.)
No. 06 CORE autosport Colin Braun(Ovalo, Texas)/Patrick Long (Playa del Rey, Calif.)
GTC Class (9) Porsche 911 GT3 Cup
No. 11 JDX Racing Mike Hedlund (Woodside, Calif)/
Jan Heylen (Tampa)
No. 22 Alex Job Racing Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.)/
Jeroen Bleekemolen (Monaco)
No. 27 Dempsey Del Piero Racing Patrick Dempsey (Malibu, Calif.)/
Andy Lally (Dacula, Ga.)
No. 30 NGT Motorsport Henrique Cisneros (Miami)/
Sean Edwards (UK)
No. 44 Flying Lizard Motorsports Seth Neiman (San Francisco)/ Dion von Moltke (Coral Gables, Fla.)
No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Nelson Canache Jr. (Venezuela)/
Spencer Pumpelly (Atlanta)
No. 66 TRG Ben Keating (Port Lavaca, Texas)/
Damien Faulkner (Ireland)
No. 68 TRGJeff Courtney (Hartford, Wisc.)
Madison Snow (Lehi, Utah)
FIA World Endurance Championship
LMGTE Pro (2) Porsche 911 RSR
No. 91 Porsche AG Team Manthey Jörg Bergmesiter (Germany)
Patrick Pilet (France)
No. 92 Porsche AG Team Manthey Marc Lieb (Germany)
Richard Lietz (Austria)
LMGTE Am (2) Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
No. 76 IMSA Performance Matmut Raymond Narac (France)
Jean-Karl Vernay (France)
Christophe Bourret (France) No. 88 Proton Competition Christian Reid (Germany)
Gianluca Roda (Italy)
Paolo Ruberti (Italy)
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama
A current entry list can be found at www.IMSAChallenge.com
Porsche Point of View.
Marc Lieb, Porsche Factory Driver, No. 92 Porsche AG Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR
“A new race always adds interest to the series. I’m looking forward to the Austin track. There are a couple of unusual corner combinations. All in all, it looks interesting and rather challenging.”
Jens Walther, President/CEO, Porsche Motorsports North America
“It is very exciting to have our WEC factory program racing alongside the ALMS and IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge. All in all, we will have over 40 Porsche 911 race cars at the track this weekend in three different races. We are very happy that all three Porsche 911 RSR customer teams are back on the track with their cars after the major accident at the start of the race in Baltimore. I am proud of the teams to be able to have the cars ready for Austin in time. It will be a very challenging but we hope rewarding weekend for Porsche.”
Eric Ingram, Team Manager, Flying Lizard Motorsports
“For COTA, the challenge is to pick out which characteristics of the track matter the most for lap time and then look back on the tracks we’ve run already this season to identify which direction to take with the setup. I know that Steve [Conover, engineer] has spent quite a lot of time doing that already and I’m optimistic we will be starting at a good point. We’ve got another advantage as a team as well, which is that Spencer [Pumpelly] and Dion [von Moltke] have each raced at COTA this season, at the Grand- Am event in March. So their experience with the track and its particular needs will be a great help as well.
The GTC class is arguably the deepest, most competitive class in the ALMS this season. And since each team is racing the same car, essentially, the challenge to find anything that will allow you to have a small step up on the competition is that much greater. As a team, we’ve always been very focused on maximizing absolutely everything across the board, and that larger view is critical to success.”
Porsche Profile.
Porsche ALMS GT Customers Rally to be Ready for COTA After Baltimore
A major incident prior to the starting line at the most recent ALMS event in Baltimore eliminated all three Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs from that race. Following inspection by each team and Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA), it was deemed that two of the three were a complete loss. That would push CORE autosport and Team Falken Tire to make alternative plans to be ready for the International Sports Car weekend at Circuit of the Americas. Paul Miller Racing also had significant damage but was able to use the same chassis, or “tub” that they purchased in 2012.
CORE autosport. Even before the totaled CORE Porsche was pulled from the track in Baltimore, the team had ordered a new chassis from Porsche Motorsports. The chassis arrived at the CORE shop in North Carolina the following week and the team immediately began building a new 911 GT3 RSR around it. The car was completed, the engine tested and the No. 06 loaded onto the transporter on Friday, September 13th.
Team Falken Tire. Is relying on its twice-winning 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR to give them a challenger for the remainder of the 2013 season. The damage to the 2012 car was deemed critical and required too much time between Baltimore and Austin to be ready for the event. Working closely with Scot Elkins [COO of IMSA], the 2010 Porsche has been built using multiple parts from the current model to run with IMSA’s approval. The crew has been worked on around the clock to ensure the car was ready in time. Nine days after the Baltimore incident, the team fired up the engine in the 2010 Porsche.
Paul Miller Racing. Despite being eliminated in the starting-line incident, the No. 48 had the least amount of damage to its 911 GT3 RSR of all the Porsche customer teams in GT. The Paul Miller operation returned to its New Jersey race shop and made the substantial repairs to its 2012 chassis to have it ready in time for testing at COTA.
IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama Home of Porsche Young Driver Academy Triplets
Austin entries for the one-make, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup-based IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama include 17 year-old Madison Snow (Lehi, Utah). Snow leads the top class with five wins, including one of the rounds earlier this month in Baltimore. Angel Benitez, Jr., from Venezuela, has won four races and is third in the title chase as well as David Ostella, from Toronto, who has already won the 2013 IMSA GT3 Cup Canada Championship by Michelin are also in the field. All three drivers were invited to attend the most recent Porsche Young Drivers Academy in Birmingham, where they, along with open wheel specialist Mike Lewis (Laguna Beach, Calif.), went through a two-day program similar to the process used to find Porsche factory drivers.
The IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama features semi-professional drivers racing head to head in the largest single-make series in North America. Powered by one of the world’s most successful racecars, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, the multi-class structure of the series teaches drivers essential skills for an eventual career in the United SportsCar Championship. The three class divisions are gold cup, platinum cup and a masters class – masters is for drivers 45 and over. Each class is awarded with its own podium at the end of every race and individual champion at the end of every season. Points are awarded by finish in class.
Porsche 911 RSR Makes North American Competition Debut in WEC LMGTE Pro Class
Porsche’s newest racecar, and first factory program in over ten years, will make its North American competition debut this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas. As part of this year’s sports car World Endurance Championship (WEC), which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Porsche AG Team Manthey has entered two cars in the LM GTE-Pro class for it’s six-hour race on Sunday, September 22.
The 470 hp Porsche 911 RSR features new lightweight design and sophisticated aerodynamics. The look of the 2013 Le Mans class winner (GTE-Pro) is dominated by the flared fenders and the cooling air intake at the front. The exceptional livery of the car honors the anniversary, “50 years of the 911”. As the successor to the winning 911 GT3 RSR – the current Porsche racecar in the American Le Mans Series, with which Porsche customers have scored many victories and title wins since 2004, this GT racer from Weissach is based on the seventh generation of the iconic 911 sports car.
Porsche factory pilots and Le Mans winners Marc Lieb (Germany) and Richard Lietz (Austria) share the cockpit of the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR in Austin. Their works driver colleagues Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Pilet (France), who finished third in the most recent WEC event in Sao Paulo, enter the race in the No. 91 team car. Porsche is currently four points behind Ferrari in the WEC GTE-Pro Manufacturers point chase, and two points behind in the drivers points.
In the GTE-Am class for teams that have at least one non-professional driver, two customer teams field last year’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR: Driving for IMSA Performance Matmut are the Le Mans winners from France, Raymond Narac, Jean-Karl Vernay and Christophe Bourret. Competing for the Proton Competition squad is team owner Christian Ried (Germany) with his Italian teammates Paolo Ruberti and Gianluca Roda.
Past images from the venue. No image gallery, inaugural event
Past video highlights from the venue. No video gallery, inaugural event
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Porsche Motorsports Media Information. Current news, images and notes relating to Porsche can be found on our press kit. Please contact Andy Schupack or Tom Moore for the latest Porsche Motorsports media kit.
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Contacts.
Dave Engelman Porsche Cars North America
Media Relations Manager
Office. 770-290-3617
Mobile. 404-386-4665 [email protected]
Andy Schupack
Motorsports Public Relations Consultant
Office. 401-739-5677
Mobile. 401-741-6980 [email protected]
Tom Moore
Motorsports Public Relations Consultant
Office. 615-778-1614
Mobile. 615-509-5000
About Porsche Motorsport North America Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA), located in Santa Ana, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Porsche AG and the sole sales and service provider for the German sports car maker’s North American customer sports programs. Porsche is the largest manufacturer of race cars with a wide range of products from the 911 GT3 Cup car to the ultimate 911 GT3 RSR. PMNA sells these models to customer teams in North America and provides them with parts, service and expertise in between races and at the track. The PMNA service truck is a fixture at most race tracks in the U.S. and Canada, staffed by factory engineers to service all of Porsche's customer teams.
About Porsche Cars North America Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA), based in Atlanta, Ga. is the exclusive U.S. importer of Porsche sports cars, the Cayenne SUV and Panamera sports sedan. Established in 1984, it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Porsche AG, which is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, and employs approximately 220 people who provide parts, service, marketing and training for 189 dealers. They, in turn, work to provide Porsche customers with a best-in-class experience that is in keeping with the brand’s 63-year history and leadership in the advancement of vehicle performance, safety and efficiency.
At the core of this success is Porsche’s proud racing heritage that boasts some 30,000 motorsport wins to date.
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